Avoid investment brokers not under U.S. agency oversight
A person named Ben Masters called me a few times in 2025, saying that his firm committed to buying a number of gold futures contracts and they were looking for new customers to sell those contract to. He said you could never lose much with his firm because they put a 25% stop loss on every position bought. With gold going up, the futures contracts were already selling for a 25% premium over what Stonehedge agreed to pay for them. Stonehedge was willing to sell them to me at their cost, so already I would be in a profitable situation. I finally agreed to buy $10,000 worth of those contracts in September, 2025. Gold kept going up. Because I would not send in more than the $10,000, Mr. Masters said he was turning my account over to another broker, "me not being worth his trouble" (his words). That person was Mr. Keller. The contracts soon became worth about $115,000 when my position was sold around Oct 22, 2025. But I noticed my account was only being credited for about $70,000, 40% less than their market value on the date sold. I kept asking Stonehedge about this disparity but the best answer I could get is that I had a bad broker assigned to my account. Meanwhile, my $70,000 in equity was rolled into another gold position which became worth over $500,000 on paper, as gold continued its once in a generation rise. That position was sold in Jan 2026 which according to Barcharts (an independent market quotation website), says it was worth over $500,000. Stonehedge only credited my account for $35,000. Since January, they would not explain this. Further, they would not even allow me to receive the remaining $35,000 unless I sent them more money to trade with first. Mr Maters who again took over my account, said they couldn't make a distribution unless I still had an active position in the futures market, and could not make any purchases with my $35,000 of equity unless I sent in $10,000 or $15,000 more. In conclusion, I have found Stonehedge to be a pack of liars and thieves that I wasted a once in a life time hunch that gold was on a historical rise. That hunch was waisted by dealing with what I believe to be a criminal organization. Only trade with brokers under the oversight to the Chicago Board of Trade or Finra.