Algorithmic CFD Trading

Hi Folks

Firstly I'm enjoying reading the threads here - great community!

I'm interested in getting into FX CFD trading. CFD because I just don't have the capital for the real thing, nor could I afford the transaction costs involved.

I'd like to work on two possible avenues. The first is to get a CFD account, get into some small trades and see how it goes, using this as an opportunity to formulate some trade entry/exit strategies and to do a whole heap of self-examination before risking an increase in risk capital.

The second is based on the principle that one should stick to one's trading plan. I'm reasonably good with Java, and am considering writing my plan as an algorithm, coding it up n Java and then letting it loose in a live CFD environment. To do that I would need a CFD provider which exposes the market data and the execution facilities as an API to which I could connect.

So, two questions to start with. Any recommendations for a good CFD provider (I'm in London), and any recommendations of a good API provider?

Thanks and regards, Robin.

You can trade small size in FX via Oanda or InteractiveBrokers.
Both offer an API.

There is a list of brokers with API support here:
http://www.tradingmachines.net/dir_brokers.html

you wanna trade fx on margin or cfd's?

I wanted something a bit more formal than FX on margin, so I'm looking towards Futures.