How much can you put into a Forex account?

Broker Discussion Forex Brokers
1

So yesterday I lost $520 in the stock market, