Canada now worst place to be an FX Trader, kiss overseas brokers goodbye

http://fxcanada.com/forex-in-canada/ (see full article at bottom half of page with highlights, most importantly, only IIROC regulated investment dealers can trade OTC forex contracts with Canadians)

The IIROC (I'm Irrationally Retarded On Command) have made sure that they are the biggest retards in all of Forex, and have gone the extra mile to do so AND make Canada the LEAST desired place to trade Forex in the entire World. I know B.C was ruined some time ago, I don't know all the details but I do know in some places you can't even trade Forex at all unless you have 1/4 million dollars, I mean how idiotic is this. I knew this day was coming since the USA did similar things and Canada just follows USA like a lost puppy, but I hoped it was much further down the road. I was contacted by my UK Broker letting me know that all Canadian accounts are being scrutinized due to new regulation rules coming into effect. I have no idea how new this is (I only signed up 3 months ago, so seems pretty new), nor how many or which rules are all going to apply, but the link above seems to indicate many things, I cut and pasted the article below and highlighted the important things that stood out to me being in Ontario.

The USA imposed some pretty silly rules, like FIFO and 50:1 leverage maximum, restricting the opportunity people have and especially their choices forcing Brokers with good conditions to not even except USA clients, instead of letting them decide for themselves what is best for them, well here in Canada those rules look GOOD in comparison, and in both cases it all just stinks of protectionism, and encourages clients to actual do the opposite, find countries who offer better conditions and still accept you risking the regulation aspect.

Sure you can try to argue that trading with USA companies should better protect the people since regulation is higher. Please tell that to former PFG clients. NOT. No, regulations are not worth the paper they are written on. Also note, the lower you make the leverage, the MORE money someone has to put into their account, which is now susceptible to loss either by Broker going tits up OR bad trading. This is protection? No, I think not folks, quite the opposite. Have these dipshits not heard of a margin call? The whole leverage thing is really misunderstood and misinterpreted overall. Anyway that horse has been beat to death for years already, but the bottom line with these fantastic IIROC rules is someone who had 100:1 leverage now needs SIX TIMES more money in their account to trade the same position size as before. Not twice as much, as the USA imposed, SIX times as much for many many pairs. It gets worse from there too, Gold is TWENTY times more, with a whole 5:1 leverage now available. Have they seen the price of Gold? Good lord.

http://fxtrade.oanda.ca/help/policie...n-requirements

Eur/Aud for example, 16:1 leverage, they are labelling as exotic and allow same leverage as Eur/Sek? EJ the same too? Do these people have any clue about Forex at all? Even EU the most traded pair, is now 33:1 leverage with a $USD account or even more laughable, 20:1 if you have a Canadian dollar account. (note the TRUE exotics are like 7:1 leverage or mostly much less, I'm sure people will be lining up to trade these tying up excessive amounts of money in their account. Gee thanks again for telling US what we can and can't trade, like the spreads weren't enough of a deterrent on true exotics, hah!)

Oh, the logic here my my, and as if new Forex Traders didn't have enough things to be confused about, they go and make margin completely convoluted to the point no one can ever, easily figure it out, just asinine.

Below is the article from the first link I posted, with important things highlighted, including ALL Canadians will now ONLY be able to trade with a IIROC regulated bodies. Bottom line is instead of forcing dealers into stricter regulation ensuring people have a better opportunity (like cutting out Virtual Dealer Plugin and other MM games) and that money is truly segregated and limits respected, check up on them every 3 months etc to avoid PFG scenario; they have forced clients into stricter regulation ruining their opportunity and making it impossible for some to trade and even more difficult than it already is for others.

======================================================

Forex In Canada
Forex Trading (FX) Regulations in Canada

In Canada, the lack of a national securities regulator for the interbank foreign exchange (forex) market and the online trading of fx has led to a confusing conglomeration of different policies and rules from each province.

Recently, some new developments have occurred that will change the face of forex trading, especially for those either providing or trading in unregistered online forex.

