Friday, November 27, 2009

Forex trading in the US

* The NFA – the National Futures Association. The NFA is a self-regulatory organization for the US futures industry. Its purpose is to safeguard market integrity and protect investors by implementing forex regulations. Membership in NFA is mandatory for any futures or forex broker operating in the US .It is an independent regulatory body with no ties to any specific marketplace.

* The CFTC – the Commodity Futures Trading Committee. Created by congress, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) was formed in 1974 as an independent agency with the mandate to issue forex regulations for financial markets in the United States. The CFTC's forex regulations assure the economic utility of the markets by encouraging their competitiveness and efficiency, and protecting market participants against and abusive forex trading practices.

The CFTC has some regulatory authority over retail off-exchange forex markets. The Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) allows the sale of over-the-counter forex futures and options to retail customers if, and only if, the counterparty (the person on the other side of the transaction) is a regulated entity.

These regulated entities include the following: financial institutions, such as banks and savings associations, registered broker-dealers and certain of their affiliates, registered futures commission merchants (FCMs) and certain of their affiliates, certain insurance companies and their regulated affiliatess financial holding companies, and investment bank holding companies. Under the CEA, the CFTC has the authority to shut down any unregulated entity that acts as a counterparty to forex futures oroptions transactions with retail customers. The CFTC also has the authority to take action against registered FCMs and their affiliates for violating the anti-fraud and anti-manipulation pro-visions of the CEA in connection with OTC forex transactionsinvolving retail customers, but the CFTC cannot adopt rules toregulate these transactions. NFA (National Futures Association) has rules to protect customers in the retail off-exchange forex market.

As mentioned later in this article, firms that introduce customers to forex dealers do not have to be regulated entities. NFA’s rules provide, among other things, that a forex dealer FCM must take responsibility for the activities of unregulated entities that solicit retail customers. Additionally, NFA’s rules require forex dealer FCMs to: observe high standards of commercial honor and just and equitable principles of trade in connection with the retail forex business; supervise their employees and agents and any affiliates that act as counterparties to retail forex transactions; maintain a minimum net capital requirement based on the value of open customer positions; and collect security deposits from those customers. NFA’s forex rules do not apply to all FCMs and their affiliates, however. Therefore, you should ask the dealer if NFA regulates its forex activities.


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