Hopefully people reading this post now realize that records can be faked, financial reports can be misleading, etc. I think there are a couple of lessons here (at least that I have followed since MFG):
1. Have multiple accounts through different clearing firms.
2. Put as little as possible in each acct - tell yourself you'll be OK if any one account suddenly vaporizes.
3. You could also wire money in and out every day/week/month, to not leave extra idle funds sitting around in a futures brokerage.
4. Don't trade futures. Not an option for many of us, but it is something to consider.
1. Have multiple accounts through different clearing firms.
2. Put as little as possible in each acct - tell yourself you'll be OK if any one account suddenly vaporizes.
3. You could also wire money in and out every day/week/month, to not leave extra idle funds sitting around in a futures brokerage.
4. Don't trade futures. Not an option for many of us, but it is something to consider.
The net effect of doing this will still leave you open to an industry collapse, which I guess could happen. It also will effectively deleverage you (not necessarily a bad thing), since you won't be using margin optimally.
I'm guessing this debacle will lead to SIPC style insurance for futures accounts. A year ago I would have thought that idea was crazy. But after MFG and now PFG, it makes total sense.
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