Futures traders questions

F

ForexPro

Hi,
I wonder if any forex futures traders can help answer the following?

1) What leverage do you get?
2) Are there any limitations, such as no scalping?
3) What is the minimum balance you need to open up a forex futures account?
4) Which futures forex broker is the best?

I have read a lot on the fx spot market and feel most brokers are, in some way, flawed. Therefore, i want to move up a division.
 
Quote from YeahIknow:

Hi,
I wonder if any forex futures traders can help answer the following?

1) What leverage do you get?
2) Are there any limitations, such as no scalping?
3) What is the minimum balance you need to open up a forex futures account?
4) Which futures forex broker is the best?

I have read a lot on the fx spot market and feel most brokers are, in some way, flawed. Therefore, i want to move up a division.
More...

1) You get the leverage by going to CME website and looking up margin requirements and contract sizes.

2) The only limitation is you.

3) Depends on the broker, but usually about $2-5K.

4) No best, some are better at some things while others better at other. Interactive Brokers appears to be a popular choice though. Check out broker reviews on this site.
 
The way you've written the questions is a little confusing. Usually when referring to currency futures we leave the 'forex' label totally out of it so it's clear we're not talking about the spot Forex market. It sounds like you want to focus your discussion to currency futures.

1) What leverage do you get? Here, day trading margin is $1,100 per contract on the Euro. You can check others here http://www.globalfutures.com/margins/margins.asp

Overnight margin is set by the CME.

2) Are there any limitations, such as no scalping? No rules against it in futures
3) What is the minimum balance you need to open up a forex futures account? We would ask at least $2,000
 
Interactive brokers is great for Both Forex Futures and Spot.

Commissions are so low you can profit while scalping.

Executions are superb. And the TWS software is great too.

I trade Forex Spot with them. They've set themselves up as an ECN-Style Spot Forex broker. That set up is far better than all Forex brokers who act as market makers (trade against you.)
 
margins will really depend on the broker. to keep overnight you will have to stump up the quoted cme.com figure, but many brokers will halve this for intraday positions. i currently stump up just over $1400 per lot, but i could go lower if i asked but have no need.

the problem with ib is that they are faceless. they dont know you from adam. i have no idea if they will let an individual day trade on less than posted margins. full margin from memory is currently $2800 (just over). they do change now and then.

most quality brokers will ask for $10k to open an account, but velocity only ask for $5k and they are supposed to be good. some others also offer $5k, but you will need >$2k to be realistic.

spreads in the major crosses (ie against the usd) are typically 1 tick. the only ones worth day trading though are the euro, british pound, yen, swiss franc, and maybe cad and ozzie.
 
Quote from YeahIknow:

I have heard good things of IB. Can you tell me the spreads you see on:

Eur/Usd, Gbp/Usd and Aud/Usd?
More...

I trade Forex Spot through them. I recently started to watch Forex Futures.

Spreads: Spot

Eur/Usd .5p - 2p. Rare 2.5p. And you can play inside the spread. I often get better fills on my limits.

GBP/USD .5p -3p. Rare 3.5p-4p.

AUD/USD 2-5p. Could be tighter but then again, that's not as liquid as the two pairs above.

Futures: Euro FX. 1-2pip. Fairly standard @ 1p.

Don't know about the rest.
 
YeahIknow,

the leverage I believe is set by CME so if you look at the FX futures "product", use the multiplier against the price of the specific future you're trading on and use that in reference to the margin requirements. These information can be found in the Contract Specification of each futures product.

Unlike forex, you don't really get a "spread" with the FX futures. They're very liquid so USDEUR trades in .0001 and JPYUSD in .000001 steps. Pretty tight if you ask me.

Then you pretty much just pay the commission per side.

I use IB for futures.
 
Quote from FredBloggs:

the problem with ib is that they are faceless. they dont know you from adam. i have no idea if they will let an individual day trade on less than posted margins. full margin from memory is currently $2800 (just over). they do change now and then.
More...

IB has intraday margins @ 50% of future's exchange posted margins.

Maintenance margins intraday are $50. I could be off on this.

Intraday margins rules @ IB found here: http://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/trading/marginRequirements/futuresMargin.php?ib_entity=llc

Facelessness works for me. I can do my thing without having to worry about having a relationship with the broker. I've done that before with Refco and instead of jumping ship right away, I waited 3 weeks almost to my hurt because of not wanting to end "broker relationship."
 
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