Advantages of Currency

Lately I've been drawn to actively trading currency and doing longer term trading in stocks. Here's what I see as being the major advantages of trading currency.

1. Virtually no commissions - The spreads on major currency pairs during market hours is incredibly small. Thinkorswim usually has a 2 pip spread on USD/JPY and Oanda's varies but is usually between 1-2. This means for a mini-lot ($10,000) the cost of the trade is between $1-$2 round trip.
2. Liquidity - OTC currency markets do enormous volume. This liquidity means tight spreads. With the exception of products like SPY, most options markets have pretty wide spreads. It's like paying an extra commission.
   
3. Commissions based on volume - This is a sub-point of #1, but the commissions paid on a trade depend on the volume. Per share pricing is available with many brokerages, however most retail places still do a flat fee.
   
4. 24/5 trading - In the US currency markets open on Sunday night and close Friday afternoon. This provides more opportunities and is also great for people who aren't full time traders, like college students. This also means that there is no overnight risk. Eliminating overnight risk means more exact control over the amount of risk being taken because there aren't any surprise gaps in price.
5. Less regulation - The pattern day trader rules are a huge burden on many active retail traders. Even non-day traders have to worry about getting stopped out multiple positions the same day they put them on.
   
6. Position sizing - Brokers like Oanda allow trades of any size. This makes it very easy to set a stop-loss, determine the percentage of capital to be risked, and then size the position accordingly.
   
7. Scalability - Because the only commission paid is the spread, and positions can be sized according to risk, it makes it very easy for a trader to grow an account. By thinking of risk/reward as a percentage of capital, there is no difference between trading $100 or $1,000,000. This means a trader can develop a trading method and gain experience with a small amount of initial capital and those methods will continue to work as the account grows. This is in contrast to stock trading where a small amount of initial capital is a makes trading more difficult.