Well, I finally stopped trading in my account. Did OK for awhile, but ended up losing most of the account. The account was a very small amount, so it was nothing more than an expensive lesson, from which I learned a lot. I've started testing a new system around a week ago. Before, I was discretionary trading. Anyway, so far this system has done very well (20% in one week). I know these aren't the most realistic results, but nevertheless I'm pretty confident the system can make money over a decent period of time. My plan is to start trading the system on one pair, then gradually expand to others (and size). Now my question is, should I use the futures or stick with spot? I've done more in futures (ags/financials) than I have spot FX. I also think the system will work about the same on futures as it does spot. What would you all recommend? Or maybe I'm just being silly and it doesn't really matter. Either way, any advice/input is appreciated.
I think it really matters because spot fx is not regulated and centralized whereas fut market is regulated. One consequence is that you will find lots of odd spot fx bucket shops.
I currently trade through FXCM, and also testing my demo there. If I was going to go with spot, I'd probably use IB. If I were to go with futures, I would possibly use Cunningham because we have a friendly relationship with them.
You might want to include in your decision the safety of funds. Refco FX customers are out most of their funds. Refco futures customers accounts were simply switched to a different broker with no loss of funds.
If you are thinking to go spot, you should better go through an ECN like Currenex via a prime broker (MAN, ODL, CapitalForexPro...) where you have an overview of the ECN liquidity and a fair price Then your money will be deposited safely. In addition, I would like to say that a dealer demo price feed is really not accurate of the real price movement.