IB forex trading cost VS fx futures cost

I am thinking about some currencies pair arbitrage, it would require leverage for some non popular currency pair. Look like the trading cost with fx futures would not be low with low trading volume, the buy/bid spread should be big, while I need to pay for live price report in IB per month as well. I know IB has its own leverage FX but I dont know its cost and everything even I have IB account. Can anyone share your experience?

 

Arbitrage is something very suitable for complete automation. Requires very little logic to implement. I has been done & arbed to death decades ago. I suggest you find something else that doesn't require colocation and a very deep pocket to establish connectivity to all venues you are targeting.

I am just trying to save your time.

 

Yeah I like to keep gaining small profit fronarbitrage instead of wait for a big trend and need to hard cut sometimes.

 

what you need is a timemachine that can get you back to the eighties ...
forex-arbitrage as a retail person is totally unrealistic nowadays ...

 

Why do you think so when there is leverage.

 

Because much bigger and faster players are ahead of you. Repeat with me: there is no free money.

 

I am not talking about HFT. If you think big players just win by speed, then may be we just shouldn't do anything now since over 50% transaction in stock market is HFT now? The only way to earn is not direct fight with them while they have all advantage in that speed range.

 

Okay so what are you really asking? You want to trade cross-pairs and you're wondering if you should use less liquid futures against each other or instead use the spot? It's dead obvious: use the spot crosses as they'll be more liquid.

 

I said the word "leverage"

 

Leverage isn't a magic word! You're not going to find tradable arb opportunities in forex, full stop. Maybe you don't define arbitrage as a risk free trade exploiting differences in pricing for fully fungible securities? Because that isn't possible for a retail trader, leverage is irrelevant. If you've got your own definition of arbitrage, let everyone know so we're all on the same page. A big hint, you need to understand roll rates if you think the difference in spot and future price represents an arbitrage opportunity.