Forex is supposed to be the most liquid market that really moves. But, i'm looking at the intraday volume, and it's not very high. I was under the impression that if i want to day trade a $20 mil account, i could do it with Forex. But that doesn't seem to be so. What market could i use to trade an account that large or lets say even a $200 mill account (hey this is just a hypothetical question), and enter the position all at once? What's really the most liquid out there?
try typing "fx market" into google...alternatively go here: http://fxtrade.oanda.com/currency_trading/intro_currency_exchange.shtml
More than 1.5 trillion dollars are traded every day on the international forex market. That's 25 times larger than the entire US stocks market. Moreover, You are not stuck with sessions that start or end, it's seamless 24 hours. Get a good financial company to hold your account and give you real interbank trading rather than a virtual position opener if you wish to have a large account and use its strength to affect the market. (By the way, 20 million won't put a dent in the market in terms of influence unless you really leverage it, but then that is not a good idea either. You'll have to trade with the market motion and the trend. 200 million though might have some weight.) Sam
I thought bonds was the largest market ? Does anyone know ? FX has great gearing though (100x); -1% maxed out and ouch. ;-)
If you are looking at currency futures, then no, not nearly as liquid as some other markets. Forex (spot) itself is beyond massive. You can do any size in a second. In futures, eurodollars is the largest contract open interest wise, but they don't move much. Bonds and mini SP (ES) are so damn large, no individual would ever be too big for them. Theoretically, Soros would be, but no one that big is going to day trade all their wealth anyway (or probably waste time day trading at all. What's the point if you have a few hundred mil?). If you are not day trading, then liquidity isn't much of an issue unless you are in something REALLY thin, like OJ for example. Big ass slippage in these types of markets at times. Took me 15 minutes to get filled on a market order in OJ several years ago. Jay Jay
OANDA enables users to trade 100 million units of currency at a clip. Hey, if you really have that kind of money, I'd like a shot at trading some of it for yah. You can keep 1/2 the profit I earn. Also, read The New Market Wizards. There is a man in there who talks about trading 3 billion dollar fx accounts - and that was in 1988! EUR/USD is the heaviest traded pair followed by USD/JPY. Sam
Seriously, if you have a $20 MM account, don't play with OANDA and these retail markets...call up Goldman JP Morgan or Bear and see if you can get an account with them...they probably have better spreads, and you won't have to worry as much about your money being safe
i use IB to trade forex futures.my only gripe is that the system shuts down for maintenance for maintenance for 30 minutes each night at 12am EST. I am still not comfortable having open positions during this time time period. ANY globex fx traders out there who can recommend a broker with a good 24 hour trade desk for those infrequent EMERGENCIES?????