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lately, i try to find a future broker.
when i read the thread, i am confused.
if AMP is so bad, why AMP got the 2nd of "Futures Broker Of The Year"?
can anyone explain?low commission?low margin?
Can you help answer these questions from other members on NexusFi?
They probably cheated to get whatever recognition they got the same way they do over on elitetrader.com. Over there they are a "sponsor" of the site, which basically means they get editorial control over anything that goes in the site & anybody who tells the truth about them gets posts deleted and gets banned from the site. They probably bought the award.
My experience from them matches that of other users, and I have little to say about them that hasn't been said by others except that they berated me in public on that site, and when I returned fire, I was treated as described in the paragraph above.
If you use them, you can't say you haven't been warned. Mirus has commissions and margins every bit as low & gives courteous, quick customer service to boot. They actually even answer my phone calls & emails, and their emergency trade desk doesn't hang up on me. They do have an inactivity fee that some complain about but the requirement is only 10 round-trips a month. That is half what I typically do IN A DAY. One particularly busy day, I did 500 round-turns. But 20 contracts a day is my standard if everything goes to plan. Amp was berating the size of my account on that board, which is about $100K. That might be considered unprofessional & was by other community members.
Big Mike likes Velocity as do others. I can't swear by them or swear at them, but they appear to be on the up & up.
Point is, there are many good options out there. Life is too short to deal with a rude broker of questionable honesty.
As far as i understood some of the problems were that you opened an account at AMP over an Introducing Broker that was not allowed to trade certain instruments any more and switching it then fully to AMP.
Another one was with a ghost trade, right?
I don´t expect a discount broker to deliver me full service for platforms etc., i don´t need it, were there problems with executions/trades that the dealing desk couldn´t solve? How long do the money transfers take?
First problem was opening with a foreign introducing broker. But the problem on their side was getting no support or even an answer to my emails concerning the issue. All I knew was from my end basically any instrument I wanted to trade didn't show up in the platform, with no help clarifying the issue.
Money transfers are slow & in my experience sometimes they got "lost" simply disappearing. Again, no answer to the emails or phone calls when the money doesn't show up. At Mirus, response is immediate by either phone or email, and they will keep an eye out for incoming transfers.
At Amp, their emergency trade desk hung up on me repeatedly. Only had to call Mirus once & they answered on the third ring with no hang-up.
I guess Amp MIGHT be ok if you never have to communicate or talk with another human being, you don't care when your money transfer gets there and everything just happens to work out without human intervention. If you have to depend on anybody at any time, look elsewhere. And I'm not talking about "hand holding". I'm talking about the "nuts & bolts" issues any trader at any experience level is likely to confront at some point now or in the future.
I know Mirus is at least OK. People I trust say velocity is another good option, though I have no personal opinion. There are good options out there. But Amp is definitely not one of them.
Hmmmmm... I was about to open a thread about what is your opinion and experience with AMP, it is not going to be necessary anymore as I have my conclusions now. AMP looks very suspicious to me, in this business you need to be very cautious, think what happened with MF Global. Good luck for those who are with AMP.
As a follow up, I had to call the trade desk ( about midnight Chicago time ). I received my statement , and there was an out trade I think. I called the desk, gave my account and name, he checked the position, got me flat and gave me my fill price. The trade desk guy was pretty cool and it took less than a minute.
Then I remembered, I think the last time I called my broker was in 2009 or 2010, it has been a long time. I don't think I have ever called the help desk. i called Dorman directly for wire transfers, not AMP. So my opinion on them is mainly based on the fact that I never call them and have little contact except with their trade desk. So YMMV.
I transferred all to Mirus because I want to have a direct relationship with the manager at any time. Contacts with VF had become impersonal and anonymous. Bad thing never know the name who you're talking to but a cold id number only. The inactivity fee is the only thing that I found really nasty in Mirus, also because it does not take much to beat:
"Minimum Fee Account Activity:
Less than 5 round turns per month (10 contracts total): $ 25 per month
New accounts are exempt for the first 120 days from first live account login.
That accounts have averaged over the minimum of 5 round turns per month are exempt.
That did not live accounts login during the month are exempt.
"
Other that they are great people, always attentive to customer needs, and no filter. Data feed and commissions probably the best of the market. I can speak directly with my account representative, telephone or skype, with technical support, or the emergency trading desk at any time.