Just curious if anyone has had any trouble retrieving their money from a small retail broker who went out of business or has heard of anyone that did. Just wondering basically how safe one's money is at some of the smaller retail brokers as there are so many and I'm sure some won't make it. Thanks.
It's not the small retail brokers you need to worry about...it's their clearing firm...If the introducing broker dealer goes out of business, your money should still be safe and secure at the clearing firm...you will just have to call them directly to get it out. hope this helps and if you are really concerned you can ask your broker to send you a financial statement ...you should also check on the clearing firm as well
Thanks TM. That's what I was thinking too. The clearing firm for my broker is Computer Clearing Services http://www.ccls.com/ Anyone have any additional info on them? Seems okay. Just want to be careful. Thanks. PS. FX, you mentioned "FWTG". Wasn't sure who that was.
What about IB? It would be a pretty bad thing if their clearing firm go out of business since lots of people here, including myself, have IB accounts. I take the profits out on a regular basis -anything above 30K- so I am not so worried.
This is a broken record: IB is self-clearing. The brokerage units financials are on the web site. The firm doesn't allow any trading unless margin is put up front. The firm liquidates automatically if maintenance margin is violated. The Weiss ratings ranked IB #1 in terms of financial security - this includes investment banks. S&P gave the proprietary trading affiliate an investment grade rating, the parent company has over 1 billion in capital with no debt, the firm is profitable, cash is swept from futures accounts into the securities accounts at the end of each day to bring them under SIPC and the additional insurance of 10 million per account.
While i am sure IB is finacially secure, I don't care what weiss ranks them as , I d still have to go with SLK, BONY and Bear for overall financial soundness....
Are IB, Ameritrade, Tradestation really safe? The last two are listed in the stock market. But I remember the brokerage called Drexel something collapsed in the 80s. I think it was then a big guy in the Wall Street.
that was his firm , they were just plain corrupt and issuing / trading junk bonds.....Ameritrade is a little down stock price wise but that's because they and e*trade keep overpaying for Direct Access brokers ....Tradestation clears Bear if im not mistaken so I wouldn't be concerned about your funds