Help needed- trading with limited capital

Hullo all, my name is Susan. I have been on here before even though not consistently. I want to hear from those who have traded using limited capital say $100 and have succeeded in growing it into something substantial. What strategies did you employ? Looking forward to reading from you all.
Sue

Hey Susan! You can do it with $100 capital but it will require a lot of patience and more discipline than with a larger account especially if you are not willing to set a long term goal and stick to a plan. Personally I have tried using small amounts of capital and have been quite successful but also have failed in certain aspects. You see due to the limited amount of equity you will need to keep your open trades to a maximum of two, otherwise you will end up kicking yourself when you get in on a certain setup which looks great and you get stopped out before it turns in your favor because you weren’t able to hold your positions long enough. This has happened to me many times and I am still working on the psychological aspects of my trading.
For example a few months back GBP/USD was in a downtrend and was reaching weekly/monthly lows as well as oversold so i decided to set an order to buy… . . what happened next was a news event sent it much lower, triggering my buy order! It carried on moving downwards by about 150 pips more than I expected leading to me getting stopped because I didnt want to blow up my account which was around $180 at the time so I took a 30% loss as I was looking for a weekly trade i set a large stop and tp with great risk and reward ratio. A week or two later the uptrend began and has since gone from 1.59050 to current levels of 1.6100, you can imagine my frustration, since then I have read a lot about trading capital and money management and I have come up with a strategy that has allowed me to make around $300 so far on a $100 account in 2 months. I know its not a lot but its been a safe ride for me and at most I haven’t lost more than $2-3 on any losing trade.

Ok so here is what I do;

  • 0.01 lot size ONLY(per $100) in the account (now that my account is almost $400 i sometimes open 0.03 lots on news trades)
  • Only 2 trades at once maximum

As for trading style I am a news trader so I wait for lvl 2 or lvl 3 news events and I trade the 5 minute gap after the release with either the way it moves drastically in favor of positive news or with a fade of that move based on news that was released in the previous 3 days from the currency that is being traded against
For example;
[B]GBP/USD[/B]
US releases ADP number as positive, sell GBP/USD unless GBP released positive news within the same or past days otherwise I will wait 5-15 min until the good news rally stalls and I buy the GBP.

In any case it works for me as long as you have profit goals I usually take $5-$10 per trade as I am willing to build my account for many years to come! (patience is the most important part of trading [B]IMO[/B])

Ok so thats it hope it helps you a little bit;

And if you don’t want to risk your own money I know of two decent brokers offering free trading capital of $100 or euro.

Here are the links I hope it isn’t against forum rules to post these otherwise just google forex-metal no deposit bonus or Tradimo free trading capital, [B]I am not advertising these companies so you can try them or not it is none of my business[/B];

http://www.forex-metal.com/affiliate/82115/1

€100 Free Forex Trading Money from Varengold Bank | tradimo

Both accounts have conditions before withdrawal

[U]VARENGOLD is nice because:[/U]
You have to complete a basic forex course for free and learn a lot before getting the money and then you can only trade 0.01 lots and need to complete 8 lots which is 800 trades to get full access to your account and money is then yours. I have done almost 400 0.01 lot trades in 3 months and my account is almost at $400.

[U]Forex-metal is nice because:[/U]
You get access to the capital immediately after registration no documents or phone calls required only when you want to withdraw and the account is not limited in lot size or currency pairs, you should still stick to the 0.01 lot per $100 rule though!

Happy Trading :stuck_out_tongue:

Thanks for posting this. I am in the same boat as you and I would like to know as well. There has to be someone on here that has done it with less money than most and still had success.

Thank you so much for this elaborate response. You do not know how happy you have made me feel…just feel like giving you a big hug!! Thank you so much. I’ll definately try those companies as I do not want to risk any more money while learning. I will be comparing notes and by the way, I am also a news trader!
Thanks once again.
Susan

Pipcules…where exactly do I go to the forex metal website?
Susan

Hello edpierce

I do trade with small capital. You can trade 0.01 volume. I use combination of price action and fundamentals. No indicators. look for small profits and build your account slowly.

tnx for the tips!like the ts,i also joined forex via my broker’s minimum deposit of $100.

I think you need a higher leverage like 1:500 in order to succeed with a $100 capital. Most UK or US brokers won’t give you as much leverage as this. So I suggest you go with some reliable offshore brokers who can give you high leverage to increase your profit.

Here’s my 2 cents. The smaller your capital, the more you have to know and follow your trading strategy and the less mistakes you can make. You also will have to know the difference between preserving capital and building capital, understanding and learning your trading platform, and the broker you sign with. You want to take advantage of everything you can. So practice practice practice and practice in a demo account with the balance you intend to start with, the leverage you will be using and your trading method until you know your trading plan inside out and have the patience and discipline to follow it. If it were me I would post every part of my plan here so some of the others with more experience can help you stay on the right path. It can be done, but you will need the patience and discipline to develop and work your plan.
Good Luck
Gp

You can start with $100 and it is better than not starting at all, but you need to be aware of the possibilities. Growing an account from $100 could take several years until you reach $1,000 etc and as long as you understand this it is ok. You should put it in a micro-account and only trade 0.01 lots as you still need to imply proper risk management.

I would try to add more funds, maybe on a monthly base, as honestly trading requires a lot of time, discipline and patience tot say the least and it is very hard work. The benefits on a $100 account seem worthless, but that is my own opinion and by no means meant to discourage you.

Here is my advice: Use $100 in a micro account and only trade 0.01 lots until you develop a trading strategy which allows you to be consistent. This could take several years and in the meantime create a budget and put money aside which you will intent to trade with AFTER you have achieved consistent returns. Once you have achieved that, take the money you put aside and make a deposit. This will also start to teach you discipline.

Well don’t go for higher targets. Always go with 0.01 at least you bring that $100 to $300.

$100 is a little too little as your profits will be too little to motivate you. On the other hand, you may end up over leveraging and risking too much.
This is the deal;
If you got 50K- Open a standard account,
If you got 10000- open a mini account,
If you got 1000, open a micro account, and
If you got $100, then get a job and open a demo account

All the best in the trading journey

As you can see there is a lot of opinions on how and what you should do. Don’t get discouraged by this. Your seeing a very valuable lesson. Everyone has a different way of how they would do this and no one is really wrong. The different strategies all have pros and cons, which is why you have to understand that there is no "only way " do what you want to do. So practice and practice the different methods until you get what works more than what fails for you.

Above is basically how I started but with $200 & if you read the above post again it is great advice.

I opened an Oanda account & traded 1cent/pip. What you need to understand & a lot of
others around here do also, is that Forex is not a “get rich quick” option. If you aim for 10% increase
in account balance per month, that will give you (from your initial $100) approx. $280 after
12 months.

It is not all about the monetary value though, you will also learn to trust your system, psychology
of trading, money management, et al which is of greater value than the $280.

Also along the way, I don’t know your situation, you may be able to supplement your
account balance with other earnings etc. (which I did once I knew that my system worked)
which helps it to grow.

I now trade standard lots.

Thanks to everyone on this forum. Its an eye opener for me and anyone who wants to learn fast. Am also of the opinion that most newbies fail cos of anxiety and greed.