So tell me why I should trade currency futures instead of forex?
- Thread starter IronFist
- Start date
I have used FXCM, Oanda and IB for Forex. I prefer IB by a WIDE margin for all the reasons I listed above and then some.
50:1 margin may seem limiting but with a 10k account your margin for a 100K lot of the EURUSD, USDCAD or USDJPY is about $2000
Trading that size and grabbing a 100 pip move = $1000 in profit. (or loss. LOL)
with Ib you select the Position (order or lot size) when you place your trade... smallest amount is 25,000 (like a mini lot with $2.50/ pip)
I trade IB FOREX daily. The small $2.50 commission and pip spread as low as 1/2 pip (EUR USD is good for that)
Most major pairs are 1 pip. USDCAD = 2pips, The USD HKD is 3 pips
I think using them is well worth it as they clear through CitiBank, Barclays Bank, Bank Of America, HSBC Bank, Royal Bank Of Scotland and Lehmans. No Buckets in that group. LOL.
It's Worth a trial... I find that IB's forex data tracks Tullets and others within 1 pip.
50:1 margin may seem limiting but with a 10k account your margin for a 100K lot of the EURUSD, USDCAD or USDJPY is about $2000
Trading that size and grabbing a 100 pip move = $1000 in profit. (or loss. LOL)
with Ib you select the Position (order or lot size) when you place your trade... smallest amount is 25,000 (like a mini lot with $2.50/ pip)
I trade IB FOREX daily. The small $2.50 commission and pip spread as low as 1/2 pip (EUR USD is good for that)
Most major pairs are 1 pip. USDCAD = 2pips, The USD HKD is 3 pips
I think using them is well worth it as they clear through CitiBank, Barclays Bank, Bank Of America, HSBC Bank, Royal Bank Of Scotland and Lehmans. No Buckets in that group. LOL.
It's Worth a trial... I find that IB's forex data tracks Tullets and others within 1 pip.
For these micro forex positions that you want to put on to test the waters, how much of a particular pair are you planning on buying/selling?
I'd like to start with 10k lots so 1 pip = $1. And then go up to 1 pip = $10. My profit targets in my Oanda trial account are always 5-10 pips away from entry, so I'm not gonna be sitting on positions for a while waiting for bit 50-100 pip moves. Anyway, once I'm profitable at that, increase size so a winning position is $100-200.
But for now, I'm totally cool with making a few dollars (pips) per trade. I have a corporate job and I'm just testing the waters here. And I'm only making a few trades per week when the setup is right (and when I'm actually able to watch the charts since Oanda = no trailing stops).
I have another question. I was just looking at the list of futures on IB's site. For CME, it says the IB symbol is EUR, the symbol is 6E, and the currency is in USD, so does that mean that's the future's equivalent of the EUR/USD pair in forex?
Quote from IronFist:
wtf, apparently I can't even open an account with IB:
That's bullshit. Can I lie? Will they check my personal history and see that I haven't made 100 trades? Or I can lie and say I made 100 trades in a forex simulator. lol.
Anticipate how many trades you expect to make per month and put that figure in there.
If you think you'll do 4 trades a day, thats actually 8 trades per day or 40 trades per week or 160 per month.. Each entry and exit is considered a trade. So thats 2 per position One to get in and one to get out.
You wrote that? Good think I quuote you then
"taken from
http://www.trade2win.com/boards/for...futures-ib.html "
I think it depends on your trading style. IMO Forex is fine if you are swing trading off of daily and weekly charts. If your initial stops are 100+ pips then paying a 2 or 3 pip spread is insignificant and your stops will generally be far enough away from the daily noise that it's unlikely a widening of spread on news etc would get close enough to take you out.
I expect that most forex traders are not patient enough to trade like this though...
I expect that most forex traders are not patient enough to trade like this though...