Velocityfutures.com - any experience with them ?

[BSD]

They have a first class man here offering lightning speed support:

http://www.trade2win.com/boards/futures/44692-best-markets-daytrade.html#post857270

I have also only heard good things about them as far as stability, executions and competitive commissions go - lower than IB and they'll even help you lease / buy an exchange seat if you want.

Plus you can run them on a Mac, you can buy TBills as collateral for margin giving you security for 90% of your funds, etc.

But to balance a bit of due diligence out does anybody here have any experience with them, good or bad ?

Do they have speedy bank transfers or take ages to forward you your funds, that kind of thing.

I am in absolutely no manner connected with them in any way, just always on the lookout for a better platform for me to use with my Mac.

 

[PualoP]

I have had a very poor experience with them.

Had an absolute nightmare trying to fund my account. Deposited the money into their UK BoA account but it kept bouncing back. Did this about 3 times at a cost of £15.

Sent an email to their support team but no reply after a couple of weeks. Called them up (from the UK) and they said "use the details we've already given you?". So printed out the Velocity account details and went into my bank and actually sat down with a bloke to try and get it sorted. Had another attempt, another £15, bounced back again. So the guy called Natwest (handle all switch payments for BoA in UK) and they said the benificiary account number at BoA was invalid. Sent an email to Velocity, no reply, so called them up and they pretty much told me to "**** off, you think we're that stupid?"

In the end, opened an account with Mirus.

 

[BSD]

That sounds pretty bad !

Stuff like that is obviously absolutely not on.

Money in and out pretty rapidly is one of the things that simply must work.

Will see if we can get a response here from Dale to see if they've got that part to work smoothly by now, looks like he is offline now tho.

 

[Yuppie]

This is quite funny BSD. I saw the post you linked to above and saw the symbol of dbox's avatar. I was curious and went searching around the internet to try and find which broker he was. Gave up after a while. Which is good, 'cos it would have been time wasted. He's my broker!...

Anyway, been with them 2 weeks now.

I had a slight problem with sending my funds. But this was [almost] purely my own ignorance. They give 3 different account to send money to whether you are sending USD, GBP or EUR. Send the wrong currency to the wrong bank and it will be returned. Anyway, did it properly the second time and my money was in very rapidly.

I have made a number of trades using the X_Trader platform. Most impressed.

The daily account statements are thorough.

The online live help chat is very good. Answered every question I threw at them (poor girls).

Overall, I am most satisfied so far.


Magnus

 

[One Eyed Shark]

Was with Velocity until end 2007 and could only have good things to say about them.

However..... at that time they had all of their segregrated funds invested ( and I think this is correct but stand to be corrected ) with Sentinel who went to the wall, it transpired that segregated funds were being traded, had a few sleepless nights when it looked like the money was gone.

Apparently Velocity were able to recover approx 90% of deposits, but was a close thing, the guys on the end of the phone the day it happened could not say I would get my money back and all wires out were suspended.

To Velocity's credit 48hrs later they came out and said they would guarantee any wire's out and any requested would be sent FOC, and the money landed back the same day.

There was a lot of comment across on Elitetrader, but with Velocity being a main sponsor there, guess what,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, 7 days later it had all disappeared.

Don't know if this helps, but searching out any broker essential to know how well capitalised they are via NFA website

 

[dbox]

BSD,
Fund requests are made via your customer portal…no need to pick up the telephone or fill out any paperwork. Assuming the request was made in time (before 2pm CST) funds are released the same day. Customers not wanting immediate funds have the option to request a check. Regarding due diligence… in 6 short years Velocity Futures made the Futures Magazine top 50 brokers list -

Velocity Futures Breaks Into Top 50 Brokers List in 2008 | Reuters

Granted we were #50, but considering the number of firms available today making that list speaks volume. We offer a full featured customer portal, fast online account opening, multiple support methods, several platforms, back up servers, 24hr trade desk, and state of the art call center software that alerts any broker of your position along with full account detail before we even pick up the phone. If your PC crashes and you want out of a position or any orders cancelled, it's instantly done.

PualoP,
I sincerely apologize for your banking issues but please understand we receive EC and BP wires daily using our posted funding instructions. I surely hope no one here told you to **** off.

One Eyed Shark,
Not to beat a dead horse but at no time were wires placed on hold. We made sure everyone with a funds request received their wires immediately at no charge. If a VF representative misinformed you I’d like to apologize to you as well.

If anyone has any additional questions I’d be more than happy to answer them.

Best regards,

 

[BSD]

Looks very good so far, many thanks for the feedback, great to see some long time members here posting about them.

One eyed shark, if I buy TBills as collateral for margin which velocity accept instead of just funding an account, doesn't that mean 90% of my funds are safe in case of an insolvency or whatever ? That's what I thought ?

(And a financial insititution going belly up can of course always occur, see Refco, so making sure your funds are guaranteed to be safe with a broker is absolutely priority Nr. 1)

Dale, like I said in the PM, if my understanding of TBills for collateral for margin is correct, and if I get along with your platform after I demo you, I will be forwarding you funds.

