…meaning you don’t have the discipline to trade bigger $$$ anyway. At the end of the day, you can blow out a small account or you can blow out a big account. Easy choice.
I do agree with you that $20 is far to small an amount to start with, but you will have to redo your math.
A 10 pip move against your position will only equal $1.00, if trading with 1K lot, which gives only 5% of account if it were $20.
One other matter, if you are going to trade on a demo account, it could be worth considering a “micro account” trading only 1K lots.
Why is that?
Trading with real money, no matter the size, will always give another feeling than trading on a demo account, where only paper money are on stake.
I always trade as small lots as possibly, when testing, but never demo account.
…Why?..
Its not a case of either having all discipline or or no discipline, I just think it takes more discipline to trade a tiny account. I know its all percentages but because the pips are so small and its only a $20 or so account, in your head you won’t care too much if you blow it.
If you save up for a month or 2 and put in 1 or 2k (still not big sums) each trade is worth something. If you have $20 at stake on a trade instead of 20 cents, then its worth something. That will make a physiological difference to even if your not fully conscious of it
Well,it is easier said than done.By the way,you based your initial capital on $1000.We are debating small amount in the range of $25 -$50
Are you trading with $20 now or something? I don’t really like rhetoric,how about experimenting it to separate dream from reality?
Thank you for your contribution to this debate.I m not sure i got what you are trying to say,do you mean you trade live,micro account,to test strategy instead of demo account?
TalonD,
Really did you start trading with $20?
I first started live with a $500 Oanada account which quickly dropped to $17.00. For the next few months I traded the account with the balance fluctuating between $17.00 and $38.00. Then I added a few grand, started trading like a cowboy, again the balance quickly dropped! I would be a better trader today if stayed with the $17 -$38 account longer! With the small account I traded to gain a [B]percentage of the account[/B]. When I added to the account I started thinking about making money, looking for that[B] “$$ BIG TRADE $$”[/B] instead of managing my account. So having been on both sides of the issue, I think if your goal is to develop trading skills successfully trading a $20 account is as worthwhile as a $2K or 25K account.
PS But I’m frickin nuts and my advice is only worth what you’re paying for it! 
Hi
Yes, I use micro size lots to test strategies, after i have tested them on the chart.
Taken the time used, i think that it is to small an amount to use, the results you can get from this is not much, if there should be some balance between time used and what you get from it.
But i fully understand, that some might want to try it out with a small amount.
I understand what you are saying here, 20 buck is such a small amount that even if you blow this amount, it doesn’t matter. So starting amount should be bigger like 1K USD which I think this is agreeable with most plus should get you to pay more attention to your trading.
But if you start off with a small account such as 1K, you really can turn this into a million in a year or 2 with right MM, this is discipline.
Yet, no matter a small or a big starting account, you should not see $$$ as the main motivator to trade if you see what I mean.
Look at the poll. 75% of people blew their first account. You just told 75% of newbies to blow 1K, rather than $20.
Hi im still on my first acount $200 with oanda dropped $50 but getting back slowly with the help of this forum. Thankyou all for taking the time to post all the tips and stratergies.
No I started with 50, but actually 48 and change since Oanda takes a little off the top. I lost it down to about 20 before building it back up.
I can see there are pros and cons to starting with 50 verses 500 or 5000, for me 50 was the right choice. But everyone has their own unique set of circumstances.
I know if I can turn 50 into 100 or 200 then I will be good enough to warant putting in more, but by then I won’t need to.
Sorry Master petefader, my bad 
NEWBIES … I mean when you know how to trade, then make money starting with 1K.
Well said. I have nothing to add to this.
Regards,
John.
Marcell30,
Interesting. I will be more interested in knowing and learning on how you go about it.
It isn’t if you have blown a account . It is do you know why. Until we can look at our failed trades and know without a doubt why they failed. We have little chance of getting any better and are just time away from doing it again. This is what keeps me going the fact that when I do trade badlly I know what I did wrong, I hear all the time if this pair would do the right thing my trade would been ok. The market is never right or wrong it is what it is. We have to learn to flow within it or we are only fighting it.
There is a trading idea on F.F. that invloves flipping a coin. The idea being if you can manage a trade from any entry that is the main battle. Once we accomplish that. We can then start to learn to enter with a better than average edge it should be easy.
As far as size of account that is a personal issue. $20.00 to one person can be $10,000 to another. I could never demo trade as I never treated it like real money. Until I was trading $5.00 a pip before I started taking it serious. But if all you have is $20.00 the point is you can give it a go and yes it can be built up to real money pretty quick.
As you have seen by other posts the real killer is that rush to make gains. You will gain far more by reasonable trading than over risking. The toil of losing on your mind is worst than the monetary loss.
But to answer the question I have blown a few accounts. The first was 25 K But was a interest hedging strategy that was using software to place orders. I knew nothing about forex then. But had started to learn a little from that point forward.
So don’t take it personal, learn from your loss. Put it behind you maybe start with less . That way you will make yourself pay attention. Some of my best trading is from taking small amounts and building them up. Then when you get it to a decent size don’t forget where you came from…
As Shr1k mentioned, there are a few ways we novices blow up our accounts. I also was guilty of cutting winners short after prior losses, thinking that any subsequent positive trade - even if it only made a few pips - would go south on me, as well. So many times I gave away the 40-pip TP that would have been mine for a meager 10-pip profit just because I didn’t want to lose (again).
I mentioned I also traded the news a few times in the early weeks, thinking I’d build my micro account quickly with a jackpot win or two. I was trading larger lot sizes, despite having done reasonably well with good MM on smaller trades prior to that point.
I also spent a lot of time with excessive system experimentation; I couldn’t find strats that were easy enough to grasp and that also featured enough trading opportunities to fit my schedule (still working another job).
Finally, out of disgust and desperation, I began trading my max margin on what was left of the account once it fell below $150. I was gambling the remaining balance, thinking the amount of money itself wasn’t that big of a deal. (And, honestly, it isn’t - my despair is over my personal failure, not my financial loss.)
In any case, I am by no means giving up. This is what I want to do for the rest of my life. I am reloading the account and continuing to follow great trading threads with contributors like TalonD, Kenneth Lee, SanMiguel, R Carter, pipso facto and so many others. I finally feel the the pressure of trying to rebuild that first account is off now and I can truly start over again fresh.