I am a newbie and need some advice.

[Cable]

CTGJr, thanks for that, it offers a reasonable explanation. The September CFTC filing should confirm things.

PittsburghFX, yes, the numbers on the CFTC website are true insofar as they are reported by the individual FCMs but the post by CTGJr offers an explanation of the plunge in value.

I have an account with FXCM myself and one with OandA. All brokers in retail FX have their plus points and minus points but above all I want to know that a company is overseen by a regulatory body and also is financially sound.

[TazExprez]

Hey, I decided to open two mini accounts. One with FXCM and one with Forex.com. I will be checking them out next week and see how I do with real money. I will probably lower deal in smaller lots than with the demo account so that more trades can be done. Hopefully my accounts won't be wiped out too soon. Wish me luck. Thanks a lot for all your help.

[PittsburghFX]

I encourage everyone to shop around to see who is best for themselves. Taz, good luck man. I am here to help.

[ampris2000]

oanda has an auto margin call.
it prevents your account from losing all of its money. it will automatically sell for you if you are losing that bad.

my goals for now are 100 a day. sometimes i made more, sometimes less. with my limited knowledge it was rather easy.

my question is :
is there a difference with the data you are fed with the practice accounts vs. a real account?
just wondering because i see where people say it is different with real money.

thanks. and i need a book on the basics of forex trading. i know they are out there. i don't believe i need to pay thousands of dollars for a 3 day class.

[PittsburghFX]

the demo accounts are about 1 second delay. The difference is the fact that when you trade real money that you worked very very hard for, thats all emotions that you do not want to lose. In trading you have to accept losses as a part of trading. At the end of the month is when most traders judge themselves.

[PittsburghFX]

Books: Murphy's Technical Analysis of the Financial Markets

Also Buy the supplemtal for taking quiz's. It s a MBA book Murphy teaches at NYU. Excellent. Its all I ever needed.

[TazExprez]

Thanks a lot for all of your help. I am currently taking an introductory finance class at NYU. My current major is Economics. I also have four minors in Pre-Business, Computer Applications, Computer Science, and Math.

[TazExprez]

I graduate this semester, btw.