Forex - Cash versus Futures

[don.gading]

Which one is better ?

Futures is a regulated market with less stop running as far as I understand, so you are less likely to be stopped out of a trade. Do you also get more timely signals as a result on the futures - less noise ? Positioning in the futures is also taken in advance of cash market moves. Of course the cash doesn't always do what the futures want it to do.


I have looked at volume analysis,and futures often give clearer indications of movement.

There seems to be a fair amount of success with some users on forex and any views would be welcomed.

I am poised to buy MTP and I am seriously impressed with its ability to enter manage and exit positions, controlling risk and profit, taking away most of the indecision a trader faces.

Cheers


Chris

[pbb]

First there was cash, then came the future.
Cash is far more important, a future is just a friendly thing that will help you to easily position yourself in a standardized contract with the cash as underlying.
Volume in forex doesn't mean a thing, the euro is not gonna move because of what you see as volume. You'll probably only see 1% of the daily volume. Forex transactions are not exchange regulated, there is an interbank market, federal banks are buying and selling, .....,they do not report their volumes.
There is volume in the currency futures, but the futures are probably traded by us, daytraders and investors, and the cash is traded by the ones that make the difference in forex, so even futures-volume is not reliable.
I don't say you should not trade the futures (I do trade the futures myself), but be aware that a future is nothing else then a cash-derivative.