I’m very new to this game and still a number of months from opening a live account. I’m doing my second cycle through the babypips school and reading a few books that have been recommended on here.
One thing I can’t seem to work out is how much I should fund my first account with. I have saved up about $10,000, which is what is recommended for a mini account. It’s a lot of money for me and would take some years to save up this amount again if all goes wrong.
I read about succsesful traders saying they blew their first account in a few months, but at the same time the bigger the account the safer you are right?
I’m just looking for a bit of advice what other traders would do.
dive in with the whole $10,000 or start with something like, say $1,000 first.
(I understand money management, will only trade %1 - 2 of account at a time)
If you can’t afford to lose the entire amount, then it’s not a good amount to start with. You may want to consider going with a micro account instead. This would let you trade smaller sizes. The emotional and psychological aspect of trading can affect your trading in a live account also since real money is now on the line. Smaller trade size would let you get used to that as well.
I opened my first account with $50. After a few months of successful trading I upped it to $1000. And then after a few more months I added my full amount.
If you do it that way then the danger of losing your whole $10000 is pretty low.
The advice that says that a larger account makes it safer is full on BS. As long as you open a micro account that allows fractional lots you can open a very small account and do the same 1-5% risk per trade that is typically recommended.
1% risk is still 1% risk, wether it’s a $100 account or a $10,000 account.
IMO, open a micro account with $100 then compound it. Develop consistency and a personal track record, then add money if you want.
If 10K is a lot to you then your first losses are going to feel like a kick in the nuts, even if it is only a 1% loss on one trade.