Forex trading or Post Office?

[Four Cofffee]

I was looking about for an alternative to banks and shares for investing. I usually holiday in places where the $ is used. When the dollar hit $2 to £1 I bought my holiday money and by the time I went it was done to about $1.54. It looks to be back up now 1.67-1.68.

It occurred to me that buying dollars once it got high again, and waiting for it to fall was one way of speculating, and being able to spend those dollars if it didn't fall or even rose without losing too much.

Anybody had an experience with Forex? Can you take your currency out in dollars or will they just convert it back to £?

[mcflurry]

I would open a USD account somewhere like Citibank