Has anyone successfully started with a small startup account and built it to a sizeable account?
I realize this is not recommended and that you should just save up which is what I intend to do, but I’m wondering if anyone has broken the mold and started from small beginings. I dont know if people will be willing to share, but it’d be interesting if people could share their experience trading on a mini.
Maybe, something like:
Starting account: $xxx.xx
Account age: 2 years
Current value: $xxx.xx
Avg trades per month: 20
I’m just curious to see what the success/fail rate will be. Also it’d be interesting to see what the max someone has turned one of these into. Anyone else curious or is this a dumb question?
This could be interesting, but I would have to say that with only $250 you’d be looking at a micro account, i.e. 1 cent/pip. I am practice trading a system and even at 1:200 leverage, in order to trade enough (with this particular system) $1000 wasn’t enough for a mini. It seems do-able with $2500. I have read many places that say anything under $10000 should still be a mini. I first considered a $250 micro account, but the more I learn and practice, the less worthwhile it seems.
I’m considering such a project very soon. I promise to apprise you of all interesting parts useful to your research. If it cannot be done I’ll find out. Thanks for your interest and encouragement.
I started with a micro account 2 weeks ago with 100.00 dollars.
Today I am up to around 400.00. I have no experence so maybe its just beginners luck. But it can be done. I buy small lots 5k-15k per trade and scalp every night. You just need to be very careful to watch your margin / leverage
I started with 75 and after a month and a half or so I had it up to $110 or so max… however recently I dropped down to less then $2 so… Take that for whatever its worth, been trading for 2.5 or 3 months or so…
Total deposited to date ~$100: Act balance: $25.09 Realized P&L: -$69.39
I was doing good, got stupid now I gota work my way back up, but I’ld rather loose $100 then $1000, first I’ll learn, get good. Then I’ll be good with an ever increasing account balance (monthly/biweekly deposits + P&L)
This worries me, luck? I got lucky that trading the way I did (MM rules) Didnt burn me sooner! Now I can trade with the same return in the same situation without violating the risk rules (varies between 5 and 1% (not per trade, per – well, I’m just trying diffrent numbers currently at 2.5% or less, was 5% or less, always ended up being around 2.5% lol)) Just becareful, make sure your not violating MM rules…
Sorry I glanced over your post when I posted I’m guilty of typing/reading under the influence of charting I’m just giving you a heads up on the hope that you have good MM rules, if not, its gona bite you sooner or later.
I had relaxed MM rules but I also had an attack of the stupids (I lost my account not really by risk but by revenge/over trading, I lost 3 trades in a row, threw my MM rules out the window, threw sanity out the window shortly thhere after, and slowly went down to $25 act balance, then went down after that much much faster!)
Good luck!
Don’t count me out, I’m comming back, its just gona take awhile the market isnt really ment for my system except for short term trades Working on a bollinger band trading stragie.
Keep in mind that in practice, you should be trading just as you intend to when you go live with a large amount.
IMO, practicing with $250 live is a waste of time. I know there is a thrill with real money that you don’t get with demo, but not with $250. You can lose that and just shrug your shoulders - so what. I think one is better off using demo with the figures 5k 10k 15k that you will really use. It conditions your mind to seeing the actual numbers at those levels. Then when you go live it’s not so scary. Then you can go live gradually, who says you have to quit demo?
If you’re down 100 on a 250 account, that’s an awful lot - 40%, you’d never let it get that far. Whereas - 100 on a 15k account is nothing - .6%. But if you’ve been trading 250 then you’ll likely pull the trigger too soon when trading with the larger amounts.
Remember that trading is mostly psychological, and we must train our minds. I am training my mind to make dollars on a trade not pennies.
Vulcan, thanks but no thanks. This isnt a place to lecture about why or why not to work with this amount of capital. We can read all about it elsewhere.
I’m just curious for those that have tried, or are currently in the market for a minimal amount of cash, what there actual experiences are.
With most brokers your setting yourself up to fail if you have a small account, with Oanda you can work around it. Now granted with my account size right now I’m looking at $1-$5 for a really good trade – however I’m only looking at 20 to 50 cent risk. This isn’t worth it at the surface, when my account was bigger, the numbers were bigger. I setup Oanda to trade X% of my account with 2.5% risk and 5% reward. Then I tweek my trade ammount so the risk lines up with where it should be on the chart, and then my reward lines up with approximatly where it should be, I’ll manually move my TP to be where it needs to be.
This allows me to trade with literally $1.50 (Granted I dont make diddily squat that way) or $150 or $1,500, the only thing thats diffrent is the numbers – the percentage of return stays the same. I can work my account up after being good for awhile I can put a bit more money into it, and then more n more… etc…
With a normal broker I’ld have a minimum to start with, and a level at which I cant trade, provided I have more then $0.02 in my account I can trade with Oanda. Granted entering the market with $1 does seem a bit counter productive.
That’s interesting Simy - does that mean they don’t show you dollar, but percentage amounts? It’s been a while since I’ve played with Oanda.
I also hear you can manage multiple accounts with them.
No they show me the dollar amount but by default its X% of my (at that moment in time) balance (or NAV or W/E other options there are)
My SL and TP are what I love the best… its 2.5% for SL and if I change my ammount( eg units) of my trade, and click SL off, then back on, it goes back to 2.5% based on the new trade ammount its 5% default for my TP…
Take that for whatever its worth, been trading for 2.5 or 3 months or so…
its 5% default for my TP…