Top 50 brokers of 2009
By Futures Magazine
One year ago, as we were preparing for this story, the financial world was turned on its head and no one was sure how it would all end up except for the realization that a new world with a heavier regulatory burden would emerge.
While much has happened in a year, including a market crash and unprecedented recovery, there is still a lot of mystery as to how this all will end up. The new administration is working on rebuilding the entire U.S. regulatory foundation with an early focus on the over-the-counter (OTC) swap arena, which caused so much chaos. Futures industry leaders are all for it, though some worry that there has been a greater focus on the one regulators structure, for futures, that managed to weather the storm without holding a tin cup up to Washington.
Full Story

All that has created momentum for our Japanese site www.fxstreet.jp that after a quiet flat performance the last few months saw its traffic rocketing thanks to some posts at a couple of big Japanese forums that were recommending visitors to come over www.fxstreet.jp to check the latest goings in the Forex market.

This huge traffic generated from these forums pushed the site to reach new highs:

* 1,733 Visits
* 1,367 Absolute Unique Visitors
* 3,385 Page Views

In the coming days the site will see its traffic adjusted downwards but I hope this great momentum we got yesterday and that should last a few more days, it  will leave www.fxstreet.jp in a higher level than previous levels around 500 visitors per day.

Francesc

Things are turning worse and worse in the Crown Forex S.A bankrupcy process.

Yesterday I published here a new update about two Minneapolis based scammers that were charged in a $190M Forex Fraud and got their assets freezed.

Forex Fraud - SEC Charges Duo In $190M FX Trading Scam

Well, so far the connection of the scammers - TREVOR G. COOK and PATRICK J. KILEY - with Crown Forex S.A was that they were claiming that they deposited some funds of their clients at Crown Forex S.A and as this company got liquidated by the Swiss FINMA, they were not able to return funds to clients.

That miserable explanation got quickly in evidence as untrue, but what I found out now is that one of these guys - Trevor G. Cook - used clients money to buy 51% of the shares of Crown Forex S.A

As it states in the SEC’s Civil Action document: “... in or around November 2008, Cook acquired a 51% ownership interest in Crown Forex, S.A. Cook used $3 million of investor funds transferred to pay for his ownership interest in Crown Forex, S.A.”

Also, in a pice of news of the Minneapolis Star Tribune - newspaper that has been doing an extraordinary job covering the latest goings of the case against these scammers - I found this: “… Shadi Swais, former CEO of Crown Forex SA, claimed to have a master’s degree in international business administration from the American Graduate School of Business, a private Swiss entity. The school said in an e-mail Tuesday that it had no record of Swais attending classes there. Swais, who reportedly is of Jordanian descent and grew up in Chicago, could not be reached for comment.”

I understand now why FINMA has been over a year stuck with this case. Those guys were a bunch of liars and scammers!!!!

I do not like the way FINMA has been dealing with this case and how they have been keeping clients in dark, but I can understand now the tremendous complexity of this case.

Francesc

More Links:
Anna’s Story by FT Alphaville

U.S. SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Litigation Release No. 21313 / November 24, 2009
SEC V. TREVOR G. COOK, PATRICK J. KILEY, ET AL, Case No. 09 CV 3333 (D. Minn., filed November 23, 2009)
On November 23, 2009, the Honorable Michael J. Davis of the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota issued an Asset Freeze Order against all assets of Trevor G. Cook (Cook), Patrick J. Kiley (Kiley), both Minnesota residents, and UBS Diversified Growth LLC, Universal Brokerage FX Management LLC, Oxford Global Advisors LLC, and Oxford Global Partners LLC (the Defendant Companies), four shell companies owned or controlled by them. The court also issued an asset freeze order against several Relief Defendant Companies: Basel Group LLC, Crown Forex LLC, Market Shot LLC, PFG Coin and Bullion, Oxford FX Growth L.P., Oxford Global FX LLC, Oxford Global Managed Futures Fund L.P, UBS Diversified FX Advisors LLC, UBS Diversified FX Growth L.P., and UBS Diversified FX Management LLC. The court also entered a freeze order against certain assets of relief defendants Clifford and Ellen Berg, who received investor funds from Cook. In addition, Judge Davis issued an order appointing a receiver over all of these assets. The court issued the freeze and receivership orders under seal while the assets were being secured, and the seal has now been lifted.
Full Story

After launching an Italian site at the end of October, today FXCM announced that they are opening an office in Milano (Italy)

FXCM launches Italian Site… First US based Forex broker to offer Italiano

Leading Global Forex Firm Opens in Italy
FXCM Holdings LLC, a leader in the retail forex business, has announced the opening of FXCM Italy, a branch office of FXCM LTD.
PR Log (Press Release) – Nov 25, 2009 – Media Contact: Jaclyn Sales, jsales@fxcm.com
MilanFXCM Holdings LLC, a leader in the retail forex business, has announced the opening of FXCM Italy (www.fxcm.it) a branch office of FXCM LTD (http://www.fxcm.co.uk/). Regulated by the CONSOB, FXCM Italy brings No Dealing Desk Execution* and offers retail forex clients no dealer intervention and tight spreads as low as 1 pip. FXCM Italy will strive to be a leading forex provider for the Italian market.
Full Story

Today Kim Cramer Larsson explains the details to know how to read, understand and use the famous “Todays’ Trading Signals” Report. This report has been the most read report in FXstreet.com since the first day it was published a few years back when Kim was at Danske Bank.

Do not miss it!

Francesc

Todays’ Trading Signals Report Explained
Type: Webinar
Register for this Session

Expert: Kim Cramer Larsson, CEO at Financial Trend Analysis
Moderator: Maud Gilson
Start: Tue, Nov 24 2009, 16:00 GMT
End: Tue, Nov 24 2009, 16:45 GMT

Topics:
-  How to trade using TTS/ATS
-  What is important - stops !!
-  How do I understand the symbols and colours
-  Intraday Support and resistance

Summary:
Kim Cramer Larsson will present a special webinar at FXstreet.com to explain how to read, understand and use the famous “Todays’ Trading Signals” Report:

http://www.fxstreet.com/technical/analysis-reports/todays-trading-signals/

Who is Kim Cramer Larsson?

Kim Cramer Larsson was key speaker at the FXstreet.com International Traders Conference in October 2009 - Barcelona.

Kim Cramer Larsson has 19 years in the financial industry and 12 years experience in working with technical analysis. He has made active use of technical analysis as a trader, adviser and technical analyst and has held external and internal courses for central banks, Danish and foreign financial institutions and colleagues. Kim has a Graduate Diploma in Business Administration in Finance from Copenhagen Business School, with a thesis in Currency Crisis.

On September 13th I announced here that 1,041 traders were following FXstreet.com’s Forex News on Twitter. Well, two months later we have reached 1,513 traders.

http://twitter.com/fxstreetnews

Congratulations to all involved in the news service

Francesc