Quote from Chood:
Would a sports bettor wager with a "reputable" bookmaker on these terms:
1) the bookie gets to set the final score of the ballgame, and
2) the bettor must loan the bookie more than 100% of his wager with only a promise that the loan will be repaid if the bookie can afford to repay it and if, of course, the score the bookie assigns to the ballgame makes the customer's bet a winner?
[3] No sports bettor would take those terms. They're preposterous. But they are the terms that obtain in retail forex. Why urge them on inexperienced, would-be traders? Wouldn't the wannabe be wiser not to trade forex at all, putting his small bankroll to work in another way, perhaps with an eye towards a fair and square opportunity later on?
Chood, I think we've covered much of this ground in the past. Not sure I'm keen to revisit it. Let me say this. Many of us are well aware of and have learned a great deal from your "experience" with Saxobank... However, that doesn't logically lead to broad, negative generalizations concerning all other industry players, and that's where I disagree with you. Let me address your points, in order:
1) the reputable, flexible-sizing dealer (not "bookie") in question doesn't get anywhere near setting the final price (not "score"). That's a deeply flawed analogy, from start to finish, and someone like you should know better than inject such sensational, biased language. As you know, by the very nature of the decentralized currency marketplace, there is no single, agreed-upon price at any given moment. There is only a narrow band of prices, at the bid and at the offer. As long as your dealer is consistently within that narrow band and does not practice any systematic bias based on factors such as your positions and pending orders, there's nothing rigged about that state of affairs.
2) "the bettor must loan the bookie more than 100% of his wager..."
What more than 100%? Whether futures or cash, 2% or less of the trade size needs to be on deposit, to be able to put on that trade, thanks to the concept of margin. Second, it's the dealer that effectively lends you up to nearly the entire trade size (depending on your leverage), not the other way around. Sorry, but I have no clue what you're talking about here.
3) I am not urging anything on anyone. If anything, I actively discourage most people from pursuing a pie-in-the-sky dream of trading for a living. But if they absolutely must try their hand at currencies, with limited risk capital (as discussed above), my recommendation is as clear as can be: in most cases, a reputable flexible-sizing cash forex dealer would be a much smarter choice than currency futures, for reasons outlined in my previous post.
