How many veteran traders here blew out their first account?

It’s been a matter of lore that most young traders “blow out” their first accounts, losing so much that the initial account no longer has enough balance/margin to place trades, based on the normal lot sizes for that account type (micro, mini, etc).

So, how many [I]veteran[/I] traders here have blown out their first account forex trading - to such an extent that either a new account had to be started or significant funding had to be added to restore your first account to trading viability?

I’m a 6 year veteran, but I didn’t blow my first account…I blew my first 5! hahaa. Nuthin’ like learning something the hard way…at least you learn, eventually.

NickB (Owner of another popular forex website and method) blew at least one IIRC but he’s now gone on to make plenty of money from the markets

I’m sure theres a fair few more but he’s the main trader I’ve been researching recently

MerchantPrince, I’m guessing you just blew your first account? I won’t answer because I’m no where near being a veteran.

Au contraire. With the support of great person,I never loose my account.i am relative new to forex(less than a year ) but i can tell you that i got self-discipline.I was just not in hurry to trade to make money.i was initially interested in learning and what makes PA acts the way it does.so,i learn a great deal of information that i don’t have a cause to loose my account.
John.

Well, I started with a $500 micro account and after some very foolish attempts at trading the news when I was only in my first month of trading (back in October), I took that down to like $200 and it never recovered. It’s slowly dwindled since then and, after two back-to-back losses today - and my first margin calls, it’s essentially dead with less than $50 in it.

So if it looks like this thread is an attempt to make myself feel better, then that’s probably because it is. :o

Don’t feel bad I am no veteran except when it comes to blowing accounts.

Moving stops
letting losers run cutting winners short
set it and forget it with way to big of a stop and a large trade
revenge
trading news (by accident) not knowing when the news was
averaging down
excessive system experimentation
gambling the remaining balance of an account after all of the above

Don’t feel bad
I look at all of this as a learning experience and I am still out less than a rip off FX course:) Take a break, start small stick with something that works for you. For a long time I judged my progress by how long I could keep an account active. I feel I am turning the curve by sticking with something that works for me. I have confidence in what I am doing, that is really important. You can’t get that by following someone’s strat blindly. If you have confidence in your strat and your trades you can see when they are going bad and get out quick with no bad feelings. Then wait for the next set up with a cool head.

Todays quote
[B]IF you are going through hell - KEEP GOING[/B]

I blew almost 70% of my first account which caused me to stop trading for a short while so I could screw my head back on the right way.

I started quite small so it wasn’t a big deal and after that I reloaded and then some.

It’s like most other things in life, we fail a couple of times before learning how to do it right. I can still remember some scraped knees from learning how to ride the bike… This is no different really.

Talon D is 100% right:
Quitters never win, and winners never quit.

Get back on the horse!

Although i have been in trading since 1989, i can still remember that i blew my first account, but honestly i can not remember how many times i had to refund;)

Now i know that only one thing can keep your nose above water - DISCIPLINE!!!

Keep on learning and you will make it.

Regards
Marcell

Thanks, guys, the encouragement helps – along with the knowledge I’m not alone in this failure. I’d hoped to be among the few who started with $500 and built it up into a fortune (over time), but the reality that I blew it really got to me yesterday. Digging myself those big holes by trying to trade the news early on really set me back.

Look at it this way - retail traders don’t make money anyway :p. I haven’t found a single case of a retail trader turning a small sum into any material amount of money. Not one. I’m sure there’s a few out there, but I bet you can count them on one hand. You literally have a better chance playing the lottery.

Trade because you enjoy it and want to build your skills, not to get rich. If you ever find an edge and are consistantly profitable, the money will come.

i personally know two retail traders that are quite quite quite rich. one is my best friends dad who trades stocks and another is just a good friend i met a while ago (forex). sooooo im sure it is possible to make money as a retail trader. honestly from what i know the only thing that seperates retail traders from professional traders (which obviously trade for themselves aswell) is experience. to be a pro trader you need lots of experience, something that a retail trader might lack for now but eventually they’ll have the experience if they stick with it.
im not sure what u mean by “material amount” but im sure after a good amount of practice 40k-200k yearly for a simple retail trader is quite attainable and with enough experience (and capital) 500k+ yearly is possible, after all if you make 100$ a day off of 10 pips once you build your capital why cant you make 10000$ a day off of the same strategy and 10 pips? same trades just different lot sizes (and more risk of a heart attack as well :p)

One thing i notice that is common among folks is the pretty small amount of money,say,$25,$50,$100,$250, and so more to start trading.Any broker that tells you to have minimum amount of $25 is only interested in your spread.Believe me these are small money to start trade if you want to make cool profit.And keep in mind that success takes time.Even babypips authors recommend minimum of $2,000 to start micro account.see this
Forex Capital: How Much Money Do You Need for Forex Currency Trading?

Further,I dont understand why folks want to jumpstart trading without adequate capital.Even the so called money management starts with adequate capital.
You are better offf trading paper money(demo account) and save a lot and then start real trading than you to start with inadequate capital.Just one or two loss of 10 to 20pips can put you in margin call if you start with $50.
Good luck.

That depends on what broker you choose.

Oanda for instance allows you to trade just 1$, should you want to. That means you can virtually always practice good MM.

As for the majority of brokers, you’re right.

Just one or two loss of 10 to 20pips can put you in margin call if you start with $50.

This depends on the broker I use Oanda they use number of units not lots to size trades, other brokers do similar things. If you have a small account you need to be able to size your trades in a way that preserves your MM.

With all due respect,i still dont agree with this. What percentage of your account are you willing to lose should trade go against you with an account of $20? Say,you are using 0.1 lot size, for every one pip that goes against you in this trade you are losing 5% of the account.So,where is the money management? 10pips against you,you have lost 50% of the account. Where is the money management? Am i missing something?

I think your starting capatal has a phylosophical effect on you too.

I mean if you start with something like $25 - $50 and your using proper MM you will be making something like $0.01 a pip. That’s hard to take seriously and a lot of people will start to up the % of each trade.

20 pips a day 100 a week or 400 a month starting with 1k and trading 1$ pips (assuming you average 20 pips/day) will turn 1k into 200k+ in 60 weeks and using that 200k+ in you account (i think its like 214k) averaging the same 20 pips a day can earn you over 1000k a year. all you need to do is use propper money management and increase your lot size according to your capital

What you are missing is that with Oanda you can trade as little as 1 unit of base currency so like $1.00 trade. So you can proportion your trades to appropriate money management even with a miniscule account size. So with a $20 account if I want to risk 2% with a 20 pip stop loss, then my trade size is only 200 units of base currency, (check my math as usual) I don’t know if Oanda is the only broker that allows this, and this amount may be peanuts but it’s all percentages and if you can do it that small then you can do it big, and if you can’t then you can’t.

ok, math. 2% of $20 is 40 cents, divide by 20 pip stop = 2 cents value per pip. so that would be a trade size of $200, I think that’s 0.0002 of a standard lot…

dang I can’t do math in my head anymore.