Ontario and Quebec have been first in line to address the question of who can participate in forex after the Canadian Securities Administrators implemented harmonized requirements in 2009 for their jurisdictions. Until recently, there was no agreement even on what type of contract forex trading constituted, with some provinces calling it a derivative and some a security (and some both), and regulating it accordingly.

Quebec went with the derivative label, and enacted laws requiring anyone trading forex to be registered or seek an exemption. Ontario decided forex was a security, and thus would be regulated under the Securities Act, though it went on to amend this Act to allow derivatives to be included. This meant that whether a court declared forex contracts to be securities or derivatives, they would still fall under the same legislation. British Columbia has been regulating forex traders for over a decade now, and does so under the label of securities. Initially BC required its forex traders to register as exchange contract dealers, but has recently amended this to investment dealer with the Investment Dealers Association.

Membership in the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC) allows individuals or companies to provide margin, and may exempt them from some provincial requirements under specific circumstances. But the formal position of the three largest provinces is now that forex trading on margin is a financial activity that requires registration.

British Columbia

The B.C. Securities Commission (BCSC) considers a forex contract to be a security because it is a forward contract involving a leveraged agreement between two or more parties to exchange different currencies at a future time or times. Although a forex contract is based on the spot rate, it is neither a spot contract in the traditional sense because it has no two-day settlement, nor is it a forward contract because it has no maturity date. There is also no mechanism or obligation for delivery.

Forex dealers are not required to register and provide a prospectus when trading OTC derivatives with “Qualified Parties”. Short-term forex is exempted from the BC Securities Act when the settlement of the contract is required within three business days. This does not include leveraged online forex, however. Commodity contracts that oblige the trader to take actual physical delivery of the commodity and not a cash equivalent are also exempted, though there is no clear direction as to what happens when the commodity involved is currency.

Quebec

Trading forex contracts with Quebec clients is regulated as an over-the-counter currency derivative. The authority regulating this is the Autorite des Marches Financiers (AMF).

Dealers may get an exemption from qualifying requirements if they:

provide the client with a risk information document
use an electronic platform as their principal method of trading
have sufficient resources to carry out trading activities and to comply with regulation
provide the registration information of its officers or directors to the AMF
provide a website detailing information about the derivative, its characteristics, its risks, its trading method, its margin requirements and the costs of trading
assess the client’s level of knowledge, experience and risk tolerance in respect of the derivative
register with the AMF and be an IIROC member

Ontario

Until the publication of its formal position, Ontario was open to offshore and unregistered dealers, despite several court cases that clearly showed forex to be within the purview of the Ontario Securities Commission. The difficulty of prosecuting overseas traders offering online platforms was significant. The stated policy now is that forex contracts are securities, and may be considered derivatives as well, as determined by the OSC who will then declare them “designated derivatives”.

Trading in a designated derivative will be prohibited except where a disclosure document has been filed with the OSC, providing retail investors with disclosure of both product features and counter-party risk. Prospectus requirements and related regulations will not apply to designated derivatives, standardized (exchange-traded) derivatives or derivatives traded in any other marketplace, if certain conditions are satisfied.

Other Provinces

So far, no other provinces have enacted legislation to control forex trading, instead relying on national associations to regulate the industry.

Nationally

In 2009, the Canadian Securities Administrators adopted new rules to reform the process of registration for anyone offering securities or investment advice. These regulations do not specifically address forex trading, but the only reasonable conclusion from the changes is that dealers who are not IIROC members will no longer be able to sell to Canadians.

B.C., Ontario and Quebec have established that trading forex contracts on margin with investors is a registrable activity under relevant legislation, regardless of whether such contracts are traded with retail or accredited investors, and that the appropriate category of registration for forex dealers is the “investment dealer” category, which requires IIROC membership.

IIROC Minimum Margin Requirements

IIROC members are required to margin the unhedged foreign exchange positions of clients. For their part, the IIROC monitors all major currencies for volatility on a daily basis.

