Demo Accounts and trading

[Blaiserboy]

I prefer the conservative leverage and higher time frames.....

I have a few years experience........ the small time frames have burned me more than a few times......

There are many simpler systems available for daily charts and they are lucrative.

There is a thread in here 'Technical Templates 2', I so urge people to watch that thread, there are some excellent ideas in there.



Technical Templates 2

[vicky_ag]

Ahh, forgot to add that part. I am not planning to risk more than 2% per trade.
ie no more than $10 at stake.($500 *0.02)
So, 10 pips = $10
1 pip = $1
Loss of 10 pips makes me $490 and Profit $510 going on a single trade.
Taking that, I am aiming for around 10% of the money(500*0.1 = 50) in my account per day.
For that I need 50 pips a day(I know I recant my previous statement of 10 pips a day. But then , I am completely new to this and need to recalculate and recalibrate things to make them achievable and not blow up everything onto my face. )
Basically , my plan is to go from $500 to $1000 in a total of 2-3 trading weeks(Considering I have a ratio of 75:25, good days to bad days, improbable but achievable.)

Panning the whole thing out, I intend to not withdraw even a single penny for atleast 3 months(approx 13 trading weeks). The colloary of this is quite clear if you follow the calculation part.

Also, I will call it quits if I lose more than half of my trades, meaning if 3 trades go against me in a single day, dont trade.(Need to calibrate.). Following the plan, lose less-win more.

So, in a short, my plan is:
1. Risk no more than 2% of my account.
2. Quit for the day if already made 10% of my account.
3. Quit for the day if you lose more than half of your trades.

Is this achievable? I dont know, maybe some experienced guys can help me out here. Give some feedback.

If you trade with your full leverage you will be overleveraging your account. You will probably lose your account as it is a huge mistake. If you leverage your whole account, even if you have a 10 pip sL and 10 pip TP, you will lose a large chunk of your account if you use all your available leverage.

If you lose 10 pips, then fully leverage your postion again each time you will exponentally lose your account. It will happen very quickly.

I would try to work out a better system. Something to the effect of not riskying more that 1-10% per trade, over that 10 pip sl or TP. Compound your account slowly larger. If you consistently make 10 pips as your account grows, that 10 pip gain can equal more and more and still only risk x%.

For a more precise example. Lets say you only wanted to risk 1% on your account and had a -10 SL.

500 *1% = $5.00 risk

$5.00 risk / 10 SL = $00.50 cent pip value. (Trade a lot size that equals .50 cents a pip and when you lose 10 pips you've lost 1% of your account)

Now lets say you win your ten pips. Your account has now gone up by 1%. Now you compound and figure eveything off of $505. Keep compounding up, and when you lose compound down at your desrection.

Please don't leverage your whole account. Sure you could get lucky and hit a few big trades, but eventually you are going to blow out. And since your account didn't last very long you won't have gained very much valuable experience that you need from your first account.

[Argentum]

I know that DEMO accounts can be tricky, because they are usually 100,000 or 50,000 accounts and when we, rookies, open a Micro live account, we fund it with 100 bucks. So the question is, are there any Brokers that offer Micro Demo accounts? Of between 100 and 1000 bucks of virtual money?

Cheers.

[ThePhoenix]

I know that DEMO accounts can be tricky, because they are usually 100,000 or 50,000 accounts and when we, rookies, open a Micro live account, we fund it with 100 bucks. So the question is, are there any Brokers that offer Micro Demo accounts? Of between 100 and 1000 bucks of virtual money?

Cheers.

Yes, that's exactly what I did at IBFX. You have to specify micro account or it will default to a regular account. You can specify the balance too.

[vicky_ag]

Yes, that's exactly what I did at IBFX. You have to specify micro account or it will default to a regular account. You can specify the balance too.

I tried IBFX but there also I have a huge demo account. Someone, please help me out to chose a good $500 demo account.

Just look at my luck...I opened an Alpari account and tried to lose money. I couldnt do that also.

[ThePhoenix]

I tried IBFX but there also I have a huge demo account. Someone, please help me out to chose a good $500 demo account.

You have to start another demo and start it as micro. Use their live chat to guide you through, that is what I did. They are very helpful.

[vicky_ag]

I bet on a currency pair to fall below 1.2920 so I put a "Sell Stop" at 1.2920.
Next I put SL as 1.2930 (10 pips apart) and TP as 1.2910 (10 pips apart).
The "Sell Stop" is triggered but I dont make any profit/loss ie no TP or SL is triggered. Why? I am doing something wrong? Btw, it is on IBFX, do they hunt stops which might explain this??
PS:Checked my A/C history, it says deleted. I didnt even put a fixed time frame which might explain this.

