Minimum Amount To Open First Account Too High!

[estoyyoo2]

Hi, I could suggest opening a trades account trading Binary Options

[Burt]

The best fund managers in the world make around 30% per year on average.

That’s true but also a bit misleading. That figure is what the best managers make for their clients in restricted client accounts. Many of the top managers make much more than 30% per year in their personal accounts where they are allowed to use more leverage and do so because they have complete trust in their systems. For example, hedge fund manager Jaffray Woodriff (of Hedge Fund Market Wizards) has averaged around 118% per year in his personal account for over 11 years.

[sharpturn]

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

That is pretty much the plan although I will most likely start with $500 because that is what I have been practicing with on MT4.

I am nowhere near being good enough for a real account although I would like to experience the psychological side of things to see if I am the sort of person who would stress out a lot.

Right now I am playing with dummy money so there is no real stress when I lose a few bucks.

[sharpturn]

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.

Yeh, I have my eye on a few brokers who allow micro accounts. When I am ready to open a real account that is what I will do.

[sharpturn]

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 agree, the last thing I want to do with my first real account is blow it up before I even get a chance to learn anything. So paper trading…would that include practicing on a demo account?

I looked up “paper trading” in Google and it mentions trading simulators.

[sharpturn]

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.

So far for the past couple of months I have been practicing with a $500 demo account. I trade as though I am trading with my own real money.

Most trades are 0.01 and the most I have tried is 0.03 although I scalped that trade.
I know it is a good idea to get a feel for one currency and stick to it but I want to practice so I place a few trades on various currencies.

I am learning to understand the candle styles and a couple of indicators and then using all that information to make a decision.

I am still not 100% sure of what I am doing…some i gain and some I lose.
My highest gain was with EURGBP for a three day trade. I made $5.29 - $0.01. I set a trailing stop with that. I like using trailing stops but I am not sure I have got the hang of using them correctly yet.

Of course, after the $5.29 gain I lost the odd few cents and dollars in other trades and ended up breaking even!

Now I see the importance of money management.

[Graviton]

So far for the past couple of months I have been practicing with a $500 demo account. I trade as though I am trading with my own real money.

Most trades are 0.01 and the most I have tried is 0.03 although I scalped that trade.
I know it is a good idea to get a feel for one currency and stick to it but I want to practice so I place a few trades on various currencies.

I am learning to understand the candle styles and a couple of indicators and then using all that information to make a decision.

I am still not 100% sure of what I am doing…some i gain and some I lose.
My highest gain was with EURGBP for a three day trade. I made $5.29 - $0.01. I set a trailing stop with that. I like using trailing stops but I am not sure I have got the hang of using them correctly yet.

Of course, after the $5.29 gain I lost the odd few cents and dollars in other trades and ended up breaking even!

Now I see the importance of money management.

How long have you been trading? I’d advise getting at least three profitable months IN A ROW in demo (no cheating!) before going to real cash. Every successful trader I know crashed and burned at least once before getting their trading legs under them. Many several times. If it’s probably going to happen, have it happen in demo and save your capital for real trading after the market has given you a few scars. It might happen a few times. It did for me.

[sharpturn]

How long have you been trading? I’d advise getting at least three profitable months IN A ROW in demo (no cheating!) before going to real cash. Every successful trader I know crashed and burned at least once before getting their trading legs under them. Many several times. If it’s probably going to happen, have it happen in demo and save your capital for real trading after the market has given you a few scars. It might happen a few times. It did for me.

I have had a demo account for around 2 months.
I agree…I don’t plan on getting a real account set up just yet. I have a lot to learn yet and need a lot of practice.