The nature of the online forex market makes it practically impossible to sanction unregistered dealers, particularly those offshore. Though most of the world’s forex dealers charge 1% minimum margin rates, the IIROC keeps theirs higher, ostensibly to encourage fair competition. But Canadian companies currently lose clientele to dealers based in Cyprus or Belize, for example, because of the much more advantageous margin rates.

How, then, to encourage Canadians to use local forex dealers, especially for online trading? If a foreign forex dealer commits fraud or declares bankruptcy, Canadians have very few avenues to recover their investment dollars. Certainly the extra protection offered by using a Canadian company is a plus, but many traders aren’t swayed by this in the face of higher margins. Bargain shopping is the norm in most areas these days, and forex is no exception.

The IIROC has been criticized on a number of levels for the way it approaches forex. The main sticking point is the high margin rate, high even compared to the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. Industry commentators frequently mention that the benchmark rate of 1-2% in major currency pairs like the USD/EUR is already matched to the expected volatility of those currencies, and thus is a fair rate not requiring further adjustment. Other complaints are that the individual margins in non-USD and non-CAD currencies are skewed when matched up with each other, and that the market already mitigates risks for dealers and investors with readily available tools such as stop-loss and take-profit points along with auto-liquidate levels. (and note, a SL is really a SL here, unlike the joke that is the Stock Market where price can gap right under your SL and force you into a much bigger loss than should be necessary)

It remains true that margin rates should accurately reflect the risks of the currencies being traded. What needs to be addressed is a method of ensuring fairness across the board for IIROC members and unregistered dealers.

A registration requirement for anyone wishing to sell to Canadians would accomplish this, but would be onerous to enforce against companies from lightly-legislated countries. It would seem, then, that the logical direction to take is to offer incentives rather than threatening penalties. For example, if the minimum margin requirements were to be more competitive, there would be little benefit in trading with a foreign dealer over a Canadian one. (yes no shit you Morons) Most Canadians would prefer the extra security of a local, IIROC-regulated dealer as long as the margin difference was very slight. This would keep more investors under the umbrella of the IIROC, and offer more protection for forex traders on both sides of the deal.

Margin rates are a hot topic, especially in the current financial climate where excessive leverage has been blamed for sparking the global meltdown. Canadian banks fared well throughout, thanks to strict legislation that limits their investment margins to 18:1, compared to 40:1 and up for American and some European banks. Very few governments can be expected to encourage more leverage in favour of less, or less regulation rather than more.

Outside North America, though, there are only a few national regulators capping forex leverage. The Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission places their limit at 5% initial/3% maintenance/1% liquidation. The Monetary Authority of Singapore restricts leverage to 50:1 for forex. Japan has recently brought in higher margin requirements, phased in over several years.

Summary of Changes to Registration Requirements


Only IIROC regulated investment dealers can trade OTC forex contracts with Canadians.

In the provinces of BC, Ontario and Quebec, dealers must comply with additional prospectus and qualifying requirements, unless an exemption is granted.

For salespeople at registered dealer firms, futures proficiency is required to trade forex contracts. In Ontario and BC, additional proficiencies may apply.

Only registered portfolio managers can advise clients and manage forex accounts on a discretionary basis.

A fund that trades forex contracts will likely require registration as an Investment Fund Manager. If the fund distributes its units to the public, it would also require dealer registration.

Commercial forex firms that offer only hedging services to corporate clients and money transfer services to retail clients currently comply with FINTRAC regulation but are not registered with the applicable securities commission or regulated by IIROC. It remains to be seen whether any changes are pending in response to the recent regulatory developments.

CFTC/NFA Regulation – Update

For registered dealers in Canada who have found themselves competing in the online retail FX market with Forex Dealer Members (FDMs) regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and National Futures Association (NFA), it is important to have a basic understanding of the regulatory environment in which they operate.

