After spending some days getting used to the FXCM demo platform and watching a number of tutorials I just discovered that to open a real account you need a minimum of $2500.
Now I understand that it’s not that much money but I am a total noob and just wanted to open a $500 micro account first to learn with.
So it looks like I have to put opening a real account with FXCM on hold for now.
For the time being I still want to open a real account with a good broker and at present I have only $500 to play with. I intend to place micro lots for now until I understand things a bit more.
[B]Question:[/B]
What are the best brokers that allow newbies to open live accounts with minimal cash…such as $500?
Any testimonials?
I understand what you’re saying, but you should understand the odds are stacked against you when you’re that grossly under-funded. Check AxiTrader - FOREX.com.
Or, if you’re inclined, you can trade futures contracts w/ AMP Futures for $500. Be aware, you’ll be leveraged out like woah w/ that type of capital. But, you’ll also get legitimate volume data.
Is this even the case if I just take on micro trades…earning/losing only tiny amounts?
I would do that to gain confidence with a real account until I decided to trade with higher amounts.
FXCM not bad. There are few others even with low deposit to open accounts. Brokers such as Hotforex,Thinkforex,Accent Forex,etc. Check their reviews on FPA. Always play with demo before going live.
there’s many should meet your requirement. micro lots account, your maximum expense balance $500. I would recomended my current broker company, Armada Markets, it’s offer ECN account type for minimum deposit 300$, major spread are low, 0.2 pips average on EURUSD, as ecn account which means commision based, there’s a commision fee charged. I used this account for my scalping strategy purpose.
just remember value your first account, your first real account, trade wisely. consult regularly, there’s lot forum member would answer your question, even the craziest question one.
I just read the article and yes I figured things would be a little harder with such a small starting amount. With little capital to play with the trades have to be fairly tight and the leverage would come very close to being 10 and above.
Thing is…I gotta do what I gotta do for now.
I looked at AxiTrader…they are based in Australia…I am in Spain.
Not sure if that makes any difference…does it?
There are plenty of forex brokers who will allow you to open account even with less that $500, you just need to look for them. I’m using PaxForex services and they work pretty good for me.
There are many brokers who will allow you to start trading with very minimum amount but, if you have good funds then it become relatively easy to manage your trades.
I’m going to be honest with you Sharpturn. You need about $1500 per 0.01 lots to trade. Less than that and you are so underfunded that even a very good method will likely fail very quickly. I’ve never known anyone who survived with a $1,000 account without adding more funds, and a $500 account has almost zero chance of succeeding. Put your money in the bank, save your spare change and don’t waste it on an underfunded account. Trade demo just as you would a live account with the same leverage and trade sizes until you can afford to properly fund an account and you’ll be $500 closer to your goal.
What are the best brokers that allow newbies to open live accounts with minimal cash…such as $500?
Any testimonials?
$500 actually is a good amount since not too many brokers requires up to $500 for minimal deposit, but for the best trading conditions you may even need to deposit up to thousands of dollar (VIP account). To $500 amount, I remember minimum deposit of FxPro is $500. but you can also try other well-known brokers perryfx listed.
Thank you for your advice.
Here is the thing…I want to at least try out a real account to see if this is all “right” for me before adding a few thousand to my account.
That is why I wanted to test myself with a few hundred first.
I have read in many posts that you need a few thousand if you even want to come close to avoiding the dreaded “blow up”.
I understand this.
However, I have been testing something on a demo account that I have set up with $500.
At present I am testing out a sort of scalping strategy where I use resistance and support as well as the Fibonacci graph to locate what I think will be small pip moves either up or down.
I am trading tiny amounts because that is what I plan on doing with a real account to begin with.
The amounts are $0.01 to $0.03.
I know…this is cents but I have had a lot of success so far and am making around $5 per day.
Not much…but as a total beginner I figure it would help me gain confidence for a few months to prepare me for when I up the pip amounts.
I have no idea if what I am doing is the right way to trade but these few tiny dollars add up and I seem to have less losses compared to gains.
Just to clarify, FXCM’s minimum starting balance for new accounts is $2000. We raised the starting minimums at the same time we introduced our new raw FX spread pricing.
That said, since we only recently changed the account minimums, I want to see if I can get an exception for you. Please feel free to email me at <[email protected]> if you would like me to look into this for you, and please mention this forum discussion in your email.
