Am using ActivTrades at the moment and would like to try/use at least another broker, but am finding most offer contracts on the cash index (I trade mostly equity indices), therefore you have to pay interest and div adjustments for overnight positions. And obviously, since there is no way (or at least no time) for the individual trader to calculate those adjustments, you can be sure they will take a nice fee out of it (used to have IG, besides their charting software which was crap, you had all those ovn charges which you just have to say amen to). If you are trading futures through CFD and are happy with your current broker, please let me know. Thanks.
Primarly much more flexible for size... Can trade 0.lots which is great for scaling into positions when some future contracts are huge (even the e-miniS&P futures are 100k$; say you want to scale in the position with 5 contracts: that would be 500k... depending on the leverage you are confortable with, you get the equity you need, just for 1 position...) On the other hand, CFD are more expensive, I know, but as anything in life, that s what you pay for not having a million$ account...
Well I haven't stepped into trade with futures yet but I'm on the stage of thorough learning of COT reports using free futures data from CBOT my broker Hotforex provides. I tried to sign up with US based brokers but there's a lot of mess with them, so I decided to stay on CFD's over the counter trading instead.
CFDs on futures are offered by GFT UK (Gain) and their introducing brokers whexpert and fxflat - but also by Saxo and many others. Regards
Yup, aware of GFT (see my other post about Forex.com) not good feeling during opening process, later confirmed by FPA which has become my Bible since I discovered it (for example confirming my bad previous experience with IG Markets). Also aware of WHS.. which indeed uses GFT... So I asked myself: what s the point of adding another middle man with another layer of fees??.. Never heard of FxFlat.. but if uses GFT, then same as above... Saxo: pretty bad reviews from FPA. Again am looking for advice from people who are currently using the brokers... And even then, for what it s worth since this is a forum and you can never know, but then at least gives me clues for double checking later.
I can`t confirm FPA ratings for WHS and Fxflat(dot(de, which is also a reseller of InteractiveBrokers (Captrader) --- and my experience with IG is different as well. Their "crappy" Charting software is a white label of a renowned costly product. And many brokers are repackaged Saxo engines. And only with Saxo (HMS, Corner Bank, ..) and InteractiveBrokers you can trade CFDs and futures from the same account for optimal scaling and MM. Regards
Crappy charts, I insist. Don t be fooled by price, some of the finest things in life are free... IG basic level of charts is not even crappy, it s the lego-land of charting and graphs. Then you have PRT, and it s web based, and you get many problems because of constant Java updates.. one day the graphs won t start, but hey it s fine, the helpdesk is aware of it... PRT is nice on static charts.. after that experience I looked for other software, and there is a reason why MT is so ubiquitous. Never crashes, does not use a lot of resources, and keep lines going through the same points no matter the time scale (unlike IG/PRT... but hey, IG "help"desk told me it s "normal"...)