I know little about online trading or (investing in general), but I want to learn especially about Forex. All I know is "buy low and sell hi" concept which is self-explanatory and common sense in all trading.However, do I HAVE to have a broker to trade online? After I learn about Forex trading, can't I just open an account, do the practice trading for months or even a year, and do the trading myself online? Is this a common practice, or do majority of investors hire a Forex broker to do the trading for them?

Nope. You can set up an account at etrade.com and do it yourself.

Hi,even i am new to investing/trading..here is my answer.The online account you have created is with a brokerage firm. When you place buy/sell orders, he is the one who executes it for you. You cannot directly interact with the stock exchange.Broker shall execute your call and charge you a nominal amount as brokerage.Ashwin

I just signed up with Scottrade and as far as I know you don't; however if you want to you can.I just started a money blog on yahoo. Please join and share you experiences!http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/mymoneyblog/Scottrade gives you 7 free trades if you use the following promotion code: JCFK0804

There's a free guide you can download at http://www.forexfromscratch.com which teaches you about this kind of stuff - it's really helpful.

well if you are lazy to do the stuff yourself, then you may hire a borker, otherwise, you can always be on your own to learn and trade forex. you may register in this site and download a Free Forex Ebook for your initial reading. the best feature of this site is should you decide later to do practical trading, simply open an account with them and they will provide you a personal Account Service Manager to be your consultant, mentor and trading partner as well. personal service is still the best key to learn and profit from this trade.

The Forex broker is the intermediary who facilitates the currency transaction. In order to make retail(spot) trades on the Forex market, yes, you will have to use a broker of some sort to facilitate your transactions. However, I believe you may be confusing a Forex broker with a Forex money manager. A Forex money manager is an individual/company that is an experienced Forex trader who is given power of attorney to trade the Forex account you set up at a Forex broker. You do NOT have to use a Forex money manager. You can trade your account yourself, or hire someone to do it for you.

Hello, Andy;No, you do not need a broker. With Foreign Exchange trading, you are buying and selling money. Brokers usually get a fee for handling transactions, as well they should. They are performing a service. If you want or need a brokers advice, (and if you're just starting to trade, have not traded stocks or anything else, you do need a broker's attention.) You'll be money ahead to have professional help to start. Not all want to steal your money.(I'm not a broker, but I have studied the market for many years, including passing the Series 63 SEC test just for fun. There are no commissions in Forex trading. You pay the spread between buy and sell prices. Each brokerage sets that spread and even on the major pairs there is quite a difference between brokerage houses. The houses with the smallest spreads provide the least amount of service. Why not? You Must Pay for service rendered. It's only fair.Find somewhere that will allow paper trading first. It's not the same as the real thing, but you get to know the procedures. If paper trading uses realtime data you'll learn a lot without risking your funds. Just be sure to ask about the spread on pairs you think you'd like to trade. Trade only the majors, not some unknown. By the way, do not use the maximum margin. I recommend you use cash only. You will probably last longer. You should have at least $25K minimum. Some will allow you to open an account with as little as $250. Might as well hand them the money. Best Wishes.

Open an account with sogotrade, get alot of free trades.here is referal code453934enjoy!

I personally like ShareBuilder and have been with them since I turned 18. It has since merged with ING Direct. What I like about ShareBuilder is they have a lot of tools on their web site, and it's pretty easy to navigate. The trades are $4.00 if you sign up for automatic trades on Tuesdays. If you want one instantly, it's about $10 -- down from the $16 they used to charge before they merged.

With the merger, they now also have mutual funds as well. So it's nice having options. If you open an account with ING Direct, you could also add that account to your ShareBuilder account and invest in CD's should that be an interest for you.

I've also tried other brokerages and did a lot of research as well. Zecco I considered, but it didn't really appeal to me. Seemed to be too many "strings" attached. TD Ameritrade, E*TRADE, Charles Schwab, SoGoInvest et. al tend to have way too many strings attached.

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