Hey guys, I haven't done any trading yet but when I do I want to start (very) small. Ideally I would like to start with say $50 initial margin which would translate to a $2500-$5000 contract. Is it possible to order such a contract or are the sizes already determined? Thanks
I believe you'll be hard pressed to find something which needs a $50 margin. Maybe look at fake-future CFDS, www.igmarkets.com. They have mini futures for example: Australian index SPI200 (futures margin = $2250 AUD/$25 per point) Mini CFD - Margin = $300, $5 per point. Personally i'd save up some cash and read books etc etc.
Contract sizes are predetermined. Smallest ones are the minis. I believe corn mini, gbp mini, silver mini are small, but they still need a margin of atleast a few hundred dollars. As a previous poster suggested saving money and coming back may be an idea or paper trading. The markets will always be there, so there's no hurry.
Open a forex acount with www.oanda.com. There is no fixed position size for each trade as there is when trading futures contracts. You can trade as small as 10 cents a pip, and then increase lot size as you learn how to trade. Oanda has an excellent trade simulator so you can also start with simulated trades and then move to small position size. As your skill increases move from forex to currency futures to reduce transaction costs. You can search this site for many threads on the pros/cons of forex and oanda. For a small account and getting experience it is hard to do much better. Good luck,
Slacker, Man, thanks for pointing this out. I'm just trying it out this a.m. and it is indeed excellent. Not only is it fast & responsive (thus far) and well laid-out, but the graphics are also beautiful. And I ain't paid 'em a dime. Hands down this is the best-looking, easiest-to-get-up-and-running simulator I've yet seen. Forex just got interesting to me... Thanks again, Harold (not a shill, ya bastards - just very impressed at this freebie)