jefftheripper
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Ok, figured I'd do a follow up for any newbies that stumble upon this topic. I opened a demo account with the metatrader 4 platform. It is great and blows away the system I was using that was provided from my futures broker.
Rhody Trader is right that when you trade a futures currency contract it is still bundled with the US $. In fact I can watch the live tick for tick action on mt4 and place a trade on the currency in the futures market which will follow the forex pretty close, though sometimes it's backwards. For example, if I'm watching the usd/chf (swiss franc) and it signals to go short, I have to go long on the swiss franc futures contract for the same trade.
The advantages I see for forex are:
1. great charts with the ability to add trendline, fibs, multiple indicators etc. and it's free, where if you want real time charts for futures you have to pay a fee to each exchange.
2. with forex you can choose you lot size (1 lot, 2 lots 5, 10, you get the idea). The value of a pip on a lot size varies with the price of the currency. But right now 1 lot of the Canadian $ will be close to $1 per pip where as in the futures contract of the same currency one tick is worth $10. Therefore, with the forex you have more control of how much money you want to risk.
3. A disadvantage with the forex appears to be the brokers themselves. Many trade against their customers and seem to use unethical tactics. I've done alot of research and have decided that for me and ECN type broker is the best and benefits if their customer does well and keeps trading.
So I have decide I am going to trade Forex and keep my futures account open with a different broker and trade it too. I am learning to be pickier about my trades so hopefully I won't overtrade as I have in the past.
I hope this helps and makes sense.
Rhody Trader is right that when you trade a futures currency contract it is still bundled with the US $. In fact I can watch the live tick for tick action on mt4 and place a trade on the currency in the futures market which will follow the forex pretty close, though sometimes it's backwards. For example, if I'm watching the usd/chf (swiss franc) and it signals to go short, I have to go long on the swiss franc futures contract for the same trade.
The advantages I see for forex are:
1. great charts with the ability to add trendline, fibs, multiple indicators etc. and it's free, where if you want real time charts for futures you have to pay a fee to each exchange.
2. with forex you can choose you lot size (1 lot, 2 lots 5, 10, you get the idea). The value of a pip on a lot size varies with the price of the currency. But right now 1 lot of the Canadian $ will be close to $1 per pip where as in the futures contract of the same currency one tick is worth $10. Therefore, with the forex you have more control of how much money you want to risk.
3. A disadvantage with the forex appears to be the brokers themselves. Many trade against their customers and seem to use unethical tactics. I've done alot of research and have decided that for me and ECN type broker is the best and benefits if their customer does well and keeps trading.
So I have decide I am going to trade Forex and keep my futures account open with a different broker and trade it too. I am learning to be pickier about my trades so hopefully I won't overtrade as I have in the past.
I hope this helps and makes sense.