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The fine you mentioned was for not monitoring an account closely enough of a customer that ended up using it for a ponzi scheme .
They've had numerous CFTC files,but that is to be expected for a 90 year old firm. The claims were mostly small grievances from individual clients that were settled "out of court" and the complaints were dropped.
There was one other significant charge of not paying close enough attention to a rogue client from Texas (not me...) for which they paid a fine.
I didn't see anything serious like misappropriation of funds or falsifying statements.
Unfortunately the SIPC doesn't cover futures. Sorry.
In general, SIPC covers stocks, bonds, mutual funds, notes, other investment company shares, and other registered securities. It does not cover instruments such as unregistered investment contracts, unregistered limited partnerships, fixed annuity contracts, currency, and interests in gold, silver, or other commodity futures contracts or commodity options.
I'm just a simple man trading a simple plan.
My daddy always said, "Every day above ground is a good day!"
Thanks for the information Manfromtexas, Lets says my cash account with a futures broker is not protected, even though vision says that there is protection upto 250K . It says that the investment loss are not covered but the cash value is protected. Can you please explain if the cash in the account if not traded is still not protected ??????
Vision Financial Markets LLC is a member of the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC) which protects customer accounts for up to $500,000 (of which up to $250,000 may be for cash). This protection does not safeguard against a decline or loss in market value of the securities in your account. For more information, read our Asset Protection Brochure.
MAY be Matt from optimusfutures Can explain more on the protection provided...
The question here is why in this electronic age were there pieces of paper being mailed and signed at all? Surely electronic monitoring mechanisms should have been placed years ago between the bank and the regulators. It even took them over 9 months after the MF Global collapse to get electronic monitoring in place which is the only reason he would have been found out. Electronic monitoring should been in place Day 1 priority after the MF Global fiasco. Not that it would have helped the clients as the money was stolen a couple of years back.
The other point to note is the regulators themselves did not apply basic common sense. I suspect at some point the CEO of PFG wrote a forged letter to the regulators impersonating the bank. The letter would have told them the bank had moved location and to now send the documents to the new PO Box he had setup. This enabled him to intercept the documents. You would think the regulator would have applied common sense and instead of taking this letter at face value would have at least phoned the bank to see that this was a legitimate request.
As a first step right now the regulators should check their records and make sure they don't have any other phony letters from Broker banks saying they have moved....
@optionzen SIPC does not cover futures accounts it covers securities accounts. If you trade futures at VFM your account is a futures account and is not insured under SIPC.
"The day I became a winning trader was the day it became boring. Daily losses no longer bother me and daily wins no longer excited me. Took years of pain and busting a few accounts before finally got my mind right. I survived the darkness within and now just chillax and let my black box do the work."
The SIPC was created due to a financial crisis in the equities market. From Wikipedia ...
SIPC was born in the shadow of the "Paperwork Crunch" of 1968-70 as a means to restore confidence in the U.S. securities market. During this period, An explosion in the volume of trading had occurred. A system designed to handle an average three million share trading day was incapable of dealing with the thirteen million share trading day common in the late 1960's. The resultant breakdown in the securities processing mechanism caused chaos as the number of errors in recording transactions multiplied ... In December 1968, member firms of the New York Stock Exchange had $4.4 billion in "fails to deliver" and $4.7 billion in "fails to receive." Brokers and dealers were finding it difficult, if not impossible, to ascertain their own financial condition.' ... This operational and financial crisis forced more than one hundred brokerage firms into liquidation causing thousands of customers to be seriously disadvantaged.
In response, the Securities Investor Protection Act of 1970 was enacted as a way to quell investor insecurity and save the securities market from a financial crisis.
Should there be an SIPC for the futures market... in my opinion ... yes ... but in the current political climate anything that hints of regulation or government involvement would never be approved by Congress.
I'm just a simple man trading a simple plan.
My daddy always said, "Every day above ground is a good day!"
I wish they could have 'excess margin' covered by SIPC, or swept into a FDIC insured account, but that won't happen either. Part of the vig they get from 'excess margin' would be eaten up.