Responsibilities and Acknowledgements of the customer when conducting business through Ira Epstein & Company (IECo)
- The customer, not the broker, is fully responsible for knowing and using proper procedures and terminology in the placement, modification and cancellation of orders as specified in this manual.
- The customer, not the broker, is fully responsible for knowing all open positions, prices and all pending unfilled or day orders.
- The customer, not the broker, is fully responsible to keep himself apprised of current margin requirements as they may be from time to time modified in the sole discretion of the broker or market maker.
- The broker has the authority, in its sole and absolute discretion to liquidate any open position, without prior notification to the customer.
- The customer is required to deposit and always maintain in his account sufficient funds to with any and all margin requirements from time to time established by the broker, in its sole and absolute discretion, and to comply with all applicable exchange or legally imposed margin requirement.
- The broker shall not be responsible for the failure of an independent data processing or service bureau to accurately perform any record keeping, pricing or related functions.
- The broker shall not be responsible for any loss or damage caused directly or indirectly from any delays or inaccuracies in the transmission of orders or other information by or through any transmission or communication facilities.
- IECo and its clearing firm shall only be liable for actions or inactions by them which amount to gross negligence.
Thank You!
Thank you for choosing IECo as your futures broker. Our order takers, online trading software and other specialists in our company eagerly await the chance to serve you. We believe you'll find we provide you with fast, efficient order fills and the up-to-the-minute market information you need to make informed trading decisions.
Part of the secret of trading effectively is understanding the form and language of trading. This simplified manual is designed to get the basic factsand terms about trading across quickly to the busy trader. We hope this manual will serve as a handy reference and that this will be the beginning of a long and successful association for both of us.
You will be given your account number and Commodity-Fone materials for quotes, trade desk accessibility and access to online trading platforms. Quotes are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Night and Day session orders can be placed orally or via our online traing platforms practically 24-hours a day, beginning on Sunday Evenings at 5:00 P.M. CST until 4:00 P.M. the following Friday Afternoon. Check with us for Holiday Hours.
HOW TO DETERMINE YOUR ACCOUNT NUMBER
When you open your account with IECo, we will assign an eight digit account number like this one: 123-45678. When calling in to speak with our staff, please include your name and account number whenever you make a transaction or inquiry. This will make the trading process faster, easier and more accurate.
HOW TO ORALLY PLACE AN ORDER
Place orders in the following sequence and STATE the following:
- State your Name and Account Number.
- State, I have a "FUTURES" order or I have an "OPTIONS" order;
- State the type of order: Market Order; Price Limit Order; Spread Orders, Stop Order or whatever type of order you wish placed;
- State whether your wish to BUY or SELL;
- State the Quantity;
- State the Trading Month;
- On Futures Orders, state the Futures Contract;
- On Futures Orders, state the PRICE at which you wish to BUY or SELL;
- On Options Orders, state the underlying Futures Contract, whether its' a PUT or a CALL, the STRIKE PRICE and the PREMIUM;
- On Option Orders, state whether you're OPENING or CLOSING a position: and
- State the Phone Number and how you wish to be contacted with your fill. Commodity-Fone, our telephone quote system will play a recording for you of fills we've received when you call into it.
- WE WILL REPEAT BACK THE ORDER TO YOU TO MAKE SURE IT'S CORRECT. PLEASE LISTEN CAREFULLY! IF WE REPEAT YOUR ORDER INCORRECTLY, IT IS YOUR REPSONSIBILITY TO CORRECT THE ORDER CLERK OR THE TRADE WILL BE YOURS.
ALL ORAL ORDERS WILL BE TAKEN AS DAY ORDERS, UNLESS YOU SPECIFIY AS GOOD UNTIL CANCELED (OPEN ORDERS).
DAY SESSION, EVENING SESSION AND GLOBEX SOTPS AND OTHER ORDERS:
Orders that mix different sessions do NOT automatically move from one type of session to another. There are specific order entry procedures that you must follow. Check with your order clerk concerning orders that are placed in days sessions that may not be taken, moved or executed in the evening or Globex sessions.
Electronic Order Entry has its own set of instructions, built into the order entry system. It is our customer's repsonsibility to read those instructions. Our staff stands ready to answer your questions on electronic order entry, Monday through Friday, 8:00 A.M until 4:00 P.M. CST.
Order Placement
OPEN ORDERS (GTC)
When you place an Open or Good Until Cancelled Order (GTC), it generally remains in effect in the specific trading session in which it was placed until filled or cancelled. There are, however, exceptions, depending on the contract market traded. Please, ask your order clerk for specifics. It is your responsibility to know what sessions your orders are working and may be executed.
