Hey guys, I’ve been lurking around here for… a little over a month.
I’ll probably demo till the end of August but looking at the vast field of brokers, I decided it about time to start narrowing this down. Reading reviews is difficult since most do not volunteer what their trading experience or time spent learning is/was. Atleast here at babypips.com I know you have almost certainly read the school portion of this website
I want to start off small into the forex community with an initial deposit of 500 USD.
My forex wishlist:
-rollover for carry trading
-sms (text) alerts on my cellphone
-web based platform
-trading from charts
-200:1 leverage or higher
-ability to program (code) in autotrading or auto alerts
That said, I have demo account on GFT, FXCM, and FXsol.
However I can’t seem to figure out how GFT’s rollover works. FXCM seems to get an amazing amount on negative press despite how impressed I am with their platform (lack of web sucks though). FXsol’s rollover seems to be much much lower than FXCM’s? However, their scalability inside the account seems to be unmatched.
At this point I’m still debating between a scalping strategy or a carry trade. Scalping would be a hybrid between cgrey and tymen’s strategies (5 pips off of candlestick patterns). Carrytrades, I think I’d just be making one 10k sized lot, and reinvesting on the interest I get. (unlike rram who seems to trade like a mad man heh)
Thanks in advance for any and all advice
I agree on your comment regarding FXCM’s lack of a web- platform. I sometimes wish i could trade from my MAC, and despite FXCM’s windows software to be great, they are also lacking a Mobile platform.
Surprising how a forex powerhouse like them has not yet invested in these supplementary web and mobile platforms.
Does any site have a list of all companies who support MAC?
I found an interesting website: Allforexworld.com, it’s a kind of marketplace for everything around Forex, where you can compare brokers and find a lot of critical comments.
If you visit the site, don’t miss the snaps! Good informations and you can create your own snaps too…
I used FXCM and learned too late how bad they are. For one thing they will find a way to take out every stop. Small accounts stand no chance with them IMO. Also their trading platform is a disaster compared to FX Solutions.
If you only have $500 to start you will need a micro account. FX Solutions does those and allows you to change leverage on the fly … from 100:1 to 400:1 . They have a lot of neat features and allow the small trader to prosper. I have not had one bit of problem with them since starting 2 months ago, whereas with FXCM it was constant problems.
I am ashamed to admit I forgot to update this thread. I ended up going with FXsol because of the scalability. Still dislike their charting package and since you can’t trade off their charts…most of the time I’m using Dealbook 360 or web for charting.
Now that I’ve made the plunge hopefully I can get to the other side of the pond where everyone else is
Last note:
4xstar thank your for your recommends. Makes me feel much safer in the choice I made.
I’ve recently started shopping around for live brokers and I think FX Solutions is pretty good from what I’ve seen. I still use metatrader for all my charting and whatnot, but FX Solution’s web interface is pretty quick. I’m gonna try and use the software one of these days.
I still want to demo Oanda, but from what I hear, they’re kind of sketchy even though they’re the most successful company apparently.
Anyone know how stable of a company FX Solutions is?
I’m a Mac trader too and stumbled upon IG Markets - International. They even have iphone login available. I’m looking for pros and cons on it and too am still trying many different demo’s. But so far my favorites have been forex.com and igmarkets.com.
