Title pretty much says it all. I have traded stocks, options and futures. I went from a blowout to breakeven to a profitable trader. The last year or so I've been amassing some money to trade with and I notice that everyone seems to be talking about forex. I assume the main reasons are the liquidity and the leverage. But I have a few questions. What is the volatility like on the mains? Compared to NASDAQ stocks during the bubble? S&P futures? What is so special about Oanda? The ability to trade odd lots? What datafeeds do people use? I see talk about platforms through the brokers, but what about Esignal? Do their prices keep up with what is going on? I would assume in currencies that trend following systems work well? Yes, no, depends? I understand you can trade this market 24 hours a day. What time is considered the start of the day and end? Does volatility etc change dramatically when certain markets log on/off for the day? Do you trade this technically, fundamentally, both or just wing it?
Audacity17, when you make the switch (addition?) to forex think of it this way.. With stocks, you're trading parts of a company (shares); with forex, you're trading parts of countries (units). If you are long Microsoft at 27.76 it can go to zero - 2,776 points - you are out X-amount of money. However, with currency pairs such as GBP/USD, currently trading at 1.7745, and you are long, it can tumble 17,745 points. Quite a difference. Besides that, with stocks you have something tangible between you and your counter-party, i.e. the stock. But with currencies, there's nothing in between you and the other side of your trade - just money - only money. Pure liquidity. Fundamentals will also change somewhat, in that, with stocks you'd be looking at the numbers of the company you're trading. But with forex you're going to be tracking macro numbers, such as the economy of the nation(s) you're trading, interest rates, etc. A bomb going off in London won't effect YHOO, but it will send the British pound into a free fall - if you're long GBP you'll get into a bloodied mess real fast. I happened to be long GBP/USD when the bombs struck both times - I can tell you it wasn't pretty. Good luck. fx
Shoot, there's tonne's of stuff on here with regard to all sort's of stuff. Forex don't seem to be a sharing brotherhood though, (see thread on moneytec, or just visit moneytec), but yes, just wing it. Damn the result , you'll probably learn more regardless.