Refco... are they good?

Discussion in 'Retail Brokers' started by alain, Mar 1, 2002.

  1. alain

    alain

    I have heard some bad things in the past days about Refco... I was wondering how those who trade with Refco like it. What are the positive aspects on it what are the negative aspects on it.

    Does anyone trade with their web based trading-platform? How is that in real trading? Does that work fine?

    How are the commissions there? I haven't seen any on their webpage?

    thanx, alain
    switzerland
     
  2. alain

    alain

    wow... how confusing. Does this company has some problems in organizing themselves? It looks to me that they don't bring it together to offer a clear product.

    Then I must ask the question differently: Does anyone trade with one of the refco's?
    What's good what's bad?
    And maybe you can give me a hint of how those are linked together ;o)

    alain
     
  3. wild

    wild

    alain,

    check the clearing member lists of the major futures exchanges & you know who all the Refcos are ... the real big ones

    regards

    wild
     
  4. stevet

    stevet

    refco are screwing up on retail - big time - i posted somewhere else on here about this - not sure where
     
  5. tymjr

    tymjr

    alain: “Does anyone trade with one of the refco's? What's good what's bad?”

    I primarily trade through REFCO. Trade, software, and banking support seem adequate, at the moment. I’m not sure that my opinion is meaningful, though, as I have been with them for a short period of time.

    I have heard a number of negative comments about REFCO: “They act like they are the only game in town”, “REFCO doesn’t care about retail clients”, “REFCO is a bully”, etc..

    Don’t really know too much about that, yet. Time will tell.

    “Does this company has some problems in organizing themselves?”

    I think the problem is that they are so damn large. I’ve heard it said that they clear 80% of the futures contracts. I don’t know if that figure is representative of US futures exclusively or whether the percentage is based on the number of contracts or total dollar amount or what.

    It may just be another myth, though, like so many things in life... did I just say life? I’m sorry. Silly me. I meant trading.
     
  6. wild

    wild


  7. Yes between Man and Refco they own a big chunk of the clearing. But if you are looking for the best commission deals look elsewhere. I've notice firms clearing through Rosenthal Collins are far more flexible(Elocal, Apex, JPFutures,etc.), So are GNI and Gelber(on big volume), and of course IB.