Okay so after some facepalm worthy moments with the broker I was in contact with it turns out that my £500 was not sufficient to even open an account. It was however suggested to me that Forex would be a viable option if I was going to trade with such a small amount. So first things first, I'm sure you lot are reasonably aware of my skepticism about Forex but is it possible to actually make profit in your own currency with Forex? Or am I completely misguided about the whole process behind it? I would also like to ask about brokers you lot would recommend for an account my size. I'm taking a look at global futures which seems to be a decent option unless people voice unanimously otherwise. I'd also appreciate some reading material since finding anything to do with trading that's actually useful on the internet is a complete pain because it is filled with broker advertisements.
I am not the best person to be giving advice on this subject as I don't trade FOREX for a living, but I do have some knowledge on the subject as I have played around with some things for quite a while. I am not sure where your skepticism about forex comes from, but it can be just as profitable as trading any other instrument/market. www.forexfactory.com is a site I would recommend, specifically the "Technical Analysis Fallacy" thread which I have found useful. There is also much discussion about brokers. Maybe someone who trades forex for a living can chime in on a recommended broker. Hope this helps.
With a 500 quid balance, it really doesn't matter where you go. You are going to get hosed on spreads regardless. Open a micro account somewhere, develop a mid/long term strategy and don't over-leverage yourself. FXCM has micros you can open for $25.
world wide, forex daily trading is greater than all the stock markets combined retail fx came into existence thanks to the pc and internet, you can think of retail fx trading as spread betting since one's trading with one's broker or a bank/s - there's no central exchange/bourse if you want to trade futures, min account size would be $2,000, margin to daytrade one futures contract $500 o/n $3,500 the Globex market is 24hrs less the 2-3pm pst closure try AMP futures for info, there are many futures brokers - just registered !! - global you don't have to open an account with all your funds, FXCM UK/S have micro accounts starting at $25, and at Oanda you can open an account with $1. smart thing would be to demo trade and if your system works, open a small £ amount account and see how your trading goes, if well, increase your trading margin many traders like the MetaTrader program but not all brokers provide it, my broker is Oanda and i use an MT4 demo from Alpari US, Alpari have an office in the UK, FXCM do offer MT4 but requires a $2,000 ? account in order to use it most brokers allow accounts to be opened in one of several currencies - check Oanda, Alpari, FXCM are the oldest/largest retail fx brokers; futures brokers only began providing fx accounts recently via an fx broker. AMP provides the NinjaTrader program for instance as do many, fx broker is GAIN min acc $250. Oanda has 5 10 30 second charts, MT has 1min and up only, and NT has a full selection of chart types including tick, seconds and etc which would be a consideration for me although i'd still also use MT for analysis for the most part retail fx brokers are regulated by the same authority that regulates the futures industry, Alpari's ho is in Moscow but has offices in the US and UK so is also regulated by those countries. there may be some brokers who have a doubtful reputation located in areas having questionable regulation, but why go with them
Thanks very much for the advice about the brokers guys, I would really like to know though how exactly you make a profit in your own country? I thought at first Forex was simply taking advantage of the exchange rates in order to generate a profit but now I'm not so sure. I think I'll have a google around to see if I can get a proper explanation. Is it pretty much like commodities where your still taking advantage of the price movements except it pretty much just involves currencies? And simply looking at some live quotes I'm suddenly understanding how it works /facepalm I'd still appreciate some material though folks.
Mannnnyou need to do a lot of research on the Net first. Go to forexfactory/babypips, etc.... You cannot mka e adime when you know nothing about the industry.
I trade those currencies like other commodity futures. Develop your own trading strategy, whether it is trend following or counter-trend or market sentiment based. Spend most of your time backtesting your ideas and paper trading until you really know why your shit works and when it works. trust me, the best trade is no trade.
the currency used to trade fx may depend on your location and what pair/s you want to trade, there'll be some fx transaction costs if converting £ to US$ or ⬠either via the broker or your bank when first opening an account, and again after withdrawing funds and converting back to your home currency you can easily see the variance between the currency you fund your account with and pair/s you want to trade by using a margin calculator: http://www.fxuniversal.com/tools/forex_calculators.html fx specific forums good fx calendar: http://www.forexfactory.com/ http://www.forex-tsd.com/forum.php http://www.moneytec.com/index.php has several fx related forums: http://www.trade2win.com/