Placing another order in the same futures contract does not automatically negate the previous one. You must direct us to cancel that order.
OVER THE PHONE ORDER PLACEMENT AND CONFIRMATIONS
You are invited to call your order to place fills, even if you primarily use our online electronic order entry system. We realize that no one is always in front of their computer and that our customers at times want or need to place their orders with our order desk personnel.
IECo created Commodity-Fone, our automated 24-hour telephone system to provide you 24-hours a day with Live Quotes, account status and to report fills. If we've received a fill confirmation, it normally will be a front end message, waiting for you when you call and login to Commodity-Fone. Commodity-Fone is also programmed to put you in contact with a live person at our trading desk, 24-hours a day when the markets are open. Should you have questions concerning a fill, be sure to call in. If you have a question not directly pertaining to a fill, please call us Monday through Friday, 8:00 A.M. through 4:00 P.M. CST.
Unless Ira Epstein & Company has received confirmation from the trading floor or an exchange of an executed order, statements by IECo order clerks regarding the status of the order can only be taken as guess work and cannot be relied upon for trading purposes. Any action you take without specific trade confirmation is taken solely at your risk.
VOICE MAIL ORDERS
Occasionally you may need to leave an order on the voice mail of your trade desk or personal broker. All orders left on voice mail are left on a NOT HELD basis. We will check items such as margin verification, order correctness along with many other items that could prevent order placement. Therefore it is imperative that you leave a phone number for our clerk to speak with you if there is a problem with placement of your order. It is your duty to check to be sure that we have received and reviewed your voicemail.
CONFIRMATION THROUGH THE MAIL
On the business day following the execution of an order, we will mail either by post or via e-mail, written confirmation to you containing the details of your transaction. The mailing method is dependent on you signing up or not for e-mailing of your account statements. Doing so is both wise and cost saving. Our typical account saves at least $2 per statement sent. These fees add up, so please be sure to go to the front page of our website and sign up for e-mailed account statements.
Please review your statements carefully. In the unlikely event of an error, please report any differences immediately. You will also receive an end of the month detailed statement. Your failure to immediately exercise your right to have errors corrected will be deemed your agreement that this statement is correct and ratified.
MARKET QUOTES
Market quotes are provided by the various exchanges through service vendors to subscribers.
IRA EPSTEIN & COMPANY DOES NOT ORIGINATE QUOTES. We only pass along quote information provided to us. Not all vendors report quotes from the various market sessions in the same way. Commodity-Fone provides a method for getting quotes from a specific trading session orally. IraCharts and IraTrade do so via the Internet.
Ira Epstein and Company does not guarantee the accuracy of quote information provided through Commodity-Fone or other sources.
The Exchanges
Commodity contracts are traded at "exchanges" or trading centers where contracts are exchanged between buyers and sellers. The major exchanges deal in specific types of contracts and commodities. Here are but eight examples, there are more;
- Chicago Board of Trade - Wheat, Corn, Soybeans, Soybean Meal, Soybean Oil, Little Silver, Oats, Rice, Kilo Gold, Treasury Bonds, Treasury Notes, Muni Bond Index.
- Chicago Mercantile Exchange/International Monetary Market- Live Cattle, Live Hogs, Lumber, Pork Bellies, Feeder Cattle, S&P 500 Index, S&P Mid-Cap 400 Index,Treasury Bills, Eurodollar, British Pound, Canadian Dollar, Deutsche Mark, Swiss Franc, Japanese Yen, Australian Dollar.
- New York Mercantile Exchange & Comex Division- Platinum, Palladium, Crude Oil, #2 Heating Oil, Unleaded Gasoline, Natural Gas, Gold, Silver, Copper.
- Coffee, Sugar and Cocoa Exchange- Coffee-C, Sugar (World) and Cocoa.
- New York Futures Exchange- NYSE Composite Index, CRB Index.
- New York Cotton Exchange- Cotton, Orange Juice, Dollar Index.
- Kansas City Board of Trade- Value Line Stock Index, KC Wheat, Mini Value Line Index.
- Minneapolis Grain Exchange- Minneapolis Wheat
Margin Calls
As you trade, the equity of your account may fall below the applicable minimum margin level. When this happens, and only if time permits, we will attempt to alert you to the margin call. This margin deficiency must be met immediately or we or our clearing firm have the right to liquidate, with or without prior notice, as many of your positions as are necessary to bring your account back to an acceptable margin level.
