I am seriously considering switching to globex and trade the euro and yen, and hey you can see volume again.
I am new to the Fx trading as of the previous 3 weeks - I signed up with Oanda.com and started my account with a $200 deposit via PayPal. I'm using 50:1 leverage and have made about 40 bucks on about 6 trades. Clearly, Iâm trading super small right now, but from what I've experienced using their system, It's been very pleasant. Note that I traded stocks institutionally for a hedge fund, via DOT, INET, ARCA, etc. and trading via Oanda has been very smooth by comparison. Again, Iâm still trading micro size, but so far so good. Also, I added another $1K today and they credited it instantly. When I start trying to get fills on a Mill notional, we'll see how smooth it goes - till then My only complaint is that I donât have a way to overlay charts of say the EUR/JPY with the AUD/JPY on the same. Iâd really like to be able to manipulate the data series in the same way an equity pairs trader would. If anyone knows of such a charting service for currencies, let me know, thanks.
is this a forex love-fest or what? i heard all of these negative things about the forex market before i started trading it a few years ago. sure, the brokers are like jesse livermore's bucket shops, but does that mean you can't make money? it is well known that fx brokers dont like scalpers (because they bucket your trades), but in my years of trading fx i have never heard one complain about swing traders or even day traders for that matter. i am predominantly a quick swing trader and currently my portfolio consists of automated systems in stocks, stock options, high volume futures, and currencies (forex). my currency programs are consistently the highest yeilding in the bunch. i think there is money to be made in all markets, but i particularly like currencies because it seems as though all of the smart people are scared away from the market by the shady interbank infrastructure. personally, i just deal with the additional risk by keeping as little in my account as possible, which is made easy by the incredibly high leverage brokers will gvie you. i dont feel forex deserves to be held above any other market, but if you give it a chance you may just find what i did. be smart and you can be just as safe trading forex as you would be with stocks.
you mentioned in your comments you work at a hedge fund ? what qualifications does a typical hedge fund want from someone who places the desk orders for the hedge fund ? or is it the portfolio managers job to do this also? also ... how easy it is to find out the track record performance and managers of HF and sub HF and funds of funds ?
You won't get any interest when you trade currencies thru globex, but you will if you trade in the spot market. Last summer I was making an additional $5.00 a day holding EURUSD long, not to mention the profit from price appreciation. It's like a daily dividend. GBP, AUD pay some awesome interest for holding long in that currency. I think most people who bash the currency markets are just venting from their own mistakes, and that is one of the big problems you face when trading, not being able to admit you were wrong. Sure some of these outfits are rip offs, but you will encounter rip offs in every day life, not just in the forex markets.
I totally agree. Bashing the spot market seems like a fashion trend around here. The spot market offers many advantages over futures. Maybe its not a 'real' market like you experienced in stocks or futures, but with a good and honest broker, the spot market rocks. Unlimited volume/liquidity, no crap (you can buy on the ask, and sell on the bid only), interest, extreme leverage (don't know about futures), super low spreads, and still decreasing (1,5 pip at Oanda for EUR/USD, can futures beat that?), etc, etc. Next to that, regulation has probably improved a lot over the last couple of years, people keep bringing up anecdotes from years ago. Also, if you pick a broker with a good business model (hedge aggregate client volume) scalping is fine. I also agree with swoop[TR], spot brokers who hedge aggregate volume benefit from you making profit, as this ensures more volume in the future and thus them making the spread, again and again.
Futures levarge on currencies beats most forex dealers. And yes, euro futures does beat the spread on Oanda.
I mean, spot has only the spread. For futures there are also commissions. So $15 per lot in the spot market, how much do you pay for futures per round turn? btw, how high is leverage for futures?
youd be mad to pay more than $5rt in futures as 4 leverage - well its great if youre a winner, but a nightmare if youre a loser as trading is hard nuff as it is, why put your self further behind by using a weasel for a broker?