Quote from Dominic:
"If you will not be that active I think most people would recommend IB(Interactive Brokers). They have low commissions for retail traders and you can trade every futures contract, stock, or currency pair in the world."
I'm just starting off with the futures so the above will probably be my first step; I dont think that IB suppplies charts for its traders? Would I need to get something like E Signal if I wanted charts and TA indicators if I use IB?
Entering the wild world of futures, you want to keep your costs low, and account equity high because the learning tuition is expensive.
Esignal is expensive. But a option to consider.
However since IB is your broker and you need TA/charts etc, why not consider Quotetracker, which can use IB's futures markets data.
You save $ as with IB you pay lower commish, min # of trades you get free data, and Quotetracker is free with ads version.
Then you can see if futures is for you.
Or if you data source is primary concern and you dont trust IB 99% uptime and want a back up data plan, use Esignal or Iqfeed in conjunction with Quotetracker.
Run you about $65 month with IQfeed basic, QT, and CME exchange privilege. Emini access is less than that.
Esignal alot more.
Sierra Chart and Ensign are also software considerations and can perform the above combinations with esig, iqfeed and IB data.
Good hunting.