At Ira Epstein and Company, all accounts must be fully margined AT ALL TIMES. Any accounts not fully margined will be liquidated down to the necessary margin. It is your responsibility, to keep yourself informed of all current margin requirements as they may be modified from time to time.
Margin Requirements
Both the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the Chicago Board of Trade have implemented the "Standard Portfolio Analysis of Risk" (SPAN) margin system. Therefore, to comply with the exchange regulations,
Ira Epstein & Company will use the SPAN margin system as a factor, but not the sole one in determining required margins for its customers.
SPAN is a margin system that will measure the risk of the client's entire portfolio on a day to day basis and consequently, the margin requirements may fluctuate at any time during the day and from day to day. Therefore, it is the client's responsibility to keep himself apprised of current margin requirements as they may from time to time be modified in Epstein's sole discretion, and to be properly margined at all times. For further information on SPAN contact the Chicago Board of Trade or the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.
Bank Wiring Instructions
Required Information
The recently enacted Federal "Patriot Act" requires that all wires received by us contain specific information stating that the wire was sent by the same "name" as that on the trading account you maintain with us. This is an easy procedure. Simply tell your bank to include that name on the wire itself. Wires received by us without this information will be rejected by Shatkin Arbor,Inc., our clearing firm, in order to be in compliance with the Patriot Act.
"Wiring Instructions"
To wire transfer, call your bank and tell them:
That you wish to wire transfer funds to the:
Harris Trust and Savings
111 West Monroe Street
Chicago, Illinois 60603
ABA# 071-000-288
For credit to: Shatkin Arbor, Inc. Customer Segregated Funds Account
Account # 3095320
For final credit to:
Your Account Name and 5 digit Account # 266- ________ with
Ira Epstein & Company.
Trade Talk
When you orally place an order for a trade, it is necessary that you use the language of the market. You must state a specific type of order.
Your order can be a Day Order or an Open Order (GTC). A Day Order must be filled by the end of the day's trading or it automatically expires. An Open Order (GTC) remains in effect until it is filled or cancelled by you.
GTC stands for Good Til Cancelled. All orders are assumed to be Day Orders unless they are specified as open orders.
Types of Market Orders
Market Order
A "Market Order" does not take price into consideration. It is simply an order to immediately fill at the prevailing price.
Market on Open Only (MOO)
An "Open Only" order can be filled only at the price which is within the official opening range of prices as determined by the exchange. This order should be placed at least 15-minutes before the market opening.
Market on Close Only (MOC)
A "Close Only" order can be filled only at a price which is within the official closing range of prices as determined by the exchange. This order should be placed at least 15 minutes before the market close.
Disregard Tape Orders (DRT)
This type of order can only be placed orally by you, the trader. It cannot be electronically placed. This order give the floor broker the power to use his discretion in filling the order when he thinks he can get a better price.
Price Orders
Or Better
Adding an O.B. to your order means the floor broker will only fill the order if it is trading at the fixed price or better
Fill or Kill
This order instructs the floor broker to bid on a contract you want to buy or offer a contract you want to sell at a specified price several times and cancel it immediately if it cannot be filled at that price.
Combination Orders
Stop Orders
The vast majority of orders below have something to do with Stop Orders. Stop Orders should be thought of as "get me out" orders. They must be written with a price limit defining how high or low you are willing to allow prices to move before you want a market order to be triggerd to attemtp to to get you in or out of the market, at any prevailing price. Buy Stops are placed above the market and Sell Stops under the market. Under certain market conditions it is possible that your stop could be elected, but not filled because of prevailing market conditions. And yes, Stop Orders can be used to initiate new market positions.
Market If Touched (MIT)
By adding an MIT to your Price Order it becomes a Market Order if the price you choose is reached or "touched".
Stop Limit Orders
This is a stop order written with a price limit defining how high or low you are willing to go with your buying or selling price, once your stop has been elected. Under certain market conditions it is possible that your stop will be elected but the floor broker was unable to execute your order because of the limit price you placed on the order.
Sell Stop Close Only
This is a stop order which can be executed only during the closing seconds of the trading session. It means the broker can fill the order only if it is selling at a price below your Stop Order Price within the official closing range for that specific futures or options on futures contract. This is no universal way that the fully electronic markets handle these types of orders. It imperative for each market and each exchange that you check your online instruction guide or ask your IECo representitive about these types of orders, when attempting to place them.
