Hi carlmej

Welcome to the forum. I think when you start things off, and even along the way with Zorro (or any trading in fact) you need to budget for learning. It is normal to have teething issues that you need to overcome and which will cost you. So my advice would be don't try to trade undercapitalised. Z12 is a great system, and a great place to start. My advice would be to find 2k and start with Z12, failing that Z7 looks good at only $500 required capital.

Not sure on the spread betting, but seems like it should work. You might need to mess around with instrument codes and such.

I don't think FXCM is going anywhere anytime soon. However I would not trade with them personally, I believe they are far too expensive, and not the fastest at execution either.

I keep my strategies simple, and generally based around observable things that I can understand, so I can't offer advice on GARCH or SCHOLES.

Good luck