As this is my first post on the forum, and as I have only limited experience with forex/CFD trading, you should probably get the opinion of others as well.
I am a Norwegian investor, and I have been investing/speculating in the stock market for about 7 years, full time the last three years. I will consider my activities as successful. I also invest for an investment partnership currently with 14 partners.
I take my investment/speculating activities very seriously, working on basis of an extensive philosophy and strategy.
Recently, I have decided to expand my activities in order to be able to shift focus according to how I judge the market environment.
I signed up for GCI with a very small percentage of my funds (approx. 0,5%), in order to test CFD trading. I have only taken five "real/accoring to strategy" positions during the three-weeks time I have been with GCI,but I have tested the system with several individual lots.
I will not - absolutely not- recommend GCI. There is a world of difference between how their demo works and how real trading works.
Be advised that I am not just a disappointment customer, as I am now discontinuing my activities with GCI with a profit.
I realize that some of the problems are related to the CFD market itself. The price of CFDs are set by the broker firms themselves, even individually for each customer in at least some cases. You are competing not with yourself in a well-functioning market, but also with broker that appears not to have your best interest in mind.
I have had very much slippage on stops/trailing stops, don't get fills at anything near the dealing price, and stops need to be set with av absurd distance from the actual level in which you consider the market to "prove you wrong" in order not to be whipped.
In light oil I tested the system by closing a short and a long position at the market at the exact same time - several times. The gap between the so-called "new market price" had a gap of 30 cents or more. This is not a case of market volatility, as I tested the system several times.
In my opinion, GCI - even by CFD standards - is dishonest and/or incompetent.
Also consider that GCI seems to be the old Global capital Investment in the following CFTC-document:
http://www.cftc.gov/opa/enf02/opa4611-02.htm, which has been discussed in another topic on the forum.
For my part, I will not be trading CFDs, but sign up for a test period with IB.
Best regards CK