Put in a $1,000. Do things right and that’s all you’ll ever need to put in. And if you don’t do things right and lose it then it’s not the end of the world and you can try again after correcting your mistakes.
i think fxopen has probably the closest demo to live.
Hello, Robert
I was amazed to read your statement about FXCM.
I thought that segregated customer accounts were legally required in the U.K. It has always been my understanding that the FSA [B]requires[/B] segregated accounts for [B]every[/B] client of [B]every[/B] broker they regulate.
In fact, I have said on several occasions that if the CFTC here in the U.S. wants to do something useful (for a change), they should stop screwing around with leverage, and instead follow the example of the FSA and require segregated customer accounts.
[B]Have I been wrong all these years about the FSA requirements?[/B]
Ok, but it’s not as if FXCM is gonna go bust anyway.
Part A:
Dear KateM welcome to our world of Forex. I am amazed that you made a few thousand dollars from Forex practice account. It’s not bad for a newbie:35:. Some people keep losing. Keep studying this will bring you a good amount of money.
Part B:
You didn’t mention the time you are practicing Forex. I won’t encourage you unless you are 6 six months old in Forex.
Part C:
You made a few thousand dollars from Forex practice account and you said that you started with 50k. It’s not yet good enough to start a real account. You may start and win some money but if you ask me I won’t encourage you. And I have the statistics with me. You have to make at least 100k as you started with 50k.
Part D:
I guess you should start with 50$. If you can make one or two dollars daily then jump to 100$ and then gradually climb the peaks. success is waiting for you.:57:
No you are absolutely correct Clint… its an FSA bedrock principle that ‘client’ funds remain legally seperated from ‘compamy’ funds as a requirement of license in the advent of bankruptcy i.e. the liquidator cannot touch client funds.
My account is held with FXCM limited. In their ‘Code of Conduct’ it clearly states, ‘client money deposited with FXCM LTD will be segregated in accordance with FSA client money rules’. FXCM
However, I was sent an FXCM email some time ago stating a change to its terms and conditions for larger accounts stating that client money would no longer be kept seperately. As it did not relate to my circumstances I did not keep a copy. I have tried to access FXCM inc Code of Conduct but have been redirected to FXCM Ltd. I trust you can enlighten us… a worring development if it proves to be the case?
Robert,
I’m still confused. I went to this webpage — Forex Regulation — and found this (copied and pasted here):
Forex Capital Markets Limited (FXCM UK) is regulated by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) in the UK.
Accounts with FXCM UK are segregated in accordance with FSA client money rules. FSA, one of the world’s most respected financial regulatory bodies, regulates FXCM UK. Accordingly, in the unlikely event of default, client funds held in segregated accounts are protected, and cannot be used to benefit other creditors.
As I said Clint you are correct re FSA and FXCM LTD. Unfortunately I am not able to access FXCM inc (.com) ‘code of conduct’ as I’m redirected back to FXCM Ltd (.co.uk). So I am unable to acertain if indeed ‘client’ funds are still segregated or as it suggested in a recent email to me ‘larger’ accounts would no longer be, in accordance with their (FXCM inc) new terms and conditions.
Being your side of the pond, you will doubtless have better access to FXCM inc than I on their servers.
Well, [B]FXCM Inc[/B] does not refer only to FXCM’s business on “this side of the pond”.
FXCM Inc is the NYSE-traded holding company which owns and controls FXCM brokerages in the U.S., the U.K., France, Australia and Hong Kong.
So, anything (e.g. Terms and Conditions) applying to FXCM Inc applies to every FXCM entity in the world.
When I made the statement about watching how much money you keep in your account. I wasn’t referring to anyone one company in particular, however, if you would like an example of a company that I was looking into. Finfx, which is an ECN broker that offers incredible spreads. At times as lows as .2 pips on the EurUsd, but in researching them, I discovered that they are not bound to any regulatory committee’s as they are located in Finland and Finnish law does not require them to do so.
So, back to my point, There is really no reason to keep more than 10k any a broker account to begin with and if you should happen to get it above that amount. Pull the money out and put it in a safer location and that basically would eliminate the risk altogether.
