Big Mike 

Currency futures and major spot forex pairs trade more or less identically. Only with spot forex, you can risk $5 a day (or less) while you learn the ropes, and with futures, even micro currency futures, it is many times higher risk (and less liquidity). For a beginner, spot forex is great for controlling risk. Once you are consistently profitable, move to futures. Watch this for much more detail: Webinar: Where to start as a trader? (Part I: Instruments and Brokers)[/url]

Awesome response. Thanks a lot.

tderrick 

Forex is unregulated so there is no volume data per se.... It is a great arena to learn to read pure Price Action. Put on larger time frames ... 15, 30 and hourly and trade the bounces between the Support and Resistance Levels Look for consolidation around these areas and place limit orders up in the middle of the 15 min bars wicks you will see spike up and trade to the next level in the opposite direction. Keep your stops 5 to 10 ticks above the tallest wick to be safe from stop hunts. That is the easiest and most calm way to trade currencies ... do not scalp ... the spreads will eat you alive.

It sounds like the lack of data can actually work towards a retail trader's benefit since it levels the playing ground a bit with institutions. Might be wrong, but sounds like FX primarily comes down mastering price action.

I find it interesting you mention ticks instead of pips. I usually associate pips = Forex, and ticks = stocks, futures, etc. In FX, I wasn't aware that stop hunting was that easy. Pretty much all of my trading experience up to now has been CME e-minis.

Thanks a lot for the response.

rxtrade 

Awesome response. Thanks a lot. It sounds like the lack of data can actually work towards a retail trader's benefit since it levels the playing ground a bit with institutions. Might be wrong, but sounds like FX primarily comes down mastering price action. I find it interesting you mention ticks instead of pips. I usually associate pips = Forex, and ticks = stocks, futures, etc. In FX, I wasn't aware that stop hunting was that easy. Pretty much all of my trading experience up to now has been CME e-minis. Thanks a lot for the response.

Sorry... I have a bad habit of calling everything ticks...

tderrick 

I would Recommend Oanda and trade some currencies. The Euro / USD is the most popular and tightest spreads. Being (IMHO) the most reputable Market Maker in the business, they can control their pip size giving you the opportunity to trade from pennies to millions. The second you believe you have an edge, begin wagering. Start with $100 at a time and trade 250 size nano lots. If you lose it, trade on their practice account until you get your mojo back, then toss another $100 in. Even if you are betting and winning quarters, you begin the long process of controlling your emotions. Good Luck!!!

Does anyone have any feedback about Plus500 | Online CFDs trading, Plus500 forex trading platform, commodities, [AUTOLINK]CFD[/AUTOLINK], trade stocks, shares , equities, securities, Indices. ? They seem to offer an unlimited paper account (plenty of other instruments in addition to currencies can be traded).

thx

Best paper trading solution:

Ninja Trader

Why ?

90 days history data, no broker/data provider required.

You get futures/forex down to tick level directly from NinjaTrader servers, data that you can replay and try your stuff on.

The only disadvantage - you'll have manually download each and every day, for each and every instrument you want to try.

Check it out: Market Replay - [AUTOLINK]NinjaTrader[/AUTOLINK] Training - 2/12/2013 - YouTube