Hi y'all. Nobody seems to have a clue on the question of Xpresstrade (my current) vs. Global Futures (a prospective), so I will get to the point: What is the "best" way to trade metals as a newbie scalper? In my first month I've mostly traded the April COMEX / ACCESS gold contract, and while I'm not happy with the Xpresstrade platform, it does offer very basic real-time charting functions. I pay about $40/mo for the COMEX data feed and for trades around $9/side + market fees. Don't want to bitch too much about Xpresstrade because they have been very courteous and efficient with support, and have made me slightly richer and more neurotic. I'm having trouble finding another direct broker who will let me continue trading these GC contracts with a better platform, faster execution, etc. Can I expect to get level-2 data?... Global Futures offers COMEX on only its most basic platform, and then with no charts. SaxoBank has a cool platform but only offline trading of the GC, SI contracts. And they're in Europe. Is it best to daytrade COMEX because it's got the highest volume? Or should I just trade ECBOT? Spot gold? Subscribe to a data-feed service? Stop trading altogether? HELP. JDD (in New Zealand)
Funny set of questions you have... I would say that most depends on your timeframe: a short timeframe would lead me to advising you to trade eCBOT. Trading eCBOT via (say) Interactive Brkers would lead you to lower commissions and a faster platform. Also, IB will add pit traded gold sometime this year. Last, datafeed gathered from IB can be charted with Amibroker or Sierra Chart (to name a few).