after been in LEH in 2007-i feel confident about saying-there is no safe place to park the money,other than FDIC insured acct at bank. bonds are no better than stocks and IB's margin policy on them is really unpredictable. i use to hold large portfolio of corp bonds and day trade on margin,until in one day IB decide that all of them have to be not marginable. regardless to their ratings,liquidity etc.been there,done that.. but-direct access + rock bottom commissions on corp bonds are solid value. IB is only one out there,who offers it.
absolutely, no question about it. Trade spot forex. With 4k, you will have 160k buying power. Minimum positions are usually around 25k. Open the account and trade 25k positions in your paper account. No matter how tempting it is, don't go over 25k until you get a better idea how the deal works. But if you really want to get crazy you could put on 100k eur.usd and it would move on you at $10/pip. Average day is probably somewhere around 30 pips, you'll see. Yes, no other place to go. Spot forex. It's the only place you won't be under capitalized. And if you are, there's no excuse for it. 4k is enough to get started sensibly, if you stick with 25k positions. ($2.50/pip.)
and when you get over there, the first thing you are going to do is open a paper account. It defaults to 100k. Make sure you set it to 4k, You won't learn anything trading a fake 100k. but with a paper account at 4k, you will at least get a more realistic idea. number 1 reason for failure is under capitalization. You won't be undercapitalized with 4k. number 2 reason is lack of discipline. Make a commitment to trade in that paper account for a solid six months. (It will cost you $60 ($10/mo) and that will be the best invesment you ever made. Every month you see that $10 deduction, you can congratulate yourself for starting out disciplined. and if that bothers you, open with $4,060.