" I have no idea if what I am doing is the right way to trade but these few tiny dollars add up and I seem to have less losses compared to gains. "
nothing goes wrong. from what i read, you seem not confident enough with your small starting deposit. each expert traders, mostly broker’s expert trader would suggest spesific amount for deposit. but any calculation risk are not perfectly true.
in short, it’s not all about your ‘amount’ put more attention with ‘value’ that’s how this market works, that’s how this business crash many newly traders. for 500 USD how much ‘valuable’ this for you ? that’s the key, some trader are to blind to see, and put some 10k at first attempt but never put much ‘value’ on it, as resulted overtrading with unmanaged lot size, hold loss transaction for long period, a late hedge position at large negative current trading result, and yet put more money to hold account steady, and yet ended much more money to lose. and this are common problem among traders, but all the same cause, they dont put any value for their amount deposit since 1st trading day, but they consider it’s value right when the account about to crash.
good luck with your trade. stay close with our community.
Yeah you are right. One can start and find the ground with 200$ but other can spend 2000$ on a mere gambling without even realizing where the money has gone to… Knowledge and skills plays the most important role in this case because they serve for addup to you deposit, increasing your chances to win with min. number of tries. But practice on demo, you can pick my Hotforex unlimited demo for that, you won’t be charged for that but will have unlimited tries to prepare for real trading…
You are right, I am not totally confident with just $500 in my demo account to play with but I set it up that way to be as realistic “for me” as possible.
Setting up a demo with $5000 just would not be true to what I can afford right now.
I am using ProfiForex demo account as they allow people to open micro accounts with minimal amounts. I am learning how to use MT4 and basically trying to pick out small trades throughout the day to gain small amounts each week…when all profits are added up…minus losses.
So far I am pretty comfortable with trading pips at $0.01 and $0.02.
I know…it is peanuts but a good starting point.
Sometimes I make dollar profits. My highest profit so far from one $0.02 pip lot is $7. That’s ok for a newbie.
Today I started working with Moving Averages and Bollinger Bands. These helped me a lot.
yes i think for a first timer at forex trading 2000-2500 is a bit high. you might as well start with 200 and keep it a very low lot size, and try to maintian the account and gradually grow it in a span of 4-6 months, the reason im saying this is to have that feel of slow moving pace wich is really good, this is not a game of speed and impatience will only result in a disaster. best of luck
If you don’t have up to $2000 to start trading, you should find a decent broker that will allow you get a micro account for less. There are traders who started trading with less than $500 and grabbing the best profit they can with such small amount. When you start with a small amount of money, compounding is a good way to keep it moving up.
OP, I know you are not going to like this reply… but you should not be trading with real money until you have a trading system that you have thoroughly tested in paper trading. This process can take many months. If you’re not willing to do that, the odds you will be successful in the long run are very slim. I know others might not agree but many of them have secretly blown out their accounts or will blow out their accounts sooner or later. There are very few exceptions. You don’t want to go through the heartbreak of losing ‘only’ $500… then putting in another $500 and losing that too, and so on. Before you know it you will be down -($15,000) and angry at God and angry at yourself and angry at the world and hating life. It’s a miserable way to begin trading and the misery can last decades until you stop trading with real money and take the time to develop a tested system.
I generally agree. It might be possible to trade $500 wisely at 0.01 lot per trade, but most new traders just don’t have the experience to trade it wisely. The random nature of many market moves can be quite deceiving. One could have a good system that over a period of a year would win 70% of trades, but in any one month it might win 85% of trades and a newbie would think they are a natural and can’t be beat, then the next month they may only win 35% of trades and think the system stinks and panic. I’d advise at least studying how professional traders limit losses and manage money before committing to real cash, but I realize the desire to get in there and compete with real money. It’s easy to make money in Forex, it’s hard as hell to keep it. A new trader should be very cautious and have realistic expectations. The best fund managers in the world make around 30% per year on average. If you are making $5 a week on a $500 account, that’s something like 64% a year compounded, which would put the newbie trader making more than twice what the best and most experienced traders make, so even that little bit is probably inconsistent with wise money management. About 1% profit every two weeks would probably be more realistic for a new trader, and even that might be pushing the limits of wise money management. I’m not trying to burst any ones bubble. I’m just giving my own personal opinion of what a reasonable expectation is. Pipcrawler has additional good discussion of Newbie expectations here: 301 Moved Permanently It’s well worth a read.
would suggest spesific amount for deposit. but any calculation risk are not perfectly true.