I applaud your efforts and enjoy reading the informative posts on this thread, and I think I speak for many others when I say this. However your latest post which attacks all Swiss based Forex dealers because of the actions of one is illogical. By this rationale because the NFA allows one of the many bucket shops in the US to operate it means all the other brokers in the U.S. are bad. Obviously this is a case of stereotyping. As you have stated on a previous post only three firms have said they intend to become a bank. I can confirm that both Crown and Dukascopy will be becoming banks in time to meet the new regulations. I wholeheartedly agree that there are many bucket shop operations in Switzerland and a house cleaning is certainly in order and I am happy to see it. Good riddance to bad rubbish in the form of Alceeho and North Finance and soon many others like them.
I think when you hear that these Swiss firms are regulated you get the wrong impression, taking it to mean that they regulated the same way the NFA regulates firms. What Dukascopy means is that they are regulated against money laundering, I am quite positive they never told you they were regulated to the same degree the NFA does, or the way Alchecco claimed they were being regulated. To lump a pure ECN like DukasCopy who does much more volume than FXCM or Alcheeo, who has NEVER traded against a client in with trash like Alchecco is madness. You make the claim that no broker will tell the truth unless they are regulated, however I have and still do work with firms who are honest which are not regulated beyond some arbitrary money laundering laws. Meanwhile companies who are registered lie regularly and get away with it . When a company like Interbank FX for example claims that all customer orders are going straight through to the bank when they in reality were being routed to the dealing desk at FXLQ. The bottom line is, I would open an account with Dukascopy long before I would open one with Interbank FX, NFA regulated or not.
Personally I think the reason people want to see a firm is regulated before they invest with them is because they are to lazy to look into a firm themselves and see if they are solid. It's just another example of people relying on the government (or in the case of the NFA a private organization) to do their thinking and decision making for them. So in the end in this case as is often the case in similar circumstances the government and/or self serving regulatory body lets the people it is supposed to protect down and lets the crooks continue to operate, as long as they pay their dues and fines from time to time.