by Global Intel Hub (JoeGelet), 2014
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-09-08/are-you-us-or-non-us
The most commonly used introduction in any Forex business for the past 3 years: “US or Non-US”
As much of the world moves to a non-USD Forex system, it is becoming ever more difficult for US citizens to trade Forex. Since the dud-fag regulations that have protected the US consumer from opening accounts offering 400:1 leverage and near zero pip spreads, Forex options and a plethora of other products; US citizens are left with few options to hedge themselves from a collapsing US Dollar.
Last week, IBFX, one of the remaining Forex brokers in the US decided to transfer it’s MT4 accounts to FXCM. Now being owned by Tradestation, they said they want to focus on their core platform, Tradestation. From their perspective, Meta Trader is simply a liability. But the result now is that US Citizens have even fewer choices to trade spot Forex; namely FXCM, Gain, Oanda, MB Trading, and of course the securities Broker Dealers such as TD Ameritrade.
For those who don’t understand some of the technicalities of how Forex works, it probably sounds strange to make such a case, because clients can still open accounts at these listed brokers and trade Forex. But for those who have ever traded Forex, they know that it’s not easy to trade Forex (or nearly impossible) with poor trading conditions including high spreads, FIFO rule, no hedging, reduced leverage, a small selection of pairs offered, an no options. Still, there is not a broker that offers spot Forex options in the US (such as Saxo Bank that has thousands of types of spot Forex options). Yes, it’s possible to trade options on Forex Futures. But Forex Futures, are Futures, not spot Forex.
It is a strange situation indeed, when during the 80’s and 90’s the US was a global leader in trading. Billions of dollars flowed into the US wanting to invest not only in US markets, but by using the market systems developed by US companies. In fact a large number of NFA members are foreign. But currently, there are more billionaires living in Moscow than in New York; and the leading software platform to trade spot Forex, Meta Quotes, a Russian company. Now it is the US enforcing capital controls, discussing bail-in policies, imposing trade sanctions, and restrictive regulations that are plaguing the spot Forex market for US citizens.
Fortunately, US trained ECB chair Mario Draghi seems to be inline with US Fed policy; which will for the time being likely keep the US and EU tied together on an economic sinking ship. It will take time for China to develop the Yuan into a world reserve currency, although considering how far China has come this transformation is happening rapidly.
What then, is the average non-QEP US Citizen to do, in order to avoid a USD collapse? We are now considering only technicalities of actually trading spot Forex; of course there are still many ways to pro actively protect any portfolio or business from a USD collapse. It’s just strange that the world leader in free markets and trading is becoming the world leader in regulation forcing US citizens to seek alternatives outside the US. What’s strange is that the best way to support the USD would be in fact to attract capital to the US, one small example would be to be a world-leader in Forex trading (there are many examples of such anti-competitive policies). But regulators are going as far as questioning someone like Peter Schiff why he has a ‘large amount of clients from Australia in your US broker-dealer.’ So they founded Euro Pacific Bank, of course if you are in the US you will need to use Tor Browser or a proxy to even view the site, or else you will be displayed:
And don’t bother contacting them with a US phone number, email, or address. (If you are an American living overseas it might be a good time to practice your British accent, or learn a foreign language that you aren’t ‘flagged’ as a potential liability).
For those who are familiar with Forex trading this is the message du jour displayed on brokerage sites, here’s another from Iron FX:
The good news! If you are an ECP or QEP, none of these regulations apply. US firms are moving overseas for a number of reasons (most notably to save on taxes). Notable corporations such as Google, Microsoft, and basically 90% of publicly traded companies, already maintain a large financial presence offshore. If this trend continues, what will be left in the US?
The widening gap between America’s wealthiest and its middle and lower classes is “unsustainable”, but is unlikely to improve any time soon, according to a Harvard Business School study released on Monday.
The study, titled An Economy Doing Half its Job, said American companies – particularly big ones – were showing some signs of recovering their competitive edge on the world stage since the financial crisis, but that workers would likely keep struggling to demand better pay and benefits.
“We argue that such a divergence is unsustainable,” according to the report, which was based on a survey of 1,947 of Harvard Business School alumni around the globe, and which highlighted problems with the US education system, transport infrastructure, and the effectiveness of the political system…
Combined with US foreign policy, the IRS attack on the Swiss Banking system, is the retail US Citizen slowly becoming persona non grata in the global marketplace?
The post Are you US or Non-US? appeared first on Forex IQ.