The CFTC Reauthorization Act of 2008 has clarified the CFTC’s authority over forex transactions with retail customers. The CFTC delegates regulatory responsibilities to the NFA, which provides oversight for every firm and individual trading futures and forex with the public. According to the NFA, forex is defined as: “leveraged off-exchange or OTC foreign currency futures and options and any other agreement, contract, or transaction in foreign currency where one party is a customer. A customer is any party to a forex trade who is not an eligible contract participant (similar to accredited investor in Canada).”

Recent Developments

Effective October 18th 2010 the CFTC has capped leverage at 50:1 for major currencies and 20:1 for the more exotic variety, with the NFA given some discretion to make adjustments within the CFTC minimum security deposit parameters.
FDMs are now required to charge customers the full 1%/4% margin deposit for major/exotic currencies, with no exemptions.
Minimum capital requirements for FDMs have increased from $250K to $20 million.
Hedging has been disallowed in the same customer account.
Market making FDMs must maintain additional capital equal to 5% of customer liabilities when they exceed $10 million.
Positions have to be closed based on FIFO.

You can't choose your broker but you can trade spot forex, right?

If you want a REALLY good laugh, read the requirements on what it takes to trade Forex if you live in Alberta, and note the highlighted parts. (note this is from a post at BP)

===============================

You, or the undersigned on your behalf as the case may be, certifies for the benefit of Questrade Inc. (“Questrade”), that you or each beneficial owner
for whom you have acted, are/is (i) a resident of Alberta; and (ii) an “accredited investor” within the meaning of National Instrument 45-106 or a
“qualified party” within the meaning of ASC Blanket Order 91-503 because you, or the beneficial purchaser(s) is/are:
_______________ COMMERCIAL USER
A person that sells, buys, trades, produces, markets, brokers or otherwise uses in his/her business a commodity and as a consequence enters into
an OTC derivatives transaction or a commodity contract.
_______________ INCOME BEFORE TAXES OF $200,000 OR WITH SPOUSE $300,000
An individual whose net income before taxes exceeded $200,000 in each of the two (2) most recent calendar years or whose net income before
taxes combined with that of a spouse exceeded $300,000 in each of the two (2) most recent calendar years and who, in either case, reasonably
expects to exceed that net income level in the current calendar year.
_______________ FINANCIAL ASSETS OF $1 MILLION OR MORE
An individual who, either alone or with a spouse, beneficially owns, directly or indirectly, financial assets having an aggregate realizable value that
before taxes, but net of any related liabilities, exceeds $1,000,000.
_______________ NET WORTH OF $5 MILLION
An individual who, either alone or with a spouse, has net worth of at least $5,000,000.
_______________ REGISTERED OR FORMERLY REGISTERED INDIVIDUAL
An individual registered or formerly registered under Canadian securities legislation as a representative of a dealer or adviser.
_______________ COMMERCIAL USER
A company that sells, buys, trades, produces, markets, brokers or otherwise uses in its business a commodity and as a consequence enters into an
OTC derivatives transaction or a commodity contract.
_______________ COMPANY OR OTHER LEGAL ENTITY OWNED BY ACCREDITED INVESTORS
An entity in respect of which all of the owners are “accredited investors” (see individual thresholds above for reference).
_______________ $5 MILLION IN NET ASSETS
A company or other legal entity that has net assets of at least $5,000,000 as shown on its most recently prepared financial statements.
_______________ SECURITIES REGISTRANT
A firm registered under securities legislation as an adviser or dealer.
_______________ INVESTMENT FUND
An investment fund that (i) distributes or has distributed its securities pursuant to a prospectus exemption (i.e. accredited investor, $150,000 minimum); (ii) that distributes or has distributed securities under a prospectus; or (iii) that is advised by a registered adviser.
_______________ SOPHISTICATED ENTITIES
A person or company that together with its affiliates that intends to enter into OTC derivatives or commodity contract transactions where the
total gross marked-to-market positions shall be at least $100 million aggregated.
INDIVIDUALS
CORPORATE OR OTHER LEGAL ENTITIES
(Check one or more, as applicable, and initial):_______________ FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS AND SUBSIDIARIES
A Canadian financial institution, a bank to which the Bank Act (Canada) applies, the Business Development Bank of Canada or a subsidiary
thereof.
_______________ LOANS AND TRUST COMPANIES
A trust company or trust corporation registered or authorized to carry on business under the Trust and Loan Companies Act (Canada).
_______________ CREDIT UNIONS AND CAISSES POPULAIRES
A credit union central or a federation of caisses populaires or any credit union or regional caisse populaire located in Canada.
_______________ INSURANCE COMPANIES
An insurance company licensed to do business in Canada or a province or territory of Canada if the insurance company has a minimum paid up
capital and surplus, as shown on the last audited balance sheet, in excess of $100 million.
_______________ GOVERNMENT AND AGENCIES
The Government of Canada or any crown corporation, agency or wholly owned entity of the Government of Canada including a municipality,
public board or commission.
_______________ PENSION FUND
A pension fund that is regulated by either the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (Canada) or a pension commission or similar
regulatory authority.
Note: for a complete definition of “accredited investor” and “qualified parties” and defined terms contained, please contact Questrade.
_______________ None of the above statements apply.
By signing below I/we acknowledge that I/we fully understand the terms of this Acknowledgement and that the information I/we have provided is
true and accurate. I/we further acknowledge that should any of the information I/we have provided in this Acknowledgement change in the future, (in
particular, my residential and financial status), I/we will notify Questrade immediately