Buy Stop Close Only
This is a stop order which can be executed only during the closing seconds of the trading session. It means the broker can fill the order only if it is selling at a price above your Stop Order Price within the official closing range for that specific futures conract or options on futures contract. This is no universal way that the fully electronic markets handle these types of orders. It imperative for each market and each exchange that you check your online instruction guide or ask your IECo representitive about these types of orders, when attempting to place them.
Spread Orders
A spread is an order to simultaneously buy and sell two different contract months of the same commodity(futures contract) or two different, but related commodities. This allows you to take advantage of the difference in prices, the spread in prices, from one month to the next of the same commodity.
T-Bill Policy
T-Bills- It is our Treasury Bill policy that failure on our customer's part to inform us about what to do as a a T-Bill approaches maturity will result in an automatic roll-over of the T-Bill for a 3-month period. To avoid this possible inconvenience, it is the customer's responsibility to instruct the IECo Margin Department at least even (7) days prior to the maturity date.
Furthermore, if the total equity in an account is a negative balance, the customer must wire or have a cashier's check presented to IECo within a 24-hour period, otherwise the T-Bill will be sold.
Account Maintenance Fee Policy
Ira Epstein & Company may charge an acount maintenance fee of $10 per month for each month that an account has an average net trading equity balance (including T-Bills) of less than $2500 and does not incurr trading commision charges of at leat $25.
This maintenance fee will be charged against the account after each month's end.
Given the lack of commission revenue on the part of customer's who are charged this fee, it is used to cover the costs of providing our customer with access to our website and all it provides, use of Commodity-Fone and provides the customer access to one of the versions of IraChart, our charting and order entry software.
Service Charges
| Effective March, 2007 |
| FedEx Fees and Handling Charge |
|
| FedEx Overnight Fee |
25.00 |
| FedEx 2-Day Delivery Fee |
20.00 |
| FedEx Saturday Delivery Fee |
35.00 |
| FedEx Overnight Fee to Canada |
45.00 |
| FedEx Overnight International Fee |
80.00 |
| Check and Wire Fees |
|
| Domestic Wire Fee |
40.00 |
| International Wire Fee |
55.00 |
| Stop Payment Fee on Checks ATC issues |
100.00 |
| Returned Check Fee |
125.00 |
| Mail in Deposit Fee to Harris Bank. (ATC and IECo does not want you to do this. If you do so, there will be a fee charge since it creates a lot of unnecessary research and work on to post the funds properly to your account.
|
30.00 |
| T-Bill Fees |
|
| Purchase and/or sale of T-Bills |
75.00 |
| Roll-Over of T-Bills |
75.00 |
| Selling Fee for T-Bills |
75.00 |
| Transfer Fees |
|
| Transfer of T-Bills to another firm |
75.00 |
| Transfer of Account to another firm |
100.00 |
| Mailing Fees...these fees can be completely eliminated by allowing ATC to e-mail your account statments to you. If you have not already done so, you can set this up by simply clicking here. Fill out the form and fax it back to us at the telephone number listed on the form. |
|
| Mailing of Statements in the USA |
$2.00 |
| Mailing of Statements outside of the USA |
$3.00 |
| Duplicate Statement sent by E-Mail |
NC |
| Duplicate Mailing of Statements in the USA |
$2.00 |
| Duplicate Mailing of Statements outside of the USA |
$3.00 |
| Taking or Making Delivery of Futures Contracts Fees |
|
| The cost of taking delivery, in addition to commission charges, storage charges and the like. |
225.00 |
| Night Desk Fee |
|
| Night Desk Charges...charged per order if the contract is filled in the evening session |
7.00 |
| Exchange for Physical Fee |
|
| EFP Charges - per side |
10.00 |
| Document Fee |
|
| Production cost for document retrieval |
10.00
2 Per Page |
| Maintenance Fee |
|
| A Maintenance Fee may be charged to customer accounts who maintain an average net trading equity balance, including T-Bills, of less than $2500 and do not incur trading commisison charges of at least $25 in a calendar month. All IECo services are avaiable to all customer accounts that are funded. There is a cost associated in maintaining and providing our services, which your commissions in part provide for. |
10.00 |
| Documentation Fee |
|
| Document Fee Reproduction...should you require us to reproduce a document for you, there is a small fee associated to each reproduced document. |
10.00 |
| Currency Conversion |
|
| Currency Conversion |
30.00 |
If you have any questions either contact your IECo representitive or call: 1-312-284-1007
Back to Table of Contents