I suppose the prudent thing to do would be to choose a broker very carefully, or even choose two, each in a different jurisdiction, and trade on different markets from each.

For instance, you could use a European or broker to trade the US markets on the Glonex and an Asian broker to trade the European markets on European exchanges.

But I’m really not very concerned. This seems to just be a unique SNAFU as a result of mishandled funds at MF Global. I’m not seeing enough evidence that the entire system is broken.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/entire-system-has-been-utterly-destroyed-mf-global-collapse-presenting-first-mf-global-casualty

I hope the link works. In case it doesn’t, the author operated a brokerage, but after the MF Global situation he decided to shut down his operation. He states, “The futures and options markets are no longer viable. It is my recommendation that ALL customers withdraw from all of the markets as soon as possible so that they have the best chance of protecting themselves and their equity.”

He believes that the MF Global collapse revealed a systemic problem. He writes, “Whenever a firm failure happened, the customer funds were intact and the exchanges would step in to backstop everything and keep customers 100% liquid – even as their clearing firm collapsed and was quickly replaced by another firm within the system. Everything changed just a few short weeks ago.” He makes the point that the exchanges did not step in this time.

He spells out what seems to be a change in how such collapses are being handled. This change is apparently unprecedented. I wonder if you might have any thoughts about this.

I know the “Prechter Point” awaits us, but this sounds like a giant step in that direction.