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Your second point brings up a question I have - When you make the trade (buy the currency pair) is there any sort of time limit on how long you can hold it? Or fees involved in holding?

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No time limit, as far as I know, assuming you're not doing options. Fees for holding the position: none, but you will either be charged or receive interest based on the interest rate differential of the currencies that you have paired--and that will be based on your fully leveraged position, not on the funds you have committed for margin. Some people even take positions mainly for purposes of gaining the interest differential over time.

I read that George Soros trades around 3-1 or 4-1 leverage. Yes, you could probably go a bit higher on really strong-looking trades, but if you go like 50-1 you are just asking to get taken out at a loss due to relatively small fluctuations. The more reputable houses usually recommend you don't go over 10-1, although they will allow you to go far higher. Also, I have read recommendations by good experienced traders that you should risk no more than 1%-2% of your available capital on any one trade. I can vouch by personal experience that there is wisdom in what they say in this regard, and that it is very easy to get into a bad spot if you overleverage, or overtrade, or take a larger position (percentagewise that is).