New Trader in U.S. - ECN brokers - choose spreads or “free” stuff?

[rogersjd14]

I am a brand new trader located in the United States. I have researched basically every broker that accepts U.S. clients and have narrowed it down to two ECN providers: Trader's way and Vantage FX.

Trader's way seems to have slightly tighter spreads, but Vantage FX has additional free offerings such as News Terminal, MT4 Smart Trader, and free VPS. These "free" offerings are available if I trade 20 or more standard lots of a currency in a month.

As a new trader (I'll be trading on demo server for a while btw), should I expect to trade 20 or more lots of currency in a month? Let's say I start with $1000 in capital, and I utilize leverage?
Also, are these Vantage FX free offerings worth giving up the slightly tighter spread? Does anyone have experience with these two companies in these regards?

Finally, from everything I am reading, Oanda seems to have a pretty slick integration with Trading View in terms of charting. Any validity in dropping ECN brokers for the newer tech from a market maker like Oanda? (cTrader is not available in the U.S... we are kind of stuck with MT4, MT5)

Thanks so much!

John

 

[Pharaoh]

20 lots per month means a 1 pip spread (and/or equivalent in commissions) will cost you $200 of your $1000. That's far too heavy of trading for a 1k account.