Hi Schnook,

I use US-brokers but in my opinion whselfinvest.de and sino.de should be good European brokers

I opened my first futures account with IB about 10 years ago. I know them well, but have had a few problems over the years and am now looking for a new broker. Currently living in Germany so a broker with a solid presence in the EU would be my preference.

Any and all recommendations are appreciated.

I'm a US citizen and have my stock and retirement accounts with Schwab, and I've been reasonably happy with them, but they're not a dedicated futures broker and probably not the best fit. Moreover they've recently added some annoying restrictions for international clients - even US citizens living abroad. Probably a jurisdictional compliance issue...

I have a small account with AMP but have been reluctant to make them my primary futures broker because I'm not very comfortable with their financial strength or their support infrastructure.

Meanwhile my dispute with IB remains unresolved and they have shown themselves to be both unresponsive and unreasonable. They're a large, publicly traded company with a huge legal department that's concerned only with covering their own ass when they screw up. They owe me money, but even after acknowledging their mistake they still refuse to make me whole. So naturally I don't want to give them any more of my business.

Meanwhile, I filled out an inquiry on Optimus futures website and never received a response from them either. It's all very disappointing...

In Europe, the first broker I would contact would be Saxo Bank. A customer of Saxo Bank, who is futures and options trader, told me that in general he is quite happy there. Disadvantages: They charge 0.12 - 0.18 % (depending on the size of the account) of the account value for the account, 0.5 - 1 % for conversion of currenices, negative interest rates for cash, and very high interest rates in case you have negative cash. And they do not use span margin. For spreads, margin is the same as for two individual contracts. They intend to change this, but it is the rule as of today.

But please check this information in case you are interested. I myself do not have experience with Saxo Bank.

Best regards, Myrrdin

Thanks, but that actually sounds terrible Way too many fees and expenses. Especially since I regularly shift cash from $USD to EUR due to my personal circumstances.

One of the things I've noticed since moving here is that the financial services industry isn't nearly as robust for retail investors in Germany as it is in the United States. Part of the problem is that only 15% of German households own stocks (compared to more than 50% of households in America), and more than half of all German stocks are owned by non-residents! That's pretty remarkable for the world's fourth largest economy!

So from what I've seen so far, most of the domestic options available to retail investors here are either expensive (high fees and commissions) or offer a lot less than their American counterparts. So at this point I'm most likely going to stick with US based brokers.

...I am also looking for a broker, as Interactive Brokers will move all accounts of EU citizens into the EU. With this step, disadvantages regarding account security seem to be planned.

Can you explain more deeply this assumption? Would all their EU accounts will be now hosted in Zug Switzerland instead of Connecticut or Chicago (when asked for it)?