Unfortunately, sometimes the way they present the news borders on hyperbole if not simply outright lies.
Consider this one as a prime example;
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/trading-over-counter-gold-and-silver-be-illegal-beginning-july-15
If anyone cares to look a little deeper into the headline you will see it's Forex.com that decided that they weren't going to allow the small time guy to play in the 100:1 plus markets where there is no chance for delivery in the underlying product. This is due to their interpretation of the Dodd-Frank rules.
The only way you can still play these markets with this extreme leverage with Forex.com is to have some significant net worth. Simply put Forex.com don't have the metal to settle (hence the change per Dodd-Frank) and when you play there you are betting against forex.com not the comex or anything else. Simply put this is much ado about nothing.
The other story that caught my attention was from Zerohedge again. Some poor bastard decided he had enough and to protest he set himself on fire. It was interesting to read what the man had to say; http://www.zerohedge.com/article/guest-post-new-hampshire-man-burns-self-courthouse-protest
His main theme is there are two sets of law books and he is correct. Whatever his failings as a Father or as a human being he has some very relevant points. There are two sets of laws and anyone who is on the receiving end of the second set of books is going to be pretty confused as it has no bearing on what you see on TV. Simply put the second set is based on policy and procedure written by some nameless public servant.
He missed one important fact when it comes to Child Protection Services. He hinted at some of their methods. Their first tool is to corner a parent and threaten them with losing their kids if they don't turn the other parent in. Of course this can backfire on the first parent as they can then say allowing or knowing of some crime makes you party to or just as an unfit parent as the perpetrator of the "crime".
These are the tools of the Khmer Rouge, Nazi and every other crazy regime you can think of. Turn citizen against citizen, Brother against Brother, Wife against Husband.
The second tool is if even if the first tool doesn't work they will try and get you to sign up with some sort of program whereby they can visit the child on a weekly schedule. What they don't tell you is once they are in your life you can never get them out. Once you sign that document you have opened up Pandora's box and they can call anyone in your life. This probably reads as more Hyperbole but it's reality unfortunately.
They CAN take your kids if they can play one parent against another or even recruit one of the other kids on a flight of fantasy. They CAN take your kids if you are stupid enough to sign one of their plans that allows them access to your kids. Once they are in your life they can reappear at any time if you allow them.
You may think this can't happen to you or there is no smoke without fire. If that is what you think then your thinking has been conditioned to think authority figures have our best interests at heart. You are thinking why on earth would Child Protection Services take kids out of good homes?
Follow the money. For every kid they take out of a home and place in foster care or for permanent adoption they get a budget increase. In essence there is a 100K bounty on every kids head. Don't take my word for it look it up. Research and verify the information for yourself. Verify that these people have limited education and even less experience. Verify that like most in the business of trying to peer into others heads they are broken Human beings themselves.
If you ever find yourself in the position of having to defend yourself against these people be very careful. Sign nothing. Get a Lawyer. Tell them you are recording every conversation. Document everything. If you can't afford a Lawyer then sometimes the only option if you have tried to be reasonable is to politely tell them to get out. My telling them to politely "Fuck Off" probably only worked because they had nothing and I could afford a Lawyer.
Yes, I am talking from experience and after 2 weeks of being polite and paying Lawyers etc. I researched and understood the game then I told them to get out. I understood that they were jumped up nobodies who make terrible decisions and leave kids in horrible situations while chasing down phantoms.
If you are wondering what my crime was to get their attention in the first place I would tell you it really doesn't matter as even the perception of a crime is enough for these people. If I told you what it was you would think I am a liar or making it up so I will simply say google "CPS scam", "Child protection services hell" etc etc.
The govt employee is not there to protect your interests or serve the greater good but to feed on you and your fellow taxpayers.
13 comments:
If this is just one of the first of many effects of dodd frank to come, I don't think its much ado about nothing, whether jesse says it or not.
Dodd /Frank will change a lot of things but the way it was portrayed on ZH was over the top. In this case though it only affects the little guy and takes forex.com and others like it without any ability to deliver physical out of the paper game. If Forex.com wanted to they could put some physical on their shelves.
My biggest complaint is anyone skimming the headlines would be completely misinformed. They then head off to the pub or other forum and scare the crap out of everyone else.
What I don't understand though is why do they differentiate between high net worth individuals and those that don't meet the $1 million net worth threshold? If something is wrong, it's wrong for all.
