Forex vs. Futures

Advantages of Forex vs. Futures
You pay zero commissions and exchange fees!
With Trade Center Inc. you pay zero commissions or exchange fees. How can Trade Center Inc. we do that? Simple. Because you deal directly with the market maker via a purely electronic online exchange, you eliminate both ticket costs and brokerage fees. There is still a cost to initiating any trade, but that cost is reflected in the typical bid/ask spread that all exchanges offer. However, Refco FX offers tight and competitive spreads. To try out the Refco FX trading station FREE demo click here.

You get up to 46 times the leveraging capabilities of the futures market - but with strictly limited risk!

The sheer size of the forex market (46 times greater than all futures markets combined) and the greater price stability allow you to trade with a much higher degree of leverage than is typical with futures contracts -- up to 100 to 1. Plus, you are able to select the degree of
leverage that you wish to employ in trading. Unless you specify otherwise, Refco FX sets your leverage level at Trade Center Inc.'s most lenient requirement. The actual margin requirements for leverage vary with account size. For example if your account has $30,000 in it, then the margin requirement is $1,000 for every position (approximately equal to $100,000 worth of currencies). Thus, the margin requirement is just 1% of the total value of the currencies traded - a 100 to 1 ratio. Click here for a demo.

You have peace of mind knowing you'll never be liable for a debit balance.
With Refco FX, you can NEVER have a debit balance! In the event that funds in your account fall below margin requirements, the Refco FX dealing desk will simply close all open positions. That means that, even if you are dead wrong and there is a catastrophic market move against you, you can never lose more than the amount of money you have in your account. That provides you with tremendous peace of mind. See for yourself by making a few risk-free virtual trades in your Trading Station demo account.

You get maximum liquidity
Due to its enormous size (46 times bigger than all futures markets combined), the forex market is the most liquid market in the world. The spot forex market is a $1.4 trillion daily market, making it the largest and most liquid market in the world. This market can absorb trading volume and transaction sizes that dwarf the capacity of any other market. This means that positions can be liquidated and stop orders executed without slippage.

You can easily trade 24 hours a day.
The forex market is a seamless, 24-hour market. At 5 PM Sunday, New York time, trading begins as markets open in Sydney and Singapore. At 7 PM the Tokyo market opens, followed by London at 2 AM, and finally New York at 8 AM. As a trader, this allows you to react to favorable or unfavorable news by trading immediately. It also gives you the added flexibility of determining your trading day. You get instantaneous execution and firm prices!

With Refco FX forex trading you get instantaneous execution and price certainty on all orders up to $1 million. On the Refco FX trading station, you trade directly off real time streaming prices. There is no discrepancy between the displayed price and the execution price. This holds true even during volatile times and fast moving markets. Real time streaming prices ensure that market orders, stops, and limits are executed without slippage and/or partial fills.

You never have to worry about rolling over your positions!
With Refco FX, open positions are rolled over automatically every two days. As a service to you, at 5:00 PM New York time Refco FX automatically rolls over all your open positions (swaps the trade forward) to the next settlement date two business days in the future. As is true with futures, there is often a carrying cost associated with rolling over a position. Moreover, forex positions sometimes can actually make you money on the roll-over. That is because your profit/cost is determined by the difference in interest rates between the two currencies. Thus, if you are long the currency with the higher interest rate in the pair, you will actually gain on the spot rollover through the premium relationship of that currency relative to the short currency. The amount of the gain is determined by the interest rate differential between the two currencies, and fluctuates day to day with the movement of prices. For instance, on any given day, the rollover can be $2 per lot for USD/JPY and $15 for GBP/JPY. Rollover fees are shown in dollars, and are posted in the "interest column" on the Refco FX trading station every day at 3:00 pm New York time. For day traders that never hold a position overnight, there are no carrying costs whatsoever. Try out the Refco FX Trade Station with a virtual account.