Back Up Plans

OK, with the demise of MF Global it has brought to the front burner the idea of having a backup plan to one's current methodology of trading. Right now I trade my CTA/CPO through TS, but am worried about its long term viability (see MF Global) since I have very little viability to their financial condition once they were bought by a Japanese firm.

We own four MC platforms and utilize them for development (they are multi-core so optimization runs much faster) and we use the stand alone Grail version with MC. A compliant back up plan for me would be to use MC with another broker. In testing this out, the problem with Patsystems or Trading Technologies is that there is no good simulation environment to test everything out before you go live.

So my questions are as follows:

1. What brokers do people use (I think IB cleared with MF Global) so I would want alternatives other than IB.
2. Is there a way to test out the set up in simulation enshrinement before we go live?
3. How has the auto trading been with MC in general (reliability etc.)

Thanks in advance

1. What brokers do people use (I think IB cleared with MF Global) so I would want alternatives other than IB.

I use IB,

IB did not clear through MF Global, They are a clearing firm..

http://individuals.interactivebrokers.c ... rships.php
http://individuals.interactivebrokers.c ... bgStrength