Currently I use Oanda with a tiny account just to learn. I don’t like Oanda because they requires 600$ fees just for using their API. I like Metatrader but I don’t like the Brokers on Metatrader seems to me they are all trading against their clients account.
So I went to Interactive Brokers Site but it’s not clear for me. Let’s say I fund an account with the minimum which is 2000$ (I’m not sure but maybe it’s 5000$ I don’t remember), can I trade on Forex with such minimum ? If yes what leverage could I have on EURUSD for example ?
IBFX seems great (I love metatrader and their debit card) but spread of 2 pips is not interesting for me as I am scalper. Maybe for swing I would open an account with them.
OK I tried Interactive Brokers free demo (their java software really sucks but it’s “professional” as you seem to have a huge set of features).
I bought/sold 20K units of EURUSD made 35$ profit for 17.5 PIPS gain which requires 500$ margin and cost me 2.5*2 commission which means each pip is worth 2$ and so for 20K units it commission is 2.5 pips more than IBFX.
But if I bought/sold 50K commission would be 1 pip and for 100K commission would be 0.5 pip.
So for people having decent account to risk that is interesting. Not sure I want to risk such account for now so I think I’ll stay with Oanda for a while
Now their spread is 0.5 pip and they have book dealer which allows to see the market inside so maybe I’ll give a try.
I have IBFX as well. Theres a misconception that scalpers have to risk alot on any given trade. I’m a conservative scalper as I risk no more than 2% on a trade that way, I can ride trades longer and don’t have to worry too much about overcoming the spread.
Scalping is not defined by your percentage risk: swing trader also do not risk more than 1 or 2% of their account. When I say scalping it means hyper-frequency trading or micro or nano-scalping get in/out for 1 pip : you can only do that if commission is 1 pip or less with IB you could get even 0.1 pip commission if you’d trade 1M which would require 25000$ account only
Going for one pip to me is kind of redundant. IMHO, scalping is intraday-trading. In and out in the same trading day (wether it takes you a few minutes or hours). If you’re going for one pip, you’d have to be risking alot to make significant gains and you might be cutting some real winners short. I just don’t see the point of it. No disrespect.
Technically, that doesn’t have to be the case. Your position size would proportional to your risk. If you’re aiming for 1:1 within 1 pip with 2% risk, it all comes down to whether your broker can accommodate that position size (given leverage restrictions).
I would rather qualify you as daytrader with a swing style as you want to rely on trend. True scalpers do not look for trend in fact some style of scalping is even fading the trend on purpose.
Risk/Reward is based on probability * points. I would say Swing trader relies on huge points, true scalpers relies on huge probability. Of course you have in-between. Both can be daytraders. Of course a nano-scalper may have to trade 10 100 or even 1000 times in a day
