b/a spreads of CME/GLOBEX major currency futures (Euro, Japanese Yen, Swiss Franc, British Pound) typically are 1 to 2 ticks/"pips" http://www.cme.com/products/currency/foreignexchange/foreignexchange.cfm http://www.cme.com/products/currency/index.cfm
OandA.com has no minimum acct. size and 2 pip spreads on dollar/euro, 3-4 pips for the other majors They don't use lots either. You can trade in any $ amount, meaning there's no disadvantage, trading wise, to having a $100 acct. and a $100,000 acct. The fact that there's no commission and no acct. minimum makes FX appealing to experiment with, on OandA anyway. They have a free simulator wich is said to be just like the real thing I've also heard that FX markets are the "trendiest" markets around and perfect for TA. They trade 24/7, although at certain times, like during the weekends, liquidity drops off a cliff and spreads become huge. I've looked around and charting is usually expensive. The only programs that can backtest FX, that I know of, are Wealthlab and Tradestation. This is my my understanding of FX. I've never actually traded it. If i'm wrong about anything, please correct me.
indahook If you are scalping/short-term you might want to check out www.hotspotfx.com ; you can enter bids & offers and the platform is the closest you'll get to an interbank model such as Reuters or EBS. Can use one of these other shops as backup - preferably where you can also deal over the phone. Else if one's trading 'macro' trends, it probably doesn't matter which shop you pay the spread at [ might even want to find a broker quoting fwds].