4 ms·

Heck, I'm pretty sure you can open a forex trade account with a retail broker for as little as $25 if you're fine trading nanolots and making fractions of a pen

by iamdave 10y ago

Heck, I'm pretty sure you can open a forex trade account with a retail broker for as little as $25 if you're fine trading nanolots and making fractions of a penny every trade.

koolba 10y ago
I'm not familiar with the margin rules for forex but given how shady that business is (seriously it's just a bunch of sharks fleecing anybody they can get their hands on), I wouldn't be surprised if they give you leverage at such small amounts. For a traditional brokerage account though the minimums are generally larger. Also, there are specific rules as to how much margin they can provide on a per security basis based on whether it's a actively traded, pink sheets, etc.
- iamdave 10y ago
  given how shady that business is (seriously it's just a bunch of sharks fleecing anybody they can get their hands on) There's definitely sharks fleecing people in the sense of "buy my automated trading bot!" or "pay $500 for my class and I'll get you pips for days!" or "Pay me $300 for this strategy that will win every time" but forex inherently isn't shady. It's no more shady for an individual trader than stocks, bonds and ETFs as you're legitimately and singularly acting on changes in the value of currencies. This, and there are numerous respectable retail brokers who aren't in the game of anything other than opening/closing positions for their clients. The nature of the security makes it a lot easier for properly registered entities to create markets where trades can happen sans the sharks you're mentioning. The idea that "forex is for scammers" is losing a lot of validity and it's an attitude that I-a guy who trades with his spare/drinking money-wish would go away entirely. At the end of the day, currency trading can be just as risky and loss-worthy as trading stocks to someone who A) doesn't know what they're doing B) is excessively risky with their positions C) all of the above.
  - TorKlingberg 10y ago
    There is a difference in that with stocks you can go long and reasonably expect a couple percent return in a year. Most people, even those who trade a lot are long overall. In forex you have to beat the market to make anything. It is only rational to trade forex if you have a good reason to believe you can outsmart the market, or if you are hedging currency risk that you already had for other reasons.

by iamdave 10y ago

Heck, I'm pretty sure you can open a forex trade account with a retail broker for as little as $25 if you're fine trading nanolots and making fractions of a penny every trade.

koolba 10y ago

I'm not familiar with the margin rules for forex but given how shady that business is (seriously it's just a bunch of sharks fleecing anybody they can get their hands on), I wouldn't be surprised if they give you leverage at such small amounts. For a traditional brokerage account though the minimums are generally larger. Also, there are specific rules as to how much margin they can provide on a per security basis based on whether it's a actively traded, pink sheets, etc.

iamdave 10y ago
given how shady that business is (seriously it's just a bunch of sharks fleecing anybody they can get their hands on) There's definitely sharks fleecing people in the sense of "buy my automated trading bot!" or "pay $500 for my class and I'll get you pips for days!" or "Pay me $300 for this strategy that will win every time" but forex inherently isn't shady. It's no more shady for an individual trader than stocks, bonds and ETFs as you're legitimately and singularly acting on changes in the value of currencies. This, and there are numerous respectable retail brokers who aren't in the game of anything other than opening/closing positions for their clients. The nature of the security makes it a lot easier for properly registered entities to create markets where trades can happen sans the sharks you're mentioning. The idea that "forex is for scammers" is losing a lot of validity and it's an attitude that I-a guy who trades with his spare/drinking money-wish would go away entirely. At the end of the day, currency trading can be just as risky and loss-worthy as trading stocks to someone who A) doesn't know what they're doing B) is excessively risky with their positions C) all of the above.
- TorKlingberg 10y ago
  There is a difference in that with stocks you can go long and reasonably expect a couple percent return in a year. Most people, even those who trade a lot are long overall. In forex you have to beat the market to make anything. It is only rational to trade forex if you have a good reason to believe you can outsmart the market, or if you are hedging currency risk that you already had for other reasons.