Are there compliance issues triggered, when taking multiple equal cash withdrawls from your FCM account over a very short period of time? Will an alert be triggered, to close the account? Thanks
Which FCM are you trading with? If anything, the compliance department will be notified, and may reach out to you. It's unlikely that they would just close out your account without talking to you first.
I agree. There are certain actions which will require them to file a suspicious activity report under Bank Secrecy Act currency transaction report rules, something like that will likely trigger such a report. It's your money and you can do whatever you want with it, but to avoid a completely avoidable hassle it's probably worth contacting them in advance and letting them know what you're doing. It's still up to them to decide if it's "suspicious", there's no real definition of that, but it's certainly less likely to trigger that if they know what you're doing. Also keep in mind that they have to report suspected structuring, which would be multiple transactions below $10,000 which are designed to evade the required report they have to file for more than $10,000 in cash withdraws. This is actually the most dangerous thing to do, because the law on that is poorly written and you can be prosecuted for structuring even in the absence of actually breaking any other law, plus they can confiscate the money without much due process. They're also going to report the over $10,000 withdrawals but absent some other crime there's nothing you can be charged with for that.
Yes, in certain instances this could trigger compliance. For example, if you deposited funds and immediately seeking a withdrawal. Another instance is when you deposit funds but at the same times you never trade and make periodic withdrawals. However, if you trade and have gains, it would be rare (as far as I have seen) that compliance would present you from taking it out. In most cases, they (FCMs) follow guidelines so you just need to provide them with an explanation if asked.
Can you even withdraw cash from a FCM ? Which brokers allow that ? i never noticed that option from Ib, did i miss it ?
For US accounts with a US based bank, most FCMs allow you to set up ACH to fund and remove cash from your bank account.
Thanks Rmorse, I'd seen the ACH option for US accounts but didn't know how this works. If it's attached to a bank account it's not really a cash withdrawal from the broker though, I wondered wether that existed
No FCM will hand you "cash". Your choices for removing funds from your account are Wire, ACH and ACAT. ACH is an agreement with your bank to move money back and forth. In fact, your FCM can withdraw funds from your bank without you contacting your bank after it is filed. I have no idea what frequency the FCM or bank will allow. It should not be used on a daily basis, as no FCM will want to do this as a service for you like that.