Forex to futures

At the end of the day, trading is trading! Whether it is stocks, options, futures, or FX, the market moves based on supply and demand and that supply and demand can get plotted on a chart where price movement can get analyzed with trendlines or your favorite indicator.

Both Futures and Forex trading involve a significant amount of leverage, though the leverage offered to Forex traders is typically higher than futures, especially outside of the United States. Leverage gives traders the power to manage large positions with a relatively small amount of trading capital (margin).

The required margin capital for Forex is usually higher than that for Futures. Margins for Futures contracts are set by the exchange, while Forex margins are dictated by brokers. Forex brokers are often trading over-the-counter (OTC) without centralized clearing, which increases the risk to your trading capital.

For example:

Crude Oil futures (CL) trade at $10 per $.01 of price movement ($10 per tick). That means if you bought 1 contract of Crude Oil  at $80.00 and you sold it at $80.10, you made 10 ticks on the trade. $10 * 10 ticks = $100 minus transactional fees. Now imagine if you had 3 contracts at $80.00 and closed the position out for 30 ticks of profit at $80.30, that is $900 minus fees!

Forex markets are fragmented across a broad range of brokers, exchanges, and liquidity providers. Due to a lack of transparency, conflict of interest between brokers and traders, and other forms of market manipulation, Forex liquidity pools add another layer of risk to an already risky trading environment. 

For centralized markets, like CME currency futures, all market data on all trading platforms comes from a single exchange, offering traders more highly advanced order matching and liquidity depth.