According to IB: US legal residents are not allowed to trade futures unless explicitly approved by the CFTC. Click here for a list of non-US futures that have been approved by the CFTC for trading. http://individuals.interactivebrokers.com/en/p.php?f=products&ib_entity=llc Is this a legal regulation, or an internal IB policy?
Legal. U can't trade the Nikkei and Hang Seng (sp?) b/c US residents aren't allowed to. The CFTC allows u, as a US resident, to trade all US futures, but they place restrictions on the ones I mentioned above and a few others
What this means is that only approved foreign futures can be traded. You can trade nikkei 225, australian,hong kong and some others. You can trade those because they are approved. Some, like Korean kospi, aren't approved, so they can't be traded. Ones that aren't approved are usually that way because the exchange that offers the contract has not gone through the process necessary to get the contract approved in the US. If IB will give you quotes for it, you can probably trade it!
Quote from crgarcia: According to IB: US legal residents are not allowed to trade futures unless explicitly approved by the CFTC. Click here for a list of non-US futures that have been approved by the CFTC for trading. http://individuals.interactivebrokers.com/en/p.php?f=products&ib_entity=llc You need to clean your glasses. This page is about foreign OPTIONS only: "Securities OPTIONS are defined as any OPTION on an individual stock, or any cash settled broad based index future, US legal stock, or any cash settled broad based index future. US legal residents are generally excluded from trading securities OPTIONS outside of the United States due to SEC restrictions..."