Trading Platforms

[outspoken]

Hi Everyone. First post for me.

I've been reading through the various threads and have picked up some very good pointers, thanks to all those that contribute, it makes things easier for newbies and you all have a wealth of knowledge.
Forum's are great aren't they!

My question is: I have done enough reading and learning over the past 6 months to now wnat to start paper trading. Having read through the threads here there seems to be a general consensus that the following trading platforms are used.

1. Lattitudefx
2. The Saxo platform
3. Oanda

Can you all please provide your experience with platforms and brokers? I'm trying to work out which one to use.

Should I use something like Lattitudefx for Forex and Saxo or Oanda for futures etc?

Thanks in advance

[AMR]

Oanda is Over the Counter (OTC) forex too, not a futures broker from what I know. I believe there's a thread over on the forex forum dedicated to Oanda.

The platform used by LatitudeFX is called Metatrader4, it's a very common platform amongst overseas providers. Search around, you might be able to find a broker that gives you an unlimited demo account. Let us know if you find anything . I also like Latitude's small pip sizes, you can trade 0.01 lots minimum ($1000 per currency as opposed to CMC's $10,000).

If by futures you mean CFD indices, take a look at IG markets or CMC. I think CMC is more suited to beginners, they have much smaller pip sizes although their platform is almost a toy and a pretty poor effort at that. They have an S&P500 index which has tiny pip sizes (50c US) and their SPI/ASX200 is pretty small at $1 AUD per pip. They also have some small pip sizes for gold, silver, and crude oil.

[outspoken]

Thanks AMR

Yes I meant CFD's & commodities

I just read through the Oanda thread you mentioned, seems alot of people like it just the spreads are too big and they don't have trailing stops and enough indicies, commodities etc.

Has anyone used the Genesis Financial, Trade Navigator?

[AMR]

Thanks AMR

Yes I meant CFD's.

Is there such a thing as a broker where you can use their platforms to do everything?

I.E if I looked at CMC, do they have a Forex platform too?

Yes CMC can do almost everything...share CFDs, forex, indices, commodities. I would avoid their NZ share CFDs due to poor liquidity though.

There's interactive brokers if you want an "all in one solution", they're based in the US but have very cheap comissions for ASX stocks in the vicinity of $6 mininums. They are a true futures dealer too.

[outspoken]

Cheers AMR.

[peat]

CMC does everything but the platform sucks the life out of your PC. and when I tested their demo platform it was completely different to the real one and didnt work properly and they didnt seem to be interested in fixing it.
Theres been a few new demo platforms mentioned recently in the forex forum , gomarkets (Austrailian) and DBFX (deutsche bank ) and theres abnamromarkets as well which I use for demo with indices forex and some commodities , its using the Oanda engine so the interface is similar. I think you will find links to these platforms if you search the forex forum or google.
I prefer Oanda for forex as its very flexible in that its web based and no minimum trade size . And from the 3rd party risk perspective they are the best capitalised broker. Yes the platform could be improved with a couple of features but its pretty good all said and done.

Definitely recommend demo trading for a while....
its a jungle out there sometimes I wonder how I keep from goin under uh huh huh huh (quote grandmaster flash)

[outspoken]

Thanks peat.

Update: I spent alot of time researching yesterday and report as follows.

Saxo does everything, but you need a minimum USD$2,000 balance for a mini. Reports are that the platform is good.

Genesis Financial - Trade Nav is a premium platform but it costs anywhere from USD$50 to US$250 per month for the data, they do everything and the reviews are excellent. again you need a US$2,000 for a mini account.

Oanda - taken reviews from this site, appears to be the favourite. no dynamic stops however.

CMC - Poor platform. Upside is the low tick sizes.

FXCM - good platform but spreads are too high. Upside is a NZD$300 minimum account

Interactive brokers - USD$2,000 min

Latitudefx - NZ based, ASB affiliated (I bank with ASB) seems to have a good platform although the Charts aren't the best apparantely. NZD$1,000 minimum account.

So, anyway I've decided to use Latitudefx for my Forex for a while until I get enough Capital to switch to either Saxo or TradeNav for a full broker service.

[AMR]

Went for a trial run with GoMarkets MT4 today, good range of forex and metals but I was hoping to play with their mini-futures which are no available on demo. Will report back to you guys on my findings.

[graeme50]

I use SAXO 2 but only for Real time information and that does everything. FREE. when the trial period runs out I sign up again.

[outspoken]

Went for a trial run with GoMarkets MT4 today, good range of forex and metals but I was hoping to play with their mini-futures which are no available on demo. Will report back to you guys on my findings.

Any update on GoMarkets AMR?

And, Graeme50, Are you live trading with Saxo? They were recommended to me too.

I've looked at using Saxo but I have a problem using the charting, it says my Microsoft.net framework is outdated and I need to install 2.0 but when I try that it says it can't install because the 2.0 service pack is already installed. When I go to uninstall the service pack my comp says the path can't be found, I'm not a tech so I gave it a rest until i can get some help.