[ThePhoenix]

I bet on a currency pair to fall below 1.2920 so I put a "Sell Stop" at 1.2920.
Next I put SL as 1.2930 (10 pips apart) and TP as 1.2910 (10 pips apart).
The "Sell Stop" is triggered but I dont make any profit/loss ie no TP or SL is triggered. Why? I am doing something wrong? Btw, it is on IBFX, do they hunt stops which might explain this??
PS:Checked my A/C history, it says deleted. I didnt even put a fixed time frame which might explain this.

Others might disagree with me, but I do not believe IBFX stop hunts. Other traders DO hunt stop, intentionally or otherwise. It's just that stops tend to gather around the same areas of support and resistance and retraces, as that is where everyone logically puts them. If anyone stop hunts it is the banks you are trading against. They have enough power to put pressure on price and make it move a bit to a support and resistance area they know stops are clustered around. They'll hit it, then since all the orders have been triggered, and they have their commisions, their is no reason for price to keep going that way. So, price continued where you orginally though it might. This is where traders get mad and think their broker is purposely moving price because they know where their stop is. It's not the broker (unless you are using one that is a scam), it's the 300 pound gorillas, the banks. It makes it look like price took a special little trip just to find your stop loss.

If you are getting stopped out a lot, it's likely you are jumping in a move as it happens and trying to chase price. By then it's too late, especially on the shorter time frames, the move is already on and will probably retrace by some amount.

What you want to do is go long or short when price is moving short or long. In other words if you want to go long, you wait until price is retracing short, ALREADY under your entry and stop loss. That way if it is a retrace it will go up your long will trigger and you will catch a good portion of the move. If it isn't a retrace and the price continues short your trade won't even trigger unless you've set it too short or their is a large spike for some reason.

Sure you can get some wins trying to chase price and get in move as you see it, but more often than not it will end up hurting you.

I can tell you from experience though, if you dont' use a SL thinking someone is stop hunting and it will eventually go in your direction, you will lose a lot more when you are wrong.

I've asked IBFX on several occastions if anyone their trades on IBFX's behalf. I was told they are a Straight through processor and get their liquidity from a pool of banks. I asked them the other day, "so if you don't trade against your traders, then why do your spreads widen around news?" I was told. "Because the price and spreads are basically fed to them from the banks they deal with."

[mp6140]

two things to respond to here --- first, i believe ALL MT4 brokers, when you register for their demo, will provide one that allows you to set the actual equity amount you wish --- its located on the lower right side of the download page and you can backspace over it and enter the amount you wish.

ive often said to simply enter a lousy trade to reduce your equity, but also wondered what would happen if the trade turned GOOD --- so i have to laugh a bunch at what is said below. Just try again, i guess !

NOW, im going to comment yet AGAIN about interbankfx ---- to my way of seeing, and based on real accounts, they are to be shot at dawn, or at least strung up in the same manner as Mussolinni !

use anything resembling support and resistance and set your tp --- EVERYONE ELSE hits that point, EXCEPT interbank --- they miss it by whatever is the spread, and now try SHORTING with them and watch as they pick a tp point ANYWHERE WITHIN THE SPREAD that they choose, once again missing the support point that everyone else hits !

maybe they dont do it with demos, but try a decently funded REAL account and see what happens, especially if your win rate is above average.

with all my heart and soul, I STATE THAT INTERBANK IS THE CROOKEDIST GAME IN TOWN and have absolutely NO respect for a country that lends money to friend and foe alike, and at the same rates !

my experiences only but i have a LOT of experience !

mp

[ThePhoenix]

two things to respond to here --- first, i believe ALL MT4 brokers, when you register for their demo, will provide one that allows you to set the actual equity amount you wish --- its located on the lower right side of the download page and you can backspace over it and enter the amount you wish.

ive often said to simply enter a lousy trade to reduce your equity, but also wondered what would happen if the trade turned GOOD --- so i have to laugh a bunch at what is said below. Just try again, i guess !

NOW, im going to comment yet AGAIN about interbankfx ---- to my way of seeing, and based on real accounts, they are to be shot at dawn, or at least strung up in the same manner as Mussolinni !

use anything resembling support and resistance and set your tp --- EVERYONE ELSE hits that point, EXCEPT interbank --- they miss it by whatever is the spread, and now try SHORTING with them and watch as they pick a tp point ANYWHERE WITHIN THE SPREAD that they choose, once again missing the support point that everyone else hits !

maybe they dont do it with demos, but try a decently funded REAL account and see what happens, especially if your win rate is above average.

with all my heart and soul, I STATE THAT INTERBANK IS THE CROOKEDIST GAME IN TOWN and have absolutely NO respect for a country that lends money to friend and foe alike, and at the same rates !

my experiences only but i have a LOT of experience !

mp

How long and what size account did you trade with IBFX? And who do you recommend as a broker?