=======================================

Dear client,

Please be advised that the Alberta Securities Commission has confirmed its position that over-the-counter derivative products, such as the foreign exchange contracts (forex) offered on our QuestradeFX and QuestradeFX Pro platforms, are only permitted to be offered on a prospectus-exempt basis to residents of Alberta. This notice does not affect the trading of securities (such as stocks and options) on a recognized exchange.

To maintain your forex account with Questrade, you must read and complete the Acknowledgement for clients residing in Alberta form.

After you have completed and signed the form, please mail it to:

Attn: Forex Department
Questrade Inc.
5650 Yonge Street, Suite 1700
Toronto, ON, M2M 4G3
Canada
You must return the completed form within thirty(30) days of the date of this email. If we have not received the completed form within that time, Questrade will close your account without further notice. Any residual balance remaining in your account will be returned to you.

Please be advised that should you not qualify as either an accredited investor or a qualified party, we are not able to transfer your trading account to another dealer, since this trading prohibition applies to all investment dealers seeking to offer forex and CFDs to client residents in Alberta.

Questrade is permitted to offer our forex products to retail clients resident in all other provinces of Canada except Alberta; therefore, if you intend to move or relocate outside of Alberta, contact Questrade for more details.

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may cause; however, we are required by the securities laws of Alberta to request and confirm this information. Please contact forex client services if you have any questions or concerns.

Best regards,

Questrade Forex Client Services
Questrade, Inc.
Toll free: 1.866.980.9591 option 2
Fax: 416.227.0078

So in short, if you trade with an IIROC approved broker, you're good?

Yes, the darkside is that you need to be rich to trade and aren't most FX traders average Joe's with an average income.

But is that in all provinces? I am in Ontario and I have an account (small one ofcourse) with a IIROC approved broker. Does this affect me in anyway? I havnt received any e-mail from my broker so probably not but still.

Sorry that I am a little confused. When I as Canadian tried to set up a live account with Oanda these rules were exactly what they quote to me. Since I didn't have these amounts of money I switched over... I honestly thought it was a joke...

I think it is unclear at this time, since it looks like there have been "recent" changes, and I have not found them cited anywhere. I am planning to call them


Indeed it should have been only a joke, I have never seen anything that ridiculous to do with trading anywhere in the World, some stupid stuff, but nothing quite like that.

