Although the forex market is by far the largest and most liquid in the
world, day traders have up to now focused on seeking profits in mainly
stock and futures markets. This is mainly due to the restrictive nature of
bank-offered forex trading services.
Advanced Currency Markets (ACM) offers both online and traditional
phone forex trading services to the small investor with minimum
account opening values starting at 5000 USD.
There are many advantages to trading spot foreign exchange as
opposed to trading stocks and futures. Below are listed those main
advantages.
1. Bid/Ask Spread rates
Spread rates have tightened dramatically in the last years. Most online
forex brokers offer a spread of 5 pips on EURUSD which is the most
widely traded and liquid currency pair. ACM offers a 3 pip spread on
EURUSD. In stock trading, only liquid stocks offer tight spreads. Those
spreads often represent on average between 0.04% and 0.06% of the
value of the stock. In comparison ACM offers a 3 pip spread on all major
currencies, this equates to approximately between 0.02% and 0.03% on
the underlying dollar value.
Exact percentages at current rates
EURUSD 3 pips 0.03%
GBPUSD 3 pips 0.03%
USDJPY 3 pips 0.023%
USDCHF 3 pips 0.018%
In the futures market spreads can vary anywhere between 5 and 9 pips
and can become even larger under illiquid market conditions (which
tends to happen substantially more often in futures currencies).
2. Commissions
ACM offers foreign exchange trading commission free. This is in sharp
contrast to (once again) what stock and futures brokers offer. A stock
trade can cost anywhere between USD 5 and 30 per trade with online
brokers and typically up to USD 150 with full service brokers. Futures
brokers can charge commissions anywhere between USD 10 and 30 on
a round turn basis.
3. Margins requirements
ACM offers a foreign exchange trading with a 1% margin. In layman's
terms that means a trader can control a position of a value of USD
1'000'000 with a mere USD 10'000 in his account. By comparison, futures
margins are not only constantly changing but are also often quite
sizeable. Stocks are generally traded on a non-margined basis and when
they are, it can be as restrictive as 50% or so.
4. 24 hour market
Foreign exchange market trading occurs over a 24 hour period picking
up in Asia around 24:00 CET Sunday evening and coming to an end in
the United States on Friday around 23:00 CET. Although ECNs
(electronic communications networks) exist for stock markets and
futures markets (like Globex) that supply after hours trading, liquidity is
often low and prices offered can often be uncompetitive.
5. No Limit up / limit down
Futures markets contain certain constraints that limit the number and
type of transactions a trader can make under certain price conditions.
When the price of a certain currency rises or falls beyond a certain pre-
determined daily level traders are restricted from initiating new
positions and are limited only to liquidating existing positions if they so
desire. This mechanism is meant to control daily price volatility but in
effect since the futures currency market follows the spot market
anyway, the following day the futures market may undergo what is
called a 'gap' or in other words the futures price will re-adjust to the spot
price the next day. In the OTC market no such trading constraints exist
permitting the trader to truly implement his trading strategy to the
fullest extent. Since a trader can protect his position from large
unexpected price movements with stop-loss orders the high volatility in
the spot market can be fully controlled.
6. Sell before you buy
Equity brokers offer very restrictive short-selling margin requirements
to customers. This means that a customer does not possess the
liquidity to be able to sell stock before he buys it. Margin wise, a trader
has exactly the same capacity when initiating a selling or buying
position in the spot market. In spot trading when you're selling one
currency, you're necessarily buying another.