My experience with CME

[Robbie Williams 12]

Hi everyone, thought I'd share my experience with the CME group, as I feel I need to share my experience so that others can make a informed decision in regards to opening an account.

I deposited $450 in my CME account to gain live data to use for 3 months in the sim, and after that I was going to fund my account. First of all, when you fund the account, please be aware that there is an approximately $15 bank fee which is charged by the bank in Trinidad Tobago before hitting your brokerage account.

I deposited the money into my account on the 28th of July. I was immediately charged $150 for July's data, and then a couple of days later $150 for August' data. I traded in the sim, and then at the end of August, I received an email saying my account has been suspended as it had fallen below the minimum balance. At this stage, due the fact that I had received generic responses to my email queries and the fact that in my situation, it was impossible to enter or exit a position once SSR  had been employed on any stock, I decided to withdraw my money. Taking out the $60 wire fee, I was left with about $135. I submitted the paperwork and was told the remainder of my money would hit my American bank account within 5 days and my account would be closed.

After 3 weeks, I decided to check the money had hit my account and lo and behold it hadn't. I send another email to CME as was sent another generic email saying, we received your request, and that the money would hit my account within 5 days. I replied and was then emailed saying that because I hadn't suspended my account (even though they sent me an email a few weeks earlier saying they had suspended it themselves) they had taken out another $150 worth of level 2 data, and my account balance was now below the minimum I couldn't withdraw the remaining money.

So all in all, I spend $450 to receive exactly 34 days of live level 2 data. In my situation, I would say that I received generic emails to every query I had, and only once I replied again would I receive a real response. I also found that it was impossible to enter or exit any position on any stock that went into SSR. (ie: if you were long on a position, and wanted to exit because the stock had gone into SSR, you couldn't. If you wanted to short a stock on SSR, you couldn't even on an uptick).

This was my experience - everyone's mileage may vary, however the key takeaway is please be careful if you do decide to deposit your hard earned money, either for a live or simulated account.

Cheers