I actually agree on having a 50:1 leverage...anything above that is pure gambling anyway.

To give you an example:

Say you have a $1000 account, at 50:1 leverage you can control up to $50k, or half a lot. The problem is, at this leverage if your account dips by only 2% you wipe out your entire account. Calling this anything but gambling is crazy and no professional would trade like that...at least no sane professional.

As for hedging, yes...it's annoying. However, thanks to currency pair correlations hedging is still possible, you just need to be clever about it. Are you long EURUSD and want to hedge? No problem, do a counter trade in USDCHF. It's not exactly rocket science and those tables are freely available all over the net, just make sure you check pick the correct time frame

More regulation is actually a good thing (at least to a certain degree) because deregulation is what caused this entire crisis in the first place.

but you guys can trade futures ...right? spot forex will soon follow cfds in USA .the NFA will ensure this. they are there to protect their futures business from competition.

I chatted with my broker's customer service yesterday, they told me Ontario still has no such rules and things are the same. Hopefully it stays that way!

I'm fine with 50:1 leverage. Anything beyond that is really overkill, and might I say, outright dangerous, for most retail traders with small accounts.

However, I disagree with Alberta's income requirements to be a forex trader. Minimum $200,000 income? Are you kidding me?

Overall, I agree with 4exNinja that having some regulation is a good thing. I for one, will not take the risk of going with some unknown offshore broker that offers better margins/spreads but only comes with a "word of honor" as far as how secure your money really is. Heck, even going with a recognized name doesn't guarantee your money's safety anymore (hello MF Global!)

You need some regulation to ensure if sh*t hits the fan, you're not stuck with the cleanup. It's insurance against all non self-induced shenanigans.

It's not a coincidence that of all the MF Global clients worldwide that got fleeced, only canadian customers got their full capital refunded right away. You can thank regulations for that.

100% my view. People are always too hasty to damn regulations...when in reality, it's their last line of defence when SHTF.

I actually don't care about the hedging, but that is a personal thing, since I try and take my losses and cut them short, rather than trying recovery, hanging on and hedging etc.

The leverage is a big issue though on multiple fronts, especially for anyone that likes to Scalp or someone trading full time. As I wrote, first off it puts Traders MORE at risk, since they now have to have much more money in their account to get the same returns as before. PFG Best looked like a solid Broker, with good reputation etc and I damn near signed up with them, and looked what happened, and its far from the first time.

50:1 is okay, I think Traders can get by with that and not have to have too big of account to do so. Let's talk about 20:1, since many of the pairs are now going to be Subject to this for Canadians.

I currently have 100:1 leverage. I can buy one lot of something for anywhere from $800 to $2000 equity in account (notational value) so let's call it $1400 on average. Let's say I take a swing trade, and 2 days later I exit up 50 pips, on one lot this is $500 profit normally. To do this same trade with 20:1 leverage, you now have to tie up $7000 dollars. This is for one trade, how is someone supposed to make several trades, or worse, several trades AND try to have equity left for scalping? Someone would need to have 30K- 50K in their account just to function as a full time trader in most cases. Given that money is NOT protected, regardless of segregation as we've seen several times, that is not something I and likely many want to do. I would much rather go overseas in no regulation and take my chances with a 4-5K account, than risk giving away 40K thank you very much.

For people not fulltime, and just playing around in Forex, 20:1 leverage might be more suitable, but even for them if they want a chance to try and make money, they need a bigger account to do so with low leverage. Maybe they don't mind making $100 profit for a 100 pip move (tying up $700 in equity) trading a mini-lot, or $50 for 50 pips, but I can tell you that no full-time trader will survive that way.

Leverage is only dangerous to anyone that doesn't understand it, and in that case they really shouldn't trade now should they. If someone has 5K in their account, and they buy 4-5 lots and are NOT scalping (or even if) and don't know what they are doing, yeah sure that one trade can sink them if they are ignorant enough to do such a thing. Shame on them for not knowing how to control risk through position size.

