Guaranteed and Independent Introducing Brokers
Chapters in this video
- 0:00 Meet the introducing broker and the golden rule
- 1:55 Follow the money: the FCM holds the funds
- 3:09 Guaranteed IB: one FCM has your back, zero capital required
- 4:41 Independent IB: $45,000 capital and freedom to shop
- 6:27 Side-by-side exam showdown and memory aid
- 7:47 Rapid-fire recap and preview of customer fund segregation
What this video covers
- Why an Introducing Broker (IB) never holds customer funds, and how that single rule drives every regulatory distinction
- The three-player flow: how Carlos the customer, Ivan the IB, and Fiona the FCM interact in a futures transaction
- What a guaranteed IB is, and why the written guarantee agreement with a single guarantor FCM eliminates standalone net-capital and filing requirements
- Why a guaranteed IB is locked to exactly one FCM, with all customer accounts carried by that guarantor
- What an independent IB is, and why the $45,000 minimum net capital requirement buys freedom to use multiple FCMs
- The most common exam trap: guaranteed or independent, an IB never holds customer money, securities, or other assets
- How to use the memory-aid contrast (back/no capital/one firm versus alone/own capital/shop around) to answer any comparative question in under 30 seconds
Read the full lesson, free
This video's complete written lesson is free to read in the CertFuel app, no signup wall. The complete Series 3 course also includes adaptive practice questions and spaced-repetition flashcards, free through the end of 2026.