 

[dbox]

BSD,

You're very much correct on the TBILLS and margining.

Best regards,

 

[BSD]

BSD,

You're very much correct on the TBILLS and margining.

Best regards,

OK Dale, thanks for clarifying that, that absolutely sounds excellent and very reassuring.

Thanks for all your great support and prompt responses here and have a super weekend.

Will definitely move forward on this.

Best regards,

Markus

 

[dbox]

BSD,

You're most welcome...you too.

Best regards,

 

[FulcrumTrader]

I always had great dealings with Mark when he was with Velocity back several years ago.....The company always had excellent customer service imo and I had zero complaints.

If they had Ninjatrader with Zenfire feed I would definitely consider their group for my trading!

 

[BSD]

Well unfortunately not looking good so far Dale !

Your guys have been extremely helpful and offered great service - I worked with Dandee on trying to get QST up and running - but it simply hasn't worked to date.

After Dandee tried his best and always extremely promplty must add he then gave me a contact at QST direct - again a very helpful guy called Dorin -, but despite trying hard for 2 nights now we just can't get QST to run on my Mac !!!

Problem is I get it downloaded, get the icons and everything, but just when the box starts installing it disapears, leaving me with just a shell, the icon is there, but nowhere to start the platform, nowhere to input my username and password Dandee gave me.

As an alternative to the regular download which isn't working for me Dandee gave me these ideas:

Markus,



When they emailed you the username and password, it has a link at the end…

Velocity QST



that should test your computer compatibility, then a link at the bottom that will launch the QST login page.



If you still cannot get to that launch part, let me know and I will contact QST directly.

I do the test, and my Mac is compatible.

But after that same procedure as described above.

Next idea now from QST directly:

Markus,
I'm assuming you're familiar with using the Finder utility on your Mac.
Use this link : Mac OS X keyboard shortcuts for a quick overview of the MAC OS keyboard shortcuts.
Among these, you'll find Shift-Command-H , which is listed to "Open the Home folder of the currently logged-in user account"
Please try this keyboard combination and once your home folder opens up you should be able to locate the a folder called
either "VEL" or "Velocity" inside it.
Yes - I did speak with the Velocity Futures representative myself, but he wasn't very clear on the fact that you were
using the Velocity private label of the QST software, that's why in those instructions you were guided to look for a
folder called "QST". Since your starting poitn was Velocity QST, this confirms
the fact that you're using the Velocity private label of QST, not the generic QST, therefore you're not looking for a "QST"
folder inside your home folder, but rather one called "VEL" or "Velocity".

Once you locate the "run.sh" file within this folder, you need to right-click on it, then select "Open With",
you'll see a list of options + the last option should be "Other", select that, then on this screen you will see
a section called 'Enabled applications' - somewhere towards the middle of the box , which is probably set
by default to 'Recommended Applications', you will need to change that to "All Applications", and then navigate
to Utilities and then select Terminal in the pane above. There is also a checkbox on this screen to make this
"Open with" selection remembered for subsequent runs.

Once you do this and hit Apply/OK you should finally get to a dialog box which prompts you to input your username
and password (that you've received from Velocity) and then log in.

I hope this works,


Didn't work.

Last idea so far:

Markus,
I'm not sure if this is the best recommendation, but here goes :
1. Restart the computer
2. In Finder - go to Applications->Utilities->Terminal, launch that
3. At the command prompt, type in javaws -uninstall , hit Enter
This should take care of removing anything that was already copied on your system
(I suspect an incomplete installation)
4. Go back to your browser and clear your Temporary Internet Files (Internet file cache)
5. Go to the link again : Velocity QST and try installing
a fresh instance.

Let me know if this works.


Didn't work either...

My response yesterday:

Fraid it didn't work again.

You know when you download you get that pop-up box ?

Mine always disapears at the same stage, where it says starting installer.

Just goes away after that and nothing more happens.

When I rightclick on the QST icon I get the same grey boxes I described earlier, but still no run.sh option...

OK then I tried sthg else.

When you're still in the process of downloading you get this "downloads" window opening, with the blue and white stripes.

There I get this cup icon that says qst.jnlp.

OK.

Right clicked that which brought me to the finder menu you described earlier, telling me to:

"Once you locate the "run.sh" file within this folder, you need to right-click on it, then select "Open With",
you'll see a list of options + the last option should be "Other", select that, then on this screen you will see
a section called 'Enabled applications' - somewhere towards the middle of the box , which is probably set
by default to 'Recommended Applications', you will need to change that to "All Applications", and then navigate
to Utilities and then select Terminal in the pane above. There is also a checkbox on this screen to make this
"Open with" selection remembered for subsequent runs."

OK. Did that too.

But that brought me to this terminal pane opening - the same one where I entered your " javaws -uninstall , " command earlier, but it didn't start the platform.


Haven't heard from the poor guy since.

So what do we do now ?

Any ideas Dale ?

Thanks

 

[dbox]

Markus,

Give me a call when you're able and we will call QST together.

Best regards,


Dale