How much capital do you have in your forex account?

I simply put a sensible amount with my broker, enough to cover trades, then have my principal fund with a bank, and I trade 1% of the combined total per trade. So I am risking a lot more than 1% of what is deposited with my broker (who might think me mad!) but just 1% of my overall account.

I spread my trading among 3 Forex Brokers. Mainly for spread reasons.

If one broker is getting way out of hand in the spread, then I can place the trade with one of the other 2 Brokers.

This also is some protection in the event a Broker goes bust.

sounds like a plan. :slight_smile:
I hope their actions will bear fruit in the near future.

Two new developments in the last few days indicate that regulators are trying to get out in front of the safety of funds crisis that has gripped the futures/forex industry. However, these reforms may not extend to the retail forex market.

On Friday the National Futures Association approved a new rule requiring all Futures Commission Merchants to grant real-time, online access to FCM bank accounts. This rule is in response to Russ Wasendorf’s bank statement forgeries which had fooled regulators for 20 years. The language specifically references FCM’s and we are currently checking to see if Retail Foreign Exchange Dealers (RFEDs) will have to comply with the rule as well. FXCM’s position is that RFEDs need to be more transparent, which is why we also support a rule requiring all FCMs/RFEDs to fully disclosure their financials to the trading public.

The second development came last Thursday at a meeting in Chicago, as reported by the WSJ, in which the CME was reportedly “softening” its opposition to an insurance fund for futures traders. Again, however, no mention of extending such protections to retail forex traders was made.

Futures Industry Leaders Discuss Insurance Fund - WSJ.com

While both of these development are positive, the negative aspect to them is that retail forex may very well be over looked. This is why we are strongly encouraging the trading public to contact the CFTC and leave comments about the need to further protect retail forex traders. Traders can leave comments using the link below:

http://comments.cftc.gov/PublicComments/CommentForm.aspx?id=1250

Aside from the above, make sure your money is kept in trust for you by the bank that the broker uses. This way you get the money you are entitled to whatever happens to the broker. And if the bank goes bust any deposit protection scheme will then apply.

There must be many retail traders with $million accounts, just like there are businesses with $million bank accounts. Money has to sit somewhere some of the time and hopefully in one of these: WORLD’S 50 SAFEST BANKS 2012 | Global Finance

I have over 200k in my trading account and am quite happy with it being there. I use a broker that has been in business for many years and is listed on the London Stock Exchange and has its accounts fully audited.

just out of curiosity… are you profitable trader ?

how many years?

are you familiar with Lehman Brothers?
PFGbest?
are you aware of what happened to them?

you still need to be on guard in these crazy times.

Hi, I have some $40000 in my 2 accounts and i earn it in 2.5 years with starting balance of $5000 only. I know few traders who are trading on $1M account. I use to take risk not more than 6% of my account and always wait for my point to open the trades, after careful analysis. This is market for those who give the respect to it by learning good strategies and in timely market movement.

I got 17500 eur on trading account and my risk is max 0.8% per trade 140 eur no less no more and I am only trading cable

Just over 7K USD with my broker, most of it is now [I]earned[/I] equity. They are well capitalized, but I am considering opening another account when the time comes, but not before I am completely liquid (no debts), and have re-established a nice savings account with a [B]Canadian[/B] (some of the safest in the world ~ or so they say) bank.

How did you come to the 0.8% figure?

Also, how many trades do you take in an average month and what’s the risk/reward?

I’m asking because I’m wondering how one could grow an account where the max trade is less than 1%. I’m assuming that the average trade is less.

I got also time stop loss for month and this is max 5% and if I blow my account down -5%, I stop trading for rest month (cheasing girls :slight_smile: relax from trading), and 0.8% is from: I have divided 5% in 6 trades 5 / 6 is 0.8333% per trade and after taking 6 loss I will have a break.
In trading month we got about 21-22 trading days and in average 2.15 trades per day and winning trades are about 50-57% and got about in average 15R in month (my R is 140 euro) and my paycheck from trading is 2100 euro (average) and I blindly follow my trading plan and everything got writen on paper and it’s work’s for me in this way. I recommed for you very good book, do take a look for use one from Ebay, Van Tharp’s Definitive Guide To Position Sizing

Thanks for the recommendation on the book. I’ll probably order it on Amazon soon.

As to the “taking a break” thing…that doesn’t really make sense to me. If one has a system that has a true “edge” then why would you ever take a break just because you lost a few in a row? Consider the example of a casino. They have an edge on every game they run. If the players all start to win for a bit, do they close the casino and take a break? Of course not. The edge says that the losing streak will average out and the time will come when the players will fall into their OWN losing streak, and by the end of the month when they have to do the accounting, the edge will be there.

Remember, if you lose 6 trades in a row and take a break you might skip 5 winners in a row that would have averaged things out, then as soon as you sit down to trade again after your break, you fall into another series of 6 losers in a row. The five winners that you WOULD HAVE earned had you just worked your systems edge are considered Type 2 Losses. That is, they are money that you SHOULD HAVE earned, but didn’t because you didn’t pull the trigger. Most people don’t make the connection mentally, but the fact is that a Type 2 Loss is just as much a loss as the Traditional Type 1 Loss. People just like to pretend that if you never actually took a position, then you never really took a loss, but when you are SUPPOSE to pull the trigger and don’t…well the lack in your account is still just as real as if you took a position and then saw your stop loss hit.

