• Please try to select the correct prefix when making a new thread in this folder.

    Discuss is for general discussions of a financial company or issues related to companies.

    Info is for things like "Has anyone heard of Company X?" or "Is Company X legit or not?"

    Compare is for things like "Which of these 2 (or more) companies is best?"

    Searching is for things like "Help me pick a broker" or "What's the best VPS out there for trading?"

    Problem is for reporting an issue with a company. Please don't just scream "CompanyX is a scam!" It is much more useful to say "I can't withdraw my money from Company X" or "Company Y is not honoring their refund guarantee" in the subject line.
    Keep Problem discussions civil and lay out the facts of your case. Your goal should be to get your problem resolved or reported to the regulators, not to see how many insults you can put into the thread.

    More info coming soon.

Can we build a better broker?

Status
Not open for further replies.
Cross-broker comparisons of prices and spreads would be useful. Of course, bad brokers could work together to show how their prices all match.

At this point, I think a spread/slippage/requote monitor/report add on for users would be a simpler step to implement. If it also keeps track of the ping speed to the MT4 server, it would make it much easier for the broker to track the source of anything that seems to be affecting an individual client as well as to help make sure the liquidity provider isn't doing anything unusual.
 
Update?

Hey guys,

I am handling an issue that came up on one of properties about 2 hours away from me, I had to drive out there so I missed the meeting today and have to reschedule, I left him a message and asked if he wouldn't mind joining the discussion... I will let you know his answer.

Seb:

We are on the same wavelength! I think your ideas are fantastic.

Pharoah:

It is not a white label solution, it is a proper brokerage as a registered forex company my own staff and rules. BT has a service they offer which allows brokerages to start up easier, they will host the servers and technical staff comes with that, they allow me to scale up my operations, they provide legal, bank, offshore company introductions. But it is my business, I service the clients and create the services. In white label you are just an extension of another company and have no say, I will not be part of BT, I like the service they provide to start a new brokerage and I like their liquidity bridge, I don't need to use their bridge though.

F-man:

Prahoah not pharoah? he spells it pharoah, what do you mean? You are right i should not have used as actual broker as an example, it will not happen again, I could have made my point with quotes and left the actual broker anonymous, if I need to use an example again I will do it that way.

Hi Damon,

What is the update?
How is the process going?
Did you meet with BT?
 
Nope

Hi Guys,

Sorry, no update. I tried to meet with Ian (BT contact) on Friday he was only available before 2 and I woke up after 2 so no meeting (I got very little sleep while away)

I will try to meet with him Monday, I did send him a link to this thread, I guess he is not game to come and discuss this with us. But I will try and convince him when I am on the horn with him.

How goes the check on me? Am I a criminal or lunatic?

Talk to you guys soon,

Damon
 
Hi Guys,
How goes the check on me? Am I a criminal or lunatic?

I can almost always spot managed account crime within 1 post. Since you want to be a broker, I'll have to defer to F-Man to see if you're a criminal or not.

Since you really want to take on all the headaches associated with being a broker, I think there's little question about your sanity, or lack thereof.
:p


Keep after BT. They are one of the biggest pieces of the puzzle.
 
Introduction

Hello ladies and gentlemen. My name is Ian Danielson, and I am a Business Intelligence Specialist at Boston Technologies.

Damon has invited me to participate in this thread, and I am pleased to do so. I will review the full content and post a reply shortly.

Thanks for the interest, this is a great topic and I look forward to discussing what I've seen as well as to discuss what BT has been doing along this front.

Best regards,

Ian
 
Bam !

Excellent, So I have talked to Ian and received many answers to the tougher questions.

He has agreed to join this forum as you can see by the post above.

Ian can take them up in more detail but the quick answers are:

If any trade screw up (I am told this is extremely rare) it will be forwarded to BT from my staff, BT then contacts the actual bank/prime broker. If it is reversible it will be but if it software related the trader takes the hit, part of the risk as a trader, that may not sit well but it is the truth. I like that because I am part of BT liquidity pool I will have a little more clout if there is a problem. But again this is supposedly ultra rare, understand that the banks are trying to out bid each other for the volume at BT Prime they are not trying to screw the retail brokers.

One thing that I had wrong was that BT Prime is a pool of 25 banks and Prime brokers, it is not, it is capable of more than that but instead it is actually only linked up to 6 (Ian can give you the names of the institutions). This actually gets better prices than having more as they really fight over the large Volume that BT provides. (I think I have this correct) Ian please correct me if I am wrong.

Were there any other questions left unanswered?

-----------

As an aside, BT is really trying to get a broker to do what I am trying to do, FULL STP brokerage. So they are behind me to do this, they have many who have made brokerages through them, but none yet that the greed has not affected. I am trader first, so I am greedy the other way, I want excellent execution, tiny spreads, no lot size limits, tiny minimum deposits so I can test the brokerage properly, no red tape (CFTC) and NO betting against me, I want to be able to take money out if I am a big winner. I want the proper tools to be able to trade right from the get go (Sive Morten and other FPA tools). And finally, I want to be able to offer the best managed accounts so the traders can diversify a little bit. Or make some money while they are on vacation.

Anyway, it seems I should be able to do all of this and stay profitable, not rich (I trade to do that), but have the brokerage make enough money to support itself and grow and get better and better.
 
