Many people in the UK trade CFD's, or worse - spreadbet. For those who trade intraday the above methods are suicidal because of the wide spreads and (spreadbetting) biased prices. More people in the UK are looking at Futures trading (narrow spreads) and the use of US brokers such as Interactive Brokers. Interestingly, in this so called global financial environment, the so called Investment magazines rarely discuss Futures trading, let alone the use of lower cost US brokers. Either UK brokers wake up and compete with US brokers for the growing army of UK traders, or they go the way of UK motorcycle manufacturers who stuck their heads in the sand during the onslought of competition from japanese motorcycle manufacturers. Interactive brokers ( UK ) have placed one or two ads. in mags. I would not be surprised if more US brokers followed. We may even see magazines devoted to the trader like those in the US. Markets - seems that many UK people trade the FTSE, DAX,Eurostoxx50, SP Mini's, US shares. The Dax has more volume than the FTSE. It's complicated and tiresome moving funds to the US. What we need is a US style broker in the UK, so we can deposit funds here in the UK with the broker. The nearest we have to low cost dealing is http://www.easy2trade.com, but they only trade european markets. Ah..I feel better now
www.easy2trade.com Have to wait for CME and CBOT ... BTW, One-off Account set up charge £50 / â¬80. Simply ridiculous !
My advice, and in this case it's worth more than 2 cents is the following. Never ,ever, ever, trade a non regulated market, or an off exchange product, unless the counter party is a LARGE MONEY CENTER BANK! If trading an exchange traded future or option never deposit funds with anyone who is not a CLEARING MEMBER of a reputable global exchange!
http://www.gaincapital.com/ I met their principals once at a trade show. they have a good rep from what I hear good luck personally I sometimes trade USD / EUR on the cme with tight spreads and I only pay $4.80 RT
Would you like to share with us exactly which cme contract has tight spreads? (Unless you consider 50 basis points a tight spread.)
SethArb is probably talking about the CME´s "EURO FX FUTURES" contract (IMM symbol EC - Globex symbol 6E) with a b/a spread of rarely more than 1 tick/pip during RTH ... contract specifications at www.cme.com/httpwrapper.cfm?wrap=/wrappedpages/clearing/spex/currencyGroup.htm regards wild