Go To Directory
$25,000 is our preferred starting balance. If you'd like to start with less, $10,000 is our starting minimum. You can download and print your paperwork (PDF) for the type of account you want: Individual/Joint . Trust . Corporate . Partnership . LLC . Pension
Or if you prefer, you can get your new account now on-line at www.visionfinancialmarkets.com Click the Open an Account tab located at the upper right of the page. Your Introducing Broker is usafutures.
If you'd like to ask some questions, you can call toll-free (877) 343-9750
If your computer doesn't yet have it, download the free Adobe Reader which you can use to read and print documents (PDF). Remember what folder/directory you save to so you can find it and then double-click/install Reader.
After your account is opened and we've given you your new account number, you may wire funds to:
Harris Trust N.A.
111 West Monroe
Chicago, IL 60603 USA
ABA number: 071 000 288
For: Vision Financial Markets LLC
Customer Segregated Funds Account: 438-240-4
Further credit to the account of: (Vision account name and your Vision account number)Swift Code is: HATRUS44
Or you can send your deposits made out to: Vision Financial Markets LLC
Vision Financial Markets LLC
One Whitehall Street, #1500
New York, NY 10004 USA
Comforting Reasons To Maintain Funds With VisionVision Financial Markets LLC ("Vision") is a clearing member of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) and the Chicago Board of Trade ("CBOT"), collectively known since their merger as the CME Group. The CME Group states in their financial safeguard brochure, "the CME clearing financial safeguard system provides unparalleled safeguards for the protection and benefits of all participants in markets cleared by CME clearing." In the 161 year history of CME and its predecessor organization, there has never been a failure of a clearing member resulting in a loss of customer funds. Equally important, now that Vision is a joint clearing member of the CME and CBOT, Vision enjoys clearing status at all of the following:
1. CME Clearing - this is the world's largest derivatives clearing organization.
2. The Options Clearing Corporation - "OCC" is the largest clearing organization in the world for options and was the first clearing house to receive an "AAA" credit rating from Standard & Poor's Corporation.
3. Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation - "DTCC" provides custody and asset servicing for 3.5 million securities issues from the United States and 110 other countries and territories, valued at $40 trillion.
Vision has grown to a new record of approximately $450 million in customer margin deposits in our futures business.
Our total capital, including our unused bank lines, totals over $50 million
Our futures trading volume is strong and Vision's capital remains invested in only U.S. Treasuries or Agencies, "AAA" rated institutional money market funds, and AA rated (or higher) short term corporate debt. We have never invested in mortgage backed securities of any kind, have never engaged in any risky proprietary trading or ever leveraged our balance sheet. Our income is derived from commissions, fees and interest income and we continue to remain in a profitable position.
Our banking relationships, which are primarily with US Bank and Bank of Montreal/Harris Bank, remain in good standing. In fact, on Vision's new securities clearing initiative, US Bank just recently increased our secured line of credit for margin financing from $10 million to $30 million. However, we continue to have this line remain unused.
Vision's success over the past approximately twenty years has come from focusing on providing our valued clients innovative, quality products and services, without engaging in risky proprietary trading, mortgage backed securities of any kind, or for that matter investing in anything that is not directly related to the growth of our business. We have no surprises, leverage or anything to hide in our balance sheet and financial statement. Our clients can take comfort we remain committed to the conservative business practices which have enabled our growth and resulting success.
Vision is a diversified group of affiliated companies that offer commodities brokerage and clearing services, securities brokerage and clearing, asset management, Commodity Trading Advisor selection and private investment funds. Vision Financial Markets is a registered broker/dealer and Futures Commission Merchant, member CME, CBOT, NFA, FINRA, SIPC and CBOE.
Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Facts and figures provided above current as of July 2008.
Vision Financial Markets LLC. July 2008.
Reprinted with permission from National Futures Association
Copyright 2002, National Futures Association
The Story Behind the Financial Integrity of the U.S. Futures MarketsTrading volume in futures contracts and options on futures on U.S. markets has risen to more than 500 million contracts annually. And the dollar value of futures contracts traded currently exceeds severalfold the dollar value of common stocks traded on all U.S. stock exchanges.
