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But some of us have "no choice" if we want to keep earning a paycheck. I could try to switch back to equities and ETFs more and de-fund my futures accounts at various institutions, but I think (personally) that would be a major overreaction.
I will certainly not keep large excess funds at brokers any longer, but I think standing aside is not an option. That said, I am watching everything very closely, just like everyone else.
Gotcha. Thanks for clarifying. This is key:
"do you feel it is prudent to continue trading or does the situation warrant standing aside until things become more clear ."
I wasn't worried about experienced traders like you ... I was concerned about a lot of small traders who don't have a very large nest egg to start with and don't do this for a living ... for whom standing aside might be the most prudent move for them.
I'm just a simple man trading a simple plan.
My daddy always said, "Every day above ground is a good day!"
1. MFGlobal got into trouble due to their proprietary trading, TS doesn't do proprietary trading.
2. PFG was controlled by a handful of people making fraud easier. TS is a much different organization. It would be very difficult for them to repeat what PFG did.
3. TS has $52.2 million in excess of its required net capital
4. TS auditor is KPMG a large national auditing firm. PFG used a one woman firm who works out of her house. Bernie Madoff used a one man auditing company.... who worked out of his house.
I'm just a simple man trading a simple plan.
My daddy always said, "Every day above ground is a good day!"
IMO...I think it would be prudent for all to be very vigilant and build a relationship with their broker and ask for information that may reassure any and all concerns based on the previous CFM's fiasco's. I am with Velocity Futures and I know they are a smaller organization which gives me some concerns, but nothing worth losing sleep over. I want to get some answers such as who their auditors are, ask for Balance sheets and every financial information that satisfies my concerns. I want to act like I am a share holder of the company and want to know as much about them as I can learn. Will this prevent this from happening to those of us who have our money parked there? Of course not, but at least I did my job in making informed decisions.
I think its wise to keep only the minimum to keep trading what ever size you are currently trading and withdraw on a regularly bases. We all know the problems we potentially face and its up to us to protect our interest and not the NFA and CFTC to protect us as we already know that haven't been up to now.
Its unfortunate for those who are dealing with the MFG and PFG mess, I hope things turn for the better.
However, TS is owned by this Japanese firm Monex Group, which acquired TS only recently. Don't know much about them, except from the internet (!) it seems that they are not so small... whatever that means...
The net capital figure looks better than what other brokerages show. Still, this can be manipulated... and KPMG is for sure more promising than this one-man-show audit firm of PFG. But as Enron showed, huge audit firms do not guarantee anything either...
Yes, that's disturbing. In my thread over at TS, the other tech (!) guy did respond differently as well. Guess, that's the wrong guys to ask... ... but that's the guys reading and responding in the TS community...