I trade through Interactive Brokers. They are the only brokerage that I know of with connections into all those markets. Aside from the occasional technical issue I really like IB. I personnally trade the Taiwan market every night I can (except Sunday nights). I've traded the mini Nikkei in the past (Osaka exchange) and plan to start trading it again real soon at the same time as I'm trading Taiwan. There are a lot of details such as commissions, hours, margin, tick size, etc. that you can go to IB's website and learn all about it. There have also been threads here on IB that have discussed trading Asia... each market has its own quirks & advantages/disadvantages, and you'll have to navigate your way through it all to figure out what is best for you. I don't want to recreate that information here... I just wanted to throw it out as an option instead of having to quit a good paying day job to park cars or serve tables while you're learning to trade.
Don't trade the Nikkei through CME. Trade it through SGX or Osaka. Much higher volume (especially the mini on Osaka) and no slippage beyond the bid/ask spread.
thanks, will look into it do you have to have part of you account in yen though? (i have an interactive brokers account)
If you can't get on the right desk. I like this idea. You will get paid well, have minimal expenses, and I imagine you will play a lot of card games for good money. Take the card games seriously (i.e. learn what to do: odds, money management etc.). Good Luck
Only if you're trading in a cash account (like an IRA). Otherwise IB handles it on the back-end, in that your profit or loss will be in yen, which you can convert over to dollars at your convenience through Ideal (assuming you made money).