As to position sizing, my thought is that one should use the largest position size the system can handle while (and this is key) accounting for the inevitable black swan event. So if you have a 55% winning system as you say, then largest losing streak you can expect to see over the course of 50,000 trades according to the mathematical laws of probability would be 13.

Whether you trade your system without breaks or you trade it with breaks you’ll one day hit a point where you tear off on 13 losses in row. Build your money management plan so that you take on the maximum risk possible without getting wiped out if you hit 13 losses in a row. I mean that seriously. If you really do have a 55% win ratio, then you’ll not be able to dodge this losing streak. It’s GOING to come. So between now and then, wouldn’t you want to amass the most profit possible? And then, after the losing streak is over, wouldn’t you want to go back to amassing the most profit possible? The only way one can say “no” to this is if one is in denial that you’ll ever really see a 13-loss streak. But that’s like trying to make the claim that 2+2=5…at least for you.

Just a thought.

I started trading with 1,200USD with FXCM and i currently have slightly under 3,700USD. At one point I was down to 500 but over the past couple of months i’ve had a very nice win streak (in my opinion) and i’ve withdrawn some of my profits. As for a 100k trade account I wouldnt really want to keep that much in a trade account simply because crazy unexpected things can happen Crude example: I used to play PokerStars online poker and when it was ruled illicit my funds along with everyone else’s were confiscated luckily i only had what i would consider gambling play money obviously different from trade capital but none the less money i could live without. Still to sum it up I personally would keep capital under 50k simply because you can always add more funds pretty quickly if you feel you need it and if your practicing proper risk managment you will never be in extreme need of extra funding fast. My suggestion would be whatever your compfortable using to trade with pretend its 100,000 keep perhaps 20% or 20,000 in your account and the other 80,000 in a bank or in a liquid asset and if your getting close to needing it top your account off. I hope my ramble helped you in some way lol Goodluck final final thought would be don’t trust them with huge somes of capital.
Also i think i finally see your reasoning behind the question. Everyone here says risk 1-2% of your account so that must Mean they have over 100K in there account otherwise they would never make any real money. Here’s the sad truth they say it. Maybe some and this is the ideal strategy don’t get me wrong… However I sincerely doubt every trader here saying it does it realistically. I risk more than 1-2% of my account all the time simply because i know its backed up by money that i can safely invest in any venture i chose, which i don’t hold in my forex account. If you have more money that you can safely risk in forex somewhere that you can get to quickly i wouldn’t worry about it just don’t risk something insane like 50%. I’m just saying if your trades take up 6-8% margin with good capital on standby your safe, the whole idea of 1% assumes all of your capital available to trade with is in your account ( I have a bank account specifically for investment capital along with a physical stash of investment capital and ofcoarse i have my investments that i could liquidate to suit a new venture like trading frex for example is relatively new to me compared to other fields.) Ok that was a rant sorry lol but i think if i hit home to your logic you feel better knowing a decent trader/ invester who has been around for a few years in multiple markets (yes still kind of new to forex but understands money management very well) who isn’t affraid to say they don’t have 100k in any account that is uninsured and trade more than 1% in relation to lot size without blowing every account in every market i’ve ever entered.

Hello Assasin,

just do take a look here Cowabunga Trade Record | Forex Blog: Pip My System and here 2008 Cowabunga Trade Record | Forex Blog: Pip My System , this system works and is updates on daily base since december 2006 and about -5% time stop loss, you need have some kind of self control, we are working with probability and from time to time sometimes happen, I have my rules write dont on paper and I just follow them, you can adjust how you wish, I have tweek out this system, that I got external data feed on news in few milisecond delivery,and I know if I stay at trade or not. Every system can be better and also money managment rules can impover from time to time, I trade in this way, was inspired from Pipsurfer and this works for me.
best regards Phepi

As long as it works…that’s really all that matters. While I agree with you that there is always the potential that one could “improve” his system, it seems to me that many times people really are better off just leaving things well enough alone. The “tinkering” seems to be able to set off a chain reaction of bad things the results of which show that it would have been better to just work the system as originally intended.

Hope all continues to go well for you.

You can open a micro-lot account with as alittle as $1000…

Now I had $500 in my trading account .This amount differs time to time.Some times it is greater than $1000 too. I do not want to invest very large amount .This amount is enough for me to get reasonable profit ratio . I can grow it wit my skill. Your trading should successful even with low amounts too.

[QUOTE=“imbest;733136”]Now I had $500 in my trading account .This amount differs time to time.Some times it is greater than $1000 too. I do not want to invest very large amount .This amount is enough for me to get reasonable profit ratio . I can grow it wit my skill. Your trading should successful even with low amounts too.[/QUOTE]

You should make up a trading plan such as what I want to achieve in 1 year, 3 years and 5 years from now.
And ultimately what is the purpose of you trading forex?side income or full time trader?
Just my two cent opinions…hehehe