A requisite for this growth has been the financial integrity of futures markets. While trading in futures contracts obviously involves risks related to price changes, market participants have historically had little reason to be concerned about the security of their funds. Customer losses due to the insolvency of a futures brokerage firm have been virtually non-existent. Indeed, such losses have totaled less over 50 years than the Securities Investor Protection Corporation has paid, on the average, to reimburse customers of the securities industry for member firm insolvency losses each year.
For anyone considering participation in the nation's futures markets, the reasons behind this continuing and impressive record of financial soundness are worth knowing about.
Daily Cash Settlement
As futures prices move upward and downward, the market value of customers' open positions increases and decreases. Resulting gains and losses from futures trading are credited or charged to each customer's account each day following the close of trading. Subject to existing margin requirements, all gains deposited to a customer's account through this procedure become immediately available to the customer.Margin Requirements
Buyers and sellers of futures contracts are required to at all times maintain sufficient funds on deposit in their brokerage accounts to cover losses that might be incurred as a result of price changes. Margin deposits provide protection for all market participants. In volatile markets, the exchanges increase margin requirements accordingly. The availability of such funds is what makes daily cash settlements possible under all market conditions.The Exchange Clearing Houses
Once each purchase of a futures contract is precisely matched to the corresponding sale (a process which occurs each day), the clearing organization of the exchange where the contracts are traded becomes the "buyer to every seller and the seller to every buyer." The purpose: provide a mechanism that assures the payment of all gains and collection of all losses on a daily basis.Capital Requirements
Every firm that conducts business with the public as a Futures Commission Merchant must have and maintain sufficient capital to meet its financial obligations to its customers. These requirements are subject to continuous audit and stringent enforcement. Regulatory agencies have the authority to determine compliance on a daily basis and in volatile markets clearing organization can demand that a firm provide additional capital on one hour's notice!Segregated Accounts
Firms and principals of firms in the futures industry are required to maintain their customers' funds and margin deposits in bank accounts which are totally separate from their own. Rules further stipulate that such funds can be used only for the purposes the customers intended and can at no time be commingled with the firm's funds or the funds of the firm's principals. Compliance is strictly enforced and regulators possess power to take such immediate action as is considered necessary to protect the security of customers' money.Transfer of Market Positions
Should a firm be determined to be in a financial situation that could potentially jeopardize the safety of its customers' funds, it can be directed to immediately cease operations and transfer all open customer positions in the market to a firm which is financially sound. This is to ensure that adequately margined positions with a troubled firm will not be liquidated at a time when the customer may not wish for them to be liquidated.Regulation
Regulation of the U.S. futures industry is primarily self-regulation, with the role of the federal Commodity Futures Trading Commission being principally an oversight role (to determine that self-regulation is continuous and effective). Of the total expenditures on futures regulation, more than three-fifths of the cost is presently being paid by the exchanges where futures contracts are traded and by National Futures Association (NFA), the industry wide self-regulatory organization authorized by Congress and established in 1982. The purpose of self-regulation is to assure that those who conduct futures trading business with the public do so in a professional, ethical and honest manner.NFA's responsibilities include screening, testing and registering persons applying to conduct business in the futures industry. NFA and the exchanges have responsibility for auditing and enforcing compliance with industry rules. These rules encompass financial requirements, segregation of customers' funds, accounting procedures, sales activities and, in the case of the exchanges, floor trading practices.
Although there is no guarantee against customer losses due to the insolvency of a futures brokerage firm, the above mechanisms are designed to ensure the financial integrity of this nation's futures markets, and have in fact minimized the risk of customer losses.
National Futures Association
200 West Madison Street
Chicago, Illinois 60606-3447
Commodity Futures Options Trading
5 Centerpointe Drive
Lake Oswego, OR 97035www.usafutures.com
The risk of loss exists in futures and options trading.
Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.
Member National Futures Association
CFTC RegisteredDirectory Contract Specifications Managed Futures Open An Account Send Message
Disclaimer Commodity Futures Options Trading