Laws and regulations change all the time and lets not forget that some countries enforce laws more than other while other country laws may be no better than the paper that they are written on. Its all about enforcement at the end of the day, and sure a person may have a legal direction to pursue a company if they did get ripped off. Honestly, how long would it take to get your money back even if you had legal recourse.
Again, I was just putting out a word of warning.
I’ll bow to your superior knowledge of ‘inc’… being an American term… I’m on firmer ground with Ltd. LOL. The point I was trying to make is that FXCM UK side all is OK with ‘client’ funds so I’m not unduly worried. But in whatever form FXCM exists to its clients in other countries it would be worth reading the fine print to see if the same safeguards exist given the recent email I received.
I see your point but if the broker is regulated and has legally seperate ‘client’ accounts then I see no problem with having a large sum with them. Say for example you started off with $1000. With weekly compounding at 5% growth per week. In two years your account would be $159, 840. Taking out funds in the early phase of compounding would cripple the maths.
How so? Does the money have any less value when it’s in another account?
Compounding relies on the percent gain (in my example 5% a week) being added week on week to starting capital of a single account. Each week the account grows by 5%. But in the second week you effectively have 105% capital and the next weekly 5% gain is 5% of the 105% of starting balance and so on and so forth into what can become very large numbers. If starting small say $1000 the compounding is intially slow to grow the account. In 52 weeks (1 year) at 5% weekly growth the result will $12,642.81. But after 104 weeks (2 years) the account will have grown to $159,840.60. By taking out money from the account early on or deviding the gains into two or more accounts you set back the compounding by a huge factor.
Robert,
I’m glad to know that the FSA has not compromised one of their most important customer safeguards. I wish we had those safeguards here.
On another topic altogether — and with profound apologies to this thread’s OP — the Royal Wedding you Brits just staged was a jolly-good show. No nation in the modern world does pomp and pageantry as well as you guys do it. It makes us a little envious, over here in the Colonies. Which prompts me to make you an offer.
Speaking for a majority of Americans, I have a proposition for y’all. We’ll trade you Obama and whats-her-name for Prince William and Princess Katherine. What do you think?
Now, before you jump up and scream obscenities at me, consider this:
If we make this trade, [B]the GBP/USD will plunge to below parity[/B] — that’s something like 6,500 pips in the bank. We’ll all be rich! How can you pass up a deal like this?
I think it’s time to crack open another bottle of the good stuff. Cheers!
Maybe this is my ignorance talking, sure there are a lot of people out there that have no problem running 100k+ accounts out there. These are people know what in the hell they are doing and I would think that they have solid secure brokers. However, this thread was more pointed to a new player that does not have expierence in this market yet and I would hate that to think that someone incidentally puts 50k in a broker account, only to see it go bye bye just as soon as they put it in there just because of some fine print.
The compounding is irrelevant to where the money is. If I have 5k in my brokerage account and 5k in my money market at a different firm, I still have 10k. (Provided that the 10k was designated for speculating currency). I can still trade based on having 10k within the trading account that had 5k.
5% growth per week compounded. 0_0’
That sounds great but it also sounds like there could be a huge potential for losses as well. Indeed I have much to learn before I dare put my money somewhere other than the bank.
Can anyone suggest some good reading material?
I would think that the majority of Americans are against having are monarchy,
You think so Kate? Actually compounding your account is the most reliable and safest way to build your account. Taking my 5% capital growth of your account week on week… this is how much the account builds, not your risk per trade. You might only wish to risk 2%, 1% or even fractions of 1% depending on your strat and time you leave trades open. For instance on the weekly TF, my typical lot size equates to 0.1% of balance. So a 100 pip SL = 1% of balance. But on the weekly TF a typical trade might last several weeks and net hundreds of pips… 500 pips and theirs your 5% for the week off a single trade. Conversely you might prefer the 4h TF and leave a trade to run 2-3 hours to 2-3 days, again at 1% of bal SL. But still get 3-5 good entries a week for your 5%.
What I’m suggesting is that you let compounding do the work of building your account and you are never over reliant on any one trade. Nor do you ever increase your % trade size in relation to your growing balance in fact most reduce it!