Ok, here is my view on this. I would think I am by most measures probably a very big trader in cfd's.
Luckily I only got caught with some 30k in free equity with Etrade as i have been getting increasingly worried about Europe. You note I say Etrade. Etrade are the ones that interposed MF and have made significant amounts of money on CFD trading. They are a party to this whether they want to admit it or not. I put money into Etrade not MF global. I would like to see anywhere on the ANZ Etrade site it says when i do transfer that it is MF globals funds. It shows as my equity and ANZ shows it as that. They at least have duty of care.
As has been pointed out here they are trying to distance themselves from this but they are in fact intertwined and ASIC will almost certianly see it that way.
Instead of being forthcoming and puting out reasonable advice to their clients the ETRADE CEO sees fit to pump out garbage laying off any responsibility for either the management of the funds of their interposed party from which they earn funds. Nothing statements that say nothing.
This will almost certianly end up in another class action against the banks unless they set about providing real information about the status of the funds and intentions. While I appreciate that there will be time taken to establish the exact balances owing to the clients the minimalist information and seeming lack of concern demonstrated by Etrade is doing untold damage to ANZ and ANZ Etrade. From what I understand Comsec are going to stand behind the accounts. It will be very interesting to see how ANZ are then going to lay off thier responsibility in this.
Having done a little research over the last few days on CFD providers, the only one that appears to protect the equity (or at least they say they do) is IG. I am still trying to confirm how they in fact do this.
While this is not a major hiccup for me as I have lost more in single transactions and I accept that risk. I don't accept the behaviour of ETRADE or the loss of free equity.
I hope this works out OK for those that this a major hiccup.
The upside in all this is that almost certianly ASIC will insist on protections for funds not involved in the direct transaction and that can only be a good thing. A shake up is coming in all CFD providers behaviour I would think.
