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Great to hear success stories like this. Why do you recommend not trading currencies?
But my complaint about currency futures is they are so US dollar-centric. Fine if you only want to trade the dollar. But what if, for example, the Euro is breaking out? (OK not lately...) But maybe get a better trade setup versus GBP, JPY, AUD or some other currency. With a Forex account it's easy to check all these, as well as do other things, like construct an equal weighted basket to guage overall relative strength of each currency. Even better, you can just buy or sell the whole currency basket directly.
Also, I was shocked at the lack of liquidity on the futures currency crosses (the few that are even offered) like EURGBP, even though these are supposed to be full size contracts. I mean I was seeing dashes on the 15m charts!
This is why the regulators efforts to push forex onto the futures exchanges will continue to prove futile. They may be able to force a few retail traders onto the exchanges, but the giant financial institutions will continue to trade OTC among themselves. Real-time currency spot pricing is already published by the banks and made available to the public. So "price discovery" is accomplished. A futures exchange is not needed.
Sorry for going pretty far from the original question. But I guess my point would be decide what market you want to trade after doing lots of research. Then check what trading vehicles are available for market access. Sometimes there is a futures contract. But also consider other venues like FOREX, CFDs, ETFs, NADEX binaries/bull spreads. Lots of alternatives out there...
Not currencies, trading in general. I spent some $$$ learning and I would hate to see your small account turn to dust.
I had enough money built up to weather the storm.
I take back my previous compliment about NADEX. They have these synthetic "bull spread" instruments that can be traded like CFD/Futures. The instruments seem to be randomly disappearing from the trading platform recently. My inquiry to customer support went unanswered. The only positive thing I can say is no issue with funds withdrawal. I don't know, maybe these guys are going bankrupt or something.
Another option for small traders are the bitcoin denominated brokers like 1Broker or SimpleFX. They offer a selection of currencies, commodity, stock index and single stock CFDs. Deposit and withdraw profits in bitcoin. No ID required. Wow, now even toddlers can trade CFDs on mommy's computer. The CFTC must be appalled!
Fair enough, but whether to trade CFDs should be our decision to make, not some nannycrat at the CFTC or SEC. Same goes for the FIFO rule.
Anyway, I can't complain about the spreads I get offshore: AUS200 (1pt), Nikkei (6pts), DAX (1pt), DOW (2pt), Gold (20 cents), Oil (4 cents). For non-expiring position sizes as small as $1000, really more like ETFs than futures contracts.
It is your decision to make, yes, but seems one cannot do it through a US bank/firm. (Best of luck to you on CFDs and spreads. Not even sure what spreads are, hehe.)
Why would I want to pay financing charges to hold a position when right next door there are ways to trade the same instrument derivatives with no interest needed? Not to mention there seems to be much more counterparty and credit risk with CFDs. But if it works for you, stick with what works, surely!
