Does anybody here trade volatility by the way? Not options, but the VIX (futures). For me it's one of the easiest markets to trade actually.
I day trade (scalp) bonds and the ES. Looking into more intraday swings on crude and such. Tend to stay away from FX due to regulations. Hardest to trade for me is crude due to the volatility as I trade much slower markets like the bonds.
There is no easy answer. It depends on where your edge is. You must have an edge. Without an edge all markets are hard. But i've traded at professional firms for about 10 years so some observations.. If you are day trading, then spot FX is a losers game, the spread will kill you. Ive worked with hundreds of professional day traders at not one cash FX trader was profitable. Paying 1-2 ticks spread on trade will kill you unless you are going for at least 30+ tick winners. If you are new to trading start off with the slower markets so bonds (nothing longer in duration than a 10yr). These markets arent "easier" to trade, but will give you more time to figure out what you are doing before losing your account. Once you develop an edge in one market (which takes a long time) then look to see if it works in other markets and you will start to find markets that suit your personality. Some people like fast thin markets, others like slow and liquid... there is no one market better than the other. As a very loose rule of thumb in my experience the less saturated/heavily traded markets have easier edges as there is less competition. But some people I know started off in a saturated market and did fine.
I'm only a newbie, but from my limited research, most of the people who seem to be making money are trading equities (hot stocks that are 'in play' on a particular day) and options traders who probably know lots of advanced mathematics. Not futures (though I'm sure they must exist) Still, I imagine that they are ALL extremely difficult!!
I think it alll depends on the trader's own personality. The important thing is to find a market or markets which suit your personality. For some this will be Forex, others will do better trading stocks or index futures. The trouble is, the process of finding the 'right' market(s) to trade, and more importantly the markets to avoid, can be a very lengthy and expensive one...
I recall reading a study indicating yearly basis failure rates for new retail market entrants as: 75% in Stocks 90% in Futures 95-99% in Forex I don't recall how failure was defined. Does anybody have links to more of these studies?
If you are in UK you can spread bet on it as they allow bets for as little as £0.5 per point. Keep buying dips using your stop at 0 (lol I know), scale in at levels according to your capital and risk criteria. Is DAX going to 0? If it does then your capital would be worthless anyway