The motivation for me to open an account was to accurately describe a true experience, and it wasn't going to be my primary account. With that said, I think before I start promoting a brokerage, especially an offshore brokerage, on my blog, I want to make darn sure I won't experience my reputation becoming tarnished. Prop firms require licensing, and that opens up a can of worms if you're also a writer, due to compliance and marketing issues. Others may be interested in an offshore account due to an absence of many SEC regulations.
I asked for a refund of capital from suretrader 12 days ago. I still haven't received it yet. I emailed the owner again today to follow up when I logged into my account and saw the full balance is "sitting there" waiting to trade. Hopefully the second time is a charm. I am currently taking a look at Trevorbain.com and one more offshore. I will report back how it goes.
Some of the offshore brokers have been in business for years. Just because a company is not located within United States, doesn't make it "shady". Others like Suretrader are backed by someone who also operates a US based broker and is regulated by the Bahamas. Are the risks higher? maybe, but as someone who is waiting for the return of money from the SEC for over three years, I likely don't have as great of enthusiasm for our regulatory bodies to prevent losses here.
I am still looking at Trevorbain.com, but in the mean time I have worked out the issues with Suretrader and started trading with them this week. So far everything is as it should be. Will report more as I find out more
I ended up getting things worked out with suretrader. I started trading with them and it's going smoothly. No complaints. They only offer a simple DAS web based trading interface for free, but with the rates they charge and the better overall offer, even after paying for the software platform its a great deal. Today i traded much of the day but still not totally full time yet again. I signed up as an affiliate with them, but there are other brokers too. I think we will see a lot more of this. It's just too easy of an alternative compared to going prop (they offer prop too, but retail is almost as good as prop for them)
Stayed with Suretrader and still trading with them. I am not a big fan of DAS and miss the "booktrader" of IB, but I do enjoy the leverage, the short availability, and the lower costs. So far so good. On another note, I have slowed down in writing about stocks and have increased the amount of trading I am doing. I have pretty much traded everyday this month and back to the level of "full time" trading. Wrists are bothering me a lot so I am keeping the trades to "premium" ones and so my volume is way down, and much less scalping. My PnL hasn't suffered as a result though (not much anyway) so even with lower volume the end result after factoring in stress reduction and PnL swings I am ahead. I started posting my daily results and will likely do so here on ET again shortly.
Are you Guy Gentile's buddy by any chance? Keep promoting suretrader , what about if you never get your money back from Guatemala.
Nope, and I agree there is a real risk that your money could be lost. Not unlike joining a prop firm. They do have some issues that need to be worked out, but they could become competitive as the US becomes increasingly uncompetitive.
10-9-13 (ARIA) + .49 (wow, it's not often I make more than 10%) (CALD) +.25 (DRI) + .55 (HPQ) + .41 (I even managed to sell 89 shares at 22.75) (JOSB) + 1.18