Looking for a little advise here

Hey guys,

I've been trading with interbankfx for a long while but I stopped trading the spot market for a period because I went to work at a prop shop trading futures. I've been thinking about trading my own money again because, well its a long story. I've been scalping the yen daily because my bread and butter trade at the prop shop requires me to monitor the yen daily. Been getting very good profits, average of 10-20 ticks a day.

Also, I think TRT's FirstStrike system holds a lot of merit and I've been tweaking around it and found that it actually works very well. So basically, I want to start scalping yen and other currencies, and do a mechanical strategy like TRT's First Strike.

I've been looking at 2 brokers, EFX and Oanda. The pros of EFX is that it'll be good for my scalping, because I made my profits scalping futures which normally has a 1 tick spread, and I don't usually pay the spread because I'm able to be a marketmaker. With EFX, the spreads are tight and nice, and I'd be able to save a lot of commissions because of that. The only problem is that EFX does not allow long/short orders. That is, I can't do my mechanical strategy and scalp at the same time.

With OANDA, the spreads arent that bad, but the leverage is only 1:50. I know, high leverage isn't good but I've been trading for a long time now and I know how to handle it. A second reason why I want a higher leverage is that, I want to prove that you can grow your account with a minimal sum. I intend to place only 500 USD. I take this as a personal challenge because frankly, ever since I started working prop, I've lost my goals for trading. You might wonder why, since I'm still trading at the prop shop, I've lost it. The truth is, I'm 19, and according to regulations here, I'm not able to get my split of profits that I make. So i get a fixed salary, irregardless of how well I do. That changes everything eh? I've learnt a lot trading there, but I can't help but think, I've been making money scalping there, why can't I just mirror the trades? So there. Thats the main reason why.

You can have 'sub-account' at mb/efx, one for each strategy. You would have to use 2 sub-accounts at Oanda too, because they net long and short trades in the same account there just the same as efx.

oh really? that's great! I didn't know that. One more thing, they're rollover rate are quite steep arent they?

Oanda's rolls are much better last time i checked. Also, if you plan on using sub-accounts much, Oanda has a web-interface, where you can create and move funds between sub-accounts instantly, while et efx you have to use their customer support.

But why not add a little cash and stick with futures? At MB you pay less than half in commissions compared to their spot offer. Afterall, you are familiar with futures, and trading costs are crucial for a scalper. Also, there are futures brokers with good commissions and $500 intraday margin for 6J - that compares to 1:250 margin requirement in spot - if you are concerned with leverage.

Oanda is the better choice b/c they are cheaper... Also, I have run my own prop shops in the past and I would never have a trader on board who wasnt working for his profits, which means you should get away from that job as soon as you can...if you are any good there are a lot of places that will take you.

Well, with 6J the tick value would be 12.5USD. I would never be comfortable trading at that size without an account with 25k or more. So I think I'd stick with spot because I decide what lot sizes to play.

And actually after thinking it through, I guess I'm more comfortable with OANDA. When I scalp at work, the priority is with the company so I'd have to execute the trade there. With EFX, prices would have probably moved off before I can key in my entry price and stop. Its a freaking clunky platform.