Let me make my opinion clear here, there is nothing wrong with GOOD regulations, if they work and do what they intend to do, without restricting someone's opportunity or choices and they actually protect them.

As I have expressed, that is exactly what is NOT happening here. Instead of matching what the USA did, Canada went the extra mile of stupidity, and as such put people more at risk to the MF Global and PFG Best scenario.

Not only that, but instead of focusing on regulating the actual Brokers, from ripping off their clients with MM games like Virtual Dealer Plug-in and the list goes on, and making sure segregated funds are truly that and limits are respected and checking up on them (rather than just having them send in false reports like PFG did) etc etc,, they have focused more on "protectionism" ensuring Canadians don't have any choices (My UK regulated Broker will likely dump me) and restricting how and what we trade, and how much we trade.

By that logic, maybe I need regulation to tell me what car I should buy? AND from which Dealers? AND who I can borrow money from and how much? And of course, when its STILL a lemon, guess what happens, yep, NOTHING!

Of course in Alberta they just virtually said people aren't going to trade at all, so they top the retarded list by far.

If you're wondering why Canadian authorities have "tightened the noose" it's because every time someone looses $200 they complain to their favorite politician.

Because those who loose $200 are the majority: the minority (anyone who might actually make money trading) stands to loose.

That's democracy.

The whiners rule.

damn, I had no idea about this. thanks for putting this up and for the link

I am canadian and I have Alpari as my broker. So far, Alpari hasn't informed me. I suppose I could still continue to trade.

To me, it seems that these regulations are more about curbing the economy than minimizing systematic risk. this is shitty anyways.

I hope you are still keeping your account with Alpari. Alpari is refusing to take me on as a client because I am in Canada.

This is SO STUPID!!! That means just like the US traders, we are cut off from some of the most profitable and actually safe Forex brokerages overseas which actually lowers our trading costs. And instead of "protecting" us Canadians, they just restricted us to only trading with bucket shops which actually engage in stop-hunting, price fixing and order manipulations, just to name a few of their unscrupulous tactics against us traders.

Just looking at their posted "exempt" requirement, I agree NONE of those addresses Forex trading itself or their practices or "protecting" us investors. Especially taking Quebec's requirement, all they require is just bunch of disclosures and becoming a member of their clueless regulatory body. How is knowing how they operate and what margins they charge going to supposedly "protect" us? And honestly the regulatory bodies that those foreign brokers belong to are ten times more competent and effective in investor protection than the pathetic joke of IIROC and all of the redundant provincial bodies which should be all eliminated. I mean if WHY do we require a provincial regulatory body in every single province when Canadians across the nation are trading the same instrument?

Who can we traders complain to to lobby to get rid of this draconian restrictions that's not only not "protecting" us but is actually hurting us traders and making us vulnerable to those unscrupulous brokers which those "regulatory bodies" in Canada are actually incapable of sanction or do anything about.

If this happens in the U.S. (can ONLY retail trade with a US broker, its not like this in U.S. already, but its pretty close) (or anything remotely similar) there will be revolution before nightfall.

(US brokers are complete joke, zero security for your money)

They are already pushing the buttons of everyone.

A lot of people are on "high alert", getting their mind ready for some extremely communistic shit.

Hope you all got your rifles and ammo stocked up..



Seriously though, this has been and always will be my biggest fear with Forex. They will make it like pre 2000 again. Where you have to be a big player, or you simply cannot play.


FUCK YOU CRIMINAL BANKER SCUMBAGS WHO DON'T EVEN WANT RETAIL LIQUIDITY SO YOU CAN GET BETTER FILLS (1.5 trillion a day retail liquidity)

They want Forex all to themselves again.


To those in Canada the solution is quite simple. Trade as a business incoporated outside of Canada and you can trade with any broker in the world. Or even inside of Canada, if they still allow institutional trading in Canada, but not retail.

Of course this will cost about $1500.

Feel really sorry for you guys