Last edited:
awesome to hear mate, i really hope this becomes a reality! not that I really have any official skills but if i can be of any use, i'm on board 100% just ask me and i will help out.

Just one thing i was a little bit 'eh' about - regarding red tape/regulations, you mention no red tape ie CFTC [or maybe NFA?], and while I agree some of those rules are a bit annoying, though, wouldnt most users feel much more secure if there was regulation in place?
I mean, when I select brokers if i see they are unregulated I pretty much close the page straight away.. Just something to think about in terms of exposure.. not that you are in this for getting millions of clients though :)

[Maybe you can offer regulated and unregulated accounts? - though, maybe too hard to manage both options.]

Also we have pretty much almost only talked about forex, what about other instruments, are you planning to offer CFDs, etc? I am not sure if this market access is provided through BT or other people?

Also I do not know if it can be accomplished, probably not, but I would love to see more metals [more than XAG/XAU] available in the markets.. Gold/silver is nice.. accessing LME instruments would be nicer though! probably impossible..
 
Seravitae:

Sure, I can use all the help I can get.

I'll PM you. (Or I won't, it seems I can't contact you, you have no contact data)

BT comes with quite a list of symbols including CFDs and major indexes of world markets, each EXTRA one I want after that costs $, So I will only offer BT stock symbols at first, but it is high on my list of things to build out.

As for regulations, I am still researching this, my problem with getting regulated has to with the trend of regulators, the trend is to (albeit eventually) agree with CFTC. So I find a regulator I like and then it decides to agree with CFTC, which I disagree with.

You must understand they are doing these regulations to stop people from piling out of the stock market which is chalk a block with toxic debt, if the US lost it's dumb money (mutual funds, 401k) that is propping up the market it will go bust. It will go bust anyway as the fiat currency always does (check history). But they are trying to stop it happening by keeping markets propped up and deflating the currencies at a mad rate, this only creates the cycle of boom and bust again, it does not solve the problem.

I am trying to create a user regulated brokerage. I find this an advantage because I can confront regulating a brokerage, people who need someone else to blame may not like this. My brokerage will be transparent and I will be known to any users of the brokerage as the owner, I will not hide behind any corporate shielding. I will keep in communication with my clients. You will know of my triumphs and travails, if I **** you or any other client, you will know the name of the head you can put a price on. You see I think the regulators (CFTC, FSA) are as bad as the guys they protect you against. How do we lose them without being eaten by sharks? We become the regulator for our own brokerage. That is the only answer to me. That is why I am creating this brokerage. That is why this thread is here in the first place. I need to have a transparent, real time, 3rd party audit of the brokerage that I can broadcast for usres, that or go with one of the regulators that I agree with and hope to god they do not tighten their grip, that is what I am looking into.

I understand that you run away from non-regulated brokers, most do. But would you run from a brokerage that you regulated?
 
Last edited:
hey mate,

Wierd - I cannot access private messages, not even my own - denied! strange.. I will ask the mods about my account... and also, will keep in contact in this thread.

good to hear you are building out - I am not sure how much each extra symbol costs - but you could pass this on to your customers to keep this in line with your "STP" model - I do not know how much the symbol costs, but if it was $5 a month, with other users money pooled together, I would pay it to access one extra/special symbol... maybe a thought? users can pool to 'subscribe' to a symbol - not sure if BT would allow easy dynamic adding of symbols this way..

I see now - I thought the regulation was mostly for safety, fraud, but if there are "ulterior motives" from the NFA/CTFC/government relations then they have just as much credibility as a bucket shop.

I first thought you wanted user managed - more user input, run by users - but "regulation" as well - that is good... This is something that should be in big bright lights on the webpage :) A good angle..

sorry - miscommunication on my part... running away from non-regulated brokers was simply because even though 'everyone is a crook', regulated brokers at least "appear" to be "nicer crooks" - but let us do away with all of them.. :)
 
Last edited:
Extra symbols

From what I remember getting an extra symbol is only a matter of a one time fee, I would just budget for it, and then it would be available to everyone.

It may sound (by my horrible memory) that I am not taking this seriously, but it is in fact that I have many other pressing issues that are more crucial to this phase of the brokerage. So I just find out if something can or can't be done in a general sense and then move on. I will get full training and be better equipped to answer this type of question (in a less vague manner) when I am back office trained.

I am just making a deal with a programmer to do some of my tougher web programming for me. He is over ten years programming in the financial sector and a forex trader himself. This is important to me as I am running this as a "lean start up", it must be professional and functional AND within my budget, If I stick within my budget I have nearly a year of expenses to get it off the ground and to start seeing black (I can literally afford to run the brokerage for just under one year without a single client). Thats a nice long runway that I am determined to keep LOOOONG!

I am only a month out from having a fully armed and operational (death star?) brokerage once I make the good faith deposit. So I am trying to dot as many T's and cross as many I's as humanly possible before I drop the gavel.

you can delete your E-mail, I have it and will drop you a line.

By the way don't take my word for it that there are ulterior motives from the regulators, by my own investigations that is the only answer that I can see. keep the "dumb money" dumb. Stop the leak.

By your investigations you may find that it was due to something else entirely (indigestion? bored? money grab?) You would be surprised to hear the crazy reasons I have heard people come up with. Some of them are true! (indigestion)
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top