I’ve traded both equities and futures in the past. I eventually ventured into Forex and I’ve found that it is the market that best suits my personality and my trading style. So here are some of the reasons why I trade the Forex market versus other markets. Have any to add? Feel free to post a comment!

• Low minimum capital requirement: I trade with a small account (especially since I’m still working towards becoming consistent), and Forex allows me to trade an appropriate size relative to my account and trading style without risking too much. The broker that I’m with, Oanda, lets me trade any size that I want. All of my trades at this stage are in the hundreds of units, for the most part, which means I’m risking around $20 per trade.

• Low transaction costs: In the futures and equities markets, you are charged a commission, plus a spread, plus other fees in some cases whenever you place a trade. In Forex, you are only charged the spread, which for most major pairs is a couple of pips. Since I trade small size, the amount that I end up paying my broker per trade is pennies, compared to a few bucks per roundtrip on a futures trade or a buck or more on a stock trade.

• Trends well: I’ve read that the Forex market trends better than any other market. People attribute this to its macro-economic nature, or its liquidity, etc… Regardless of the reason, I have noticed in my time since I began to watch the Forex market that the major pairs trend more often than not, and that the trends tend to be long-lasting trends.

• Well-suited to technical analysis: I’ve also read that Forex is particularly well suited to technical analysis, due to the fact that its trading volume dwarfs all other markets and the markets never close.

• Always moving: The Forex market is open twenty-four hours a day, and when things have died down in the U.S. session, they are just picking up in the Asian session. As the Asian session winds down, the European session gets going. As a result, there’s more opportunity for movement and fewer gaps.

• No restrictions on short selling: Unlike with equities, there are no restrictions on short selling. In fact, whenever you buy one currency, you’re shorting another at the same time. So, while it may be easier to capitalize on uptrends rather than downtrends in the stock market, in Forex it’s just as easy to go long or short.