DislikedIt really is a ridiculous situation to have 100s of unlicensed IBs in the US.Ignored
Has anything changed?
An extract from the FAQ at Collective2.
"Do I need to register with the CFTC or the SEC in order to sell my trading advice? Do I need some kind of license to start a trading system?"
"If you are an American citizen, the short answer is: No, you do not need to register with any government agency, or pass any kind of test, or have a license in order to publish trading advice.
The other important restriction is that you cannot manage clients' trading accounts on their behalf. You can't have access to their money, or issue trading instructions to their brokers. Otherwise you cross the line from publishing, which is allowed, to asset-management, which requires registration.
You must simply restrict your activity to publishing non-personalized advice which your clients can choose to act upon or not. (Note that using Collective2 to disseminate your trading advice via a Web site and email is considered publishing.) Remember that our right to publish and say what we like is protected by the First Amendment, a right that our citizens fight for, to this day. No small matter, that.
If you are not an American citizen, then I have no idea what kind of constraints your government places upon you."
So, here's my question. There are 100s of unlicensed IBs in the US managing clients' funds through a PAMM or similar arrangement as an IB.
From what Matthew says at Collective2 these are all trading illegally. Can anyone shed any light on this? I live mainly in Europe and rarely visit the US but, as I wrote above, which was never contradicted, I thought it was a dubious arrangement which is illegal in the EU but not actually illegal in the US. Has something changed in the year that I posted this? Guys, who's correct? Please.
I believe I am and IBs can manage funds in the US as long as their clients don't deposit funds with the IB but directly with whichever broker the IB has a relationship with. They then trade the funds through an LPOA.
Do not focus on making money; focus on protecting what you have.