Argentina

Argentina supervises securities through the Comisión Nacional de Valores, but the decisive factor for anyone trading here has never been securities regulation. It is the exchange rate regime.

Multiple rates

For extended periods Argentina operated the cepo cambiario — restrictions on buying foreign currency — which produced something rare in a large economy: several simultaneous exchange rates for the same currency pair. An official rate available in limited quantities with taxes attached, financial rates obtained by buying a security in pesos and selling it abroad for dollars, and an informal street rate, all differing substantially at the same moment.

For a trader the implication was concrete and expensive. The rate at which you converted pesos to fund a dollar account determined more of your result than any trading decision. A position could be correct and still lose in real terms because of which channel the money travelled through.

These arrangements have been substantially liberalised since late 2023, with restrictions progressively lifted and the gap between rates narrowing. The direction is clear, and the specifics have changed repeatedly. Verify the current rules before transferring anything — this is a case where guidance more than a few months old is unreliable, including this page.

Inflation

Argentina has lived with very high inflation for years, which changes what "profit" means. A peso return below the inflation rate is a real loss, and a dollar-denominated account is itself a position — for a resident earning in pesos, holding dollars has often outperformed trading them.

Regulation

The CNV supervises the domestic market, and offshore CFD brokers operate outside it. The licensing jurisdiction's rules apply entirely, and no Argentine authority can assist with a foreign broker's withdrawal refusal.

Cautions

Persistent inflation makes promises of dollar-denominated fixed returns unusually persuasive, and schemes offering them recur constantly. A guaranteed percentage is not a trading result. Verify licences on the issuing regulator's own site, and check the CNV's warning notices.