Dear Valued Customer: TD Ameritrade Inc. introduces forex accounts to Penson Financial Services Inc. As you may know, Penson Worldwide, Inc. announced today that it has agreed to sell certain assets and liabilities of the forex division of its subsidiary Penson Financial Services, Inc., NFA ID No. 316107 ("Penson Futures") to Knight Clearing & Execution Services LLC, NFA ID No. 426024 ("Knight"). TD Ameritrade will continue to service your Forex account. Knight is a subsidiary of Knight Capital Group, Inc. a public company which is listed on NYSE Euronext (Symbol KCG), headquartered at 545 Washington Blvd., Jersey City, NJ 07310. You can find more information about Knight and KECS at www.knight.com. In connection with this transaction, as of the close of business May 31, 2012, Penson Futures will cease to act as counterparty to your forex positions, cease servicing your account and assign your customer agreement to Knight and will also transfer your positions, funds, and trading account to Knight. Beginning June 1, 2012, your forex account will be held by Knight. We anticipate that this transition will be seamless and will not cause any interruption of the high quality services you have come to expect in connection with the handling of your account. Your account number, broker and contact numbers will generally remain the same. Additionally, current PFSI futures division management and other employees will remain in place during this transition. In order to continue working with us and your current broker you do not need to take any action and your account will automatically transfer to Knight and will be serviced by TD Ameritrade unless you contact us as set forth below. You are not required to accept this proposed transfer. Therefore, if you would like to make arrangements for us to transfer your account to another firm or if you prefer to have us close your account and/or liquidate your position , please contact TD Ameritrade or customer service representative before 12 p.m. central standard time on May 31, 2012. Alternatively, you may also call (312) 356-6327 to provide Penson Futures with alternative instructions. You may also elect to provide Knight with alternate instructions regarding your account (at no cost) within 10 days after your account transfers if you wish. You may contact Customer Service at Knight using 312-356-6025 or TD Ameritrade for further information about the transfer. In connection with this transaction, it is our belief that Knight provides accounts with a stable, well-capitalized, independent platform and that following the closing, it will be "business as usual" for our forex customers. Your Forex account will continue to be serviced by TD Ameritrade. Thank you for your continued business and for making us your forex firm of choice. We value our relationship with you and we now look forward to bringing an even higher level of service to you. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact TD Ameritrade or your customer service representative. Sincerely Yours, PENSON FUTURES Is it safe to assume that then that Knight will sell these accounts to yet another fx broker especially since they sold off their retail division to FXCM a few yrs ago?
I use TDA for some of my swing fx trades (multi-day time frames). Spreads are average (1.2 ~ 1.5 avg for EURUSD for the non commish model) and have seen as tight as .2 on the EUR for commish model - but the commish negates that advantage ($.10/1000 units, or $10/100k USD traded). Not worth it imo to trade the commission model - much better options for that and for scalpers. It's not something for the serious fx trader but a nice added feature to their multi-asset account structure. Also, able to write checks/use ATM card against your cleared balance. That said, I will have to pay attention to how this xfer affects TDA forex trading and try to keep those balances small.