First thing is don’t get discouraged. Everybody goes through this when first starting out. You said you spent a couple of weeks to sum up getting exactly what this post is getting you more opinions. There is nothing wrong with opinions, as you will find out in forex trading there are much more opinions masquerading as facts, than facts. Very little has to do with almost always you should do this or almost never do this, most is in the middle under to do or not to do; depends. For example look at this post and what you’ve got is opinions based on the poster. That’s not going to help you, what you need is a broker, platform etc, based on your experiences and needs.
As you’ve probably gathered by now there are tons of banks, brokers, introducing brokers, etc. that offer a ton of different options,. You have to look for one based on your needs. For example demo accounts. Some brokers have offer several trading platforms in their live accounts, but only offer MT4 or 5 in their demo accounts. Or they offer a one cent minimum deposit in their live accounts, but not less than 10,000 in their demo accounts. Another option leverage. Live accounts they offer 1:100 demo 1:1000. Some brokers have time limits and some don’t.
Don’t look at reviews on an individual basis, but look at them on a whole. If 10 traders tell you, you’re looking at a duck, and 2 say it’s a horse, nothing is definite, but based on the probabilities you’re probably looking at a duck. When you see a bad review, what you really want to watch for is the response. (Don’t actually do this but if you did post this) FXCM is a scam and sold all my money. don’t deal with them. Before the end of the trading day, I guarantee you will get a post from Jason asking for all the info so he can find out what happened. The response to a claim is a thousand times more useful to you than the actual claim or bad review.
Now the thing is you can have as many demo accounts as you want. Several of us in this community have more than one or two. Before you do anything live you should demo first if nothing more than to see what their support is like, how the trading platform you want to use works etc. Another thing about brokers and what they offer, some offer very little in the form of education, because they are looking for experienced brokers, some offer tons upon tons of free, articles, webinars, strategy video’s, tools to help you trade.
So here’s my opinion. MT4 or 5 is a very easy platform to start with. It’s pretty straight forward has all kinds of indicators you can add, they have their own support forum in case you can’t get what you’re looking for here and most brokers offer it. For any terminology you don’t understand, go here and look the term up
Using Currency Correlations To Your Advantage
Here’s my quick rule of thumb when looking at brokers.
- How long in business? Not to say under 5 years means they’re not legit, but again if they’ve been in business for more than 5 years, on the balance of probabilities and keeping in mind nothing is for sure, they are probably legit and won’t run off with your money and pay you when you want to withdraw.
- What kind of broker are they? I only deal with banks or independent brokers, not to say again introducing aren’t legit, I found better service from independent or a bank.
- Do they allow different strategies, I’m an opportunity trader, like today for example I got in and out of the market, some people refer that as scalping, so for me it’s very important that the broker allows it.
- Straight through processing, I don’t deal with Market Makers, I want my trades to go straight to market.
You can get the answers to these questions and/or any questions you have by contacting the brokers support. This is very valuable information because it not only answers what’s import to you, but you can also see how long did it take support to get back to you, what did they say.
Once you pick your broker then demo trade, learn the platform, and again ask support questions, to do with your trade. Same reason see how quick they get back to you and what they have to say. Once you’re comfortable with the broker, your trading method and money management, open a live account again small deposit, and see what’s what. Again hope this helps, but it’s just my opinion
Gp