Also, is the annual earnings in excess of $200k for the past two years a substitute for the $1 million in net worth clause or must one have $1 million in net worth AND be earning $200k per year?
Thanks.
I think the poor dude who set himself on fire is a leading indicator that the marriage bubble is about to pop. I'm shorting the institution until the laws aren't weighted so heavily against men.
Those are good questions, SilverIsKing. I haven't looked into it, since I want no part of the Forex bucket shop, but I wonder if the bias against low net worth players is part of Dodd-Frank. Wouldn't be at all surprised.
The difference would be the ability to pay if you lose your bet. I'm pretty sure future earnings will not count towards your current net worth. I have a Forex account but I am not confident enough in my abilities to play insane leverage. I simply use it to sell or convert my Dollars.
I've been playing the super high leverage game for a few years now and have been taken to the cleaners on a number of occasions. I call that my tuition but once I got the hang of it, there was good money to be made. I have an account at Saxobank which I was told more than a month ago was being closed as of July 15th. Because of this, I opened a FOREX account which I've now learn is essentially being closed (I trade exclusively spot silver).
While the high leverage is not for most people, it is a way to make huge money from small potatoes if you're willing to take big risks.
With respect to ability to pay if you lose your bet, they never let the account go below zero so once your margin is all used up, if you go further into the red, they sell out the position.
Gotcha. I hear where you are coming from now. Your options if you want to continue playing is exaggerate on your application (easy) or get a foreign account. I am sure you know but assets like 401K, property, Spouse, Business ownership etc. all count towards net worth.
Foreign account not that difficult if you have a friend in a foreign country to use as an address and open a bank account. The Caribbean makes it easy to open accounts. Antigua etc pretty easy to get to. Been a few years since I opened an account in the Caribbean but they don't exactly move at lightening speed there so I can't imagine they have made it difficult to open an account.
Better still start researching your family tree and get a second passport. Usually you can go back as far as grand parents to snag a Euro passport but they have been tightening the rules and it changes from country to country. I can point you in the right direction if you need help with Ireland or the UK.
Hope that helps.
A potential issue with using a foreign address to open an account is the requirement to report all foreign bank accounts to the US Treasury.
I'm not sure if by using a foreign address to open the account you effectively "thread the needle" and abide by the rules of the foreign bank by having a non-US address while being able to report it to the Treasury and pay taxes on any gains earned in the account.
If you do this and avoid reporting to the Treasury, then it's clearly against the law but by reporting it, will the Treasury come after you for having the account in the first place?
My guess is that using a foreign address and reporting the account does indeed thread the needle but I'm not certain.
It's perfectly legal to have as many accounts in as many countries as you want as long as you don't hide it. As you point out you will have to pay taxes on it. But you are not trying to avoid taxes you are simply trying to avoid Barney and friends. If you want to trade in the USA you play by the US rules. If you want to trade in the UK you play by their rules.
Think of it like this; If you were living in say Cancun and wanted to play the US markets how would you do it? Did Forex.com look for your passport or Alien registration card? Nope.
Think about how easy it was for people without SS #'s to get a mortgage, employment etc. here in the US and you will figure out how easy it is to make this happen.
The fact that you want to do this legitimately makes it easier. The other alternative is to register a business in a foreign country. Depending on the country this is sometimes really easy but expensive (think Antigua) or really hard (need address) and cheap (think Europe).
FYI It's possible to open a bank account here without SS #. It's called a holiday account. Not all banks offer it or are familiar with it though.
I have a couple of accounts sitting doing nothing in foreign countries just because I never closed them out. It really isn't a big deal.
The only gotchas you have to be careful of is moving money in and out of the US. It's pretty much the same everywhere when it comes to capital movements. Keep it under 10K.
Using a credit or debit card from say Antigua here in the US will send up a flag if you are a US Citizen.
I've transferred funds from my Saxobank account in Europe to my bank account here in the US on several occasions. The transfers have never been below $10,000 so I guess they're watching me. I have no intention of ignoring the filing requirements or tax code so it shouldn't really be an issue.
What I do need to do is figure out a way to keep my Saxobank account in Europe open and to do that, I need a foreign address. I asked them about Toronto, Canada but that won't work for whatever reason. I guess it needs to be more foreign than that.
I guess I'll look into Antigua as a potential new home to SilverIsKing Industries, Inc...lol
Much thanks for the advice.
Look into Belize. They are changing the rules but still worth looking at. Antigua was crazy money for incorporation (but it's 10 years since I looked at it).
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