Hi there,
Just finished Babypips school, and thinking of going back there to master it a second time as I feel I still don’t understand everything. Especially when I read those threads, sometimes, I don’t understand, the terms and all the technical tools used in trading. I feel I will have to have the book next to me each time I place a trade, to make sure I am doing everything the proper way. But what I did understand, the main point into surviving as a newbie, is too have a good risk management on each trade. Which I am thinking of only risking 3% of my account, having stop loss at each trade, and not using leverage…or only 1/3, 1/4. I know there is many other things to look for but am I right in getting the major points to survive for the first 6 month?
Now I have to use a trading platform… Would you recommend MT4 to start with? Or is there anyone there who could recommend me any other trading platform for a newbie like me?. I know most trading platform offer 1 month demo, but can you extend the demo if you ask them? The thing is that I do not want to open so many trading platform account, as I want to get very familiar with just one platform. Other way I ll mix things up.
Thank you all for taking time to answer…
You need to leverage your money. Otherwise you won’t get anywhere. Might as well go to the travel counter to exchange. I suppose 20:1 or 50:1 is good leverage. No more than 50:1 though. And learn mt4. Most everyone uses it so it’s the same platform from one broker to the next.
Most brokers have a demo account and I’ve never had one expire.
The most important thing to learn and put into practice is money management and risk reward.
I second everything Joesdx150 says, you need some degree of leverage.
When you open your demo account treat it as if it was real money. If in reality you have $!k to spend work on 50:1 leverage. That will give you $50k available in your account. You dont need to use it all, in fact if you work on risking a max 2% per trade with no more than 5 trades on the go at any one time you should be fine.
Good luck, open a trading journal here and post all your trades when you enter them and when you close. Nothing like seeing your fails in public to make you think twice next time. I have my own journal here
301 Moved Permanently if you want to see what I mean.
I think risking 3% as a newbies is too much as you are still learning how to trade. I would recommend to lower it down to 1% until you have developed your trading strategy. Using 3% may not sound too bad, but it can lead to your account being depleted rather fast. Take it a bit slower, you will likely blow your first account as you learn how to trade which is quite normal.
I would use 1% and once you have a strategy you trust with plenty of trades confirming your trust you can increase it to 3%.
Total agree with everyone. Leverage well to me if you need more than 20:1 then your systems need reworking. As for risk i would go even lower than the suggested and just trade 0.01 lots. No need to be in a hurry. Speculating is a ultra marathon not a sprint. Above all else account presevation should be you main goal initially. Learning theory vs the actual process are two different things.
Plateforms well MT4 is the normal but cTrader has a few more tricks. And if your broker only offers a 1 month demo then they are a bucket shop and best you find a different one. Plenty out there.
Best of luck bro
Thank you everyone for all your reply. I can see more clearly now. I will go for MT4 trading platform. For the risk, i ll start at 3% on the demo account and 1% live. And see how it goes. But first i ll need to familiarize myself with MT4. A lot of traders are talking about price action being one of the key element to put a strategy in place… They have not cover much in baby pips… Any good seminars, books to recommend about price action?
Again, thank you all.
Nick
The Demo expire does not expire. As long as you login at least once in two weeks, you can use your account for as long as you can. Two months is enough to practice with a demo account depending on how often you practice. I suggest you also open a live micro account to understand the difference between a live account and a demo account. Farewell!