Any traders in here who actively trade metals or FOREX on traditional exchanges?

[monsterer]

In forex, the transaction cost is usually rolled into the spread the broker provides, so bigger transactions cost proportionally more than smaller ones.

Slippage depends on the liquidity the broker can provide, in exactly the same way as on any crypto exchange centralised or distributed.

IMO the real advantage that crypto provides over forex trading is transparency. In forex, depending on the broker, you can be trading against a feed price and have absolutely no influence on the market whatsoever because your orders are never hitting the real order book (on the ECN network) where the feed comes from.

Brokers have to comply with AML and KYC just like all the bitcoin exchanges so the amount of messing around you need to do as a client before you can trade is considerable.

[kisa]

perhaps one of the toughest comparisons would be with CFD (contract for difference) trading, available in Europe.

http://www.fxpro.co.uk/
http://www.aktionaersbank.de/ueberall-handeln/cfd-handel/
offers trading for ~10$ per trade. you only have to allocate 5-10% margin of the position you take.

this would be like if you want to bet on EUR/USD falling from 1.25 to lower for the amount of 12500 USD, you only have to deposit 625$ margin and pay 10$ for initiating the trade. If the rate is 1.20 tomorrow, then you made 500$ profit and pay 10$ for closing your position. In addition you pay some 0.1% bid/ask spread on the whole amount, e.g. 0.05% from midmarket price at entry and 0.05% at exit.

So you invested 641.25$ (=625$+10$+6.25$) to earn 483.75$ (=500$-10$-6.25$). In case USD/EUR goes to 1.30 instead, you will be asked to deposit additional margin or otherwise the trade will be closed automatically at a loss. So effectively, CFD allows a trader to mirror 12500$ FX position at a cost of some 32.5$, including bid/ask spread, and allocating only 625$.

The bid/ask spread would be wider, perhaps upto 1% for metals like gold. For FX, there could be multiple price changes within 1 second, 10 seconds are like eternity especially as many high frequency algorythmic traders take part. Imho, BitShares shouldn't target any professional traders at this stage, because professional trading applications evolved over decades with thousands of developers and traders working on / testing / improving them in fast moving markets...

[lil_jay890]

I have been a forex trader for the last 4 years.

For one E-trade doesn't do forex trading unless you buy a currency ETF.  In order to trade forex you need to use a broker like forex.com, oanda, interactive brokers, fxcm, or Citibank.  There are additional options outside the US.

BTSX isn't comparable to forex trading currently because of the lack of liquidity.  Right now the only easy way to trade BTSX is to buy or sell it on the major exchanges.  The wallet trading for bitUSD is servicable for longer term traders, but will never work for day traders or even medium term traders.  This is because you cant short at "market" price.  You have to compete on orders from sellers and it can take days/weeks to fill an order.

BTS needs to have market makers to provide liquidity for it's bitAssets... otherwise it will never be a functional trading instrument or platform.

[bitmarket]

I am writing some marketing materials for bitshares, and I was wondering if the cost comparisons on using say an etrade/or other similar account compared to btsx are known?

Any information would help me compare the traditional options vs btsx. Information on fees, slippage and other costs I do not know about would be great on btsx and traditional trading platforms.

A comparison on non-monetray pros and cons would be great too.

Thanks in advance.