Warning: beware of Florida commodity firms and clearinghouses
I was interested in commodity options and had signed up for some web-based futures/commodities courses on a couple of different websites. Before letting me have the material, the sites had me register and give infomration like my name, address, phone number, etc. It seemed legit, so I went ahead and gave the requested info.
Not long after that, I started receiving quite a few calls from commodity firms, especially in Florida, asking me if I was ready to invest in some options. I blew most of them off and said I was not yet ready. One of those guys, Tony Bobba, asked if he could call back in the future to see if I was ready then.
He sounded like a decent guy so I told him ok. Sure enough, in a couple of months he called me back. At this time (March) he was with United Investors Group in Boca Raton. He gave me the speech about buying Unleaded Gas options, and asked if I wanted to take the plunge into the market due to the impending market conditions. I finally said yes, and wired $5000 to open the account and purchase 5 unleaded gas contracts.
I also filled out a customer information sheet that stated my income and assets (very important point later in the story). I told him I did not feel comfortable to invest any more than that. Tony assured me that they wanted to recruit long-term happy customers, and he seemed sincere about that.
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