Safety of Funds
We would like to take this opportunity to address questions TradeStation has received from our customers since the bankruptcy filing by MF Global.The safety of your funds is very important to us. You can be assured that TradeStation has no exposure to MF Global and that TradeStation does not engage in any proprietary trading.
TradeStation's parent company, Monex Group, Inc., is among Japan's leading financial services companies. Both Monex Group and Monex Securities, its main subsidiary, are subject to stringent oversight by Japanese regulatory authorities. Although TradeStation is no longer a public company, we are subject to stringent U.S. industry regulations and account-protection requirements and have continuous reporting requirements that are subject to regulatory review and regular audits by KPMG. These regulatory requirements include reserve and segregation requirements for your equities and futures accounts, as well as reserve requirements for your forex accounts.
TradeStation has a 30-year track record of growth and success since the company's founding as Omega Research, Inc., in 1982. We have nearly $2.6 billion in total client assets under management, our balance sheet is very strong, we have no material debt and we do not engage in proprietary trading. We also observe rigorous risk-management practices related to trading on margin.
Following are our ways of protecting your funds within the TradeStation family:
Securities accounts - Held at TradeStation Securities, Inc.
Brokerage firms are required to follow certain rules that are designed to minimize the chances of financial failure and, more importantly, to protect customer assets if they do fail. For example, the SEC's Rule 15c3-1 — the "Net Capital Rule"— requires brokerage firms lo maintain certain levels of their own liquid assets. The minimum net capital a firm must have on hand depends on its size and business. As of December 31, 2011, TradeStation Securities, Inc. had net capital of approximately $54.7 million, which was approximately $52.2 million in excess of its required net capital of approximately $2.5 million.
In addition, the SEC's Rule 15c3-3 — the "Customer Protection Rule" — requires brokerage firms that have custody of customer assets to keep those assets separate from their own accounts. In other words, customers' cash must be placed in a special, separate "reserve" account; and fully paid customer securities must be kept separate from firm and customer margin securities. As of December 31, 2011, TradeStation Securities, Inc. had approximately $1.02 billion of customer funds reserved and segregated in bank accounts clearly identified as customer funds in accordance with Rule 15c3-3. The amount required to be segregated is computed every week and any shortage needs to be deposited before 10:00 a.m. of the following business day. As an additional safety, TradeStation maintains approximately $10 million in excess of the required amount to be segregated from its own proprietary funds.
Your TradeStation equities accounts are further protected with SIPC insurance. SIPC insures your equities accounts up to $500,000, including $250,000 for cash. Beyond this, TradeStation has arranged for additional protection through Lloyd's of London, insuring all accounts up to an aggregate limit of $300 million. For more information on SIPC coverage, we encourage you to visit the SIPC website.
Futures accounts - Held at TradeStation Securities, Inc.
TradeStation Securities Inc., as a Futures Commission Merchant (FCM) that carries customer accounts, is subject to the Customer Protection Rule requirements of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Rules 1.20 and 30.7. These rules state that the company is required to maintain enough cash and cash equivalents in special reserve accounts, and identified as such, to cover at all times the required segregation reserve amounts. The reserve requirement must be calculated daily and filed electronically through the National Futures Association's (NFA) web based WinJammer system. Additionally, the company must also properly segregate these funds from any other proprietary bank account of the company. As of December 31,2011 TradeStation had $451.3 million segregated in accordance with the above CFTC requirements.
Forex accounts - Held at IBFX, Inc.
TradeStation Forex operates as a division of IBFX, Inc. IBFX, Inc. is a member of NFA and registered with CFTC as a Retail Forex Exchange Dealer (RFED). Accordingly, it is subject to CFTC Rule 5.8 that requires all RFED's to maintain at all times assets solely permissible under CFTC Rule 1.25 equal to or in excess of the total retail forex obligation at one or more qualifying institutions in the United States or money center countries. Even though Rule 1.25 permits various permissible investments, IBFX, Inc. only invests customer funds in U.S. Treasuries and maintains excess liquid funds available to satisfy all forex customer obligations within United States banks. As part of the NFA's continuous surveillance, IBFX prepares a daily calculation of the excess amounts held to cover customer obligations, and files them daily through NFA's based WinJammer system.
As always, we appreciate your business and stand ready to answer any additional questions you may have regarding your accounts with TradeStation.
Very truly yours,
| William P. Cahill President and COO TradeStation Securities, Inc. |
Gary Weiss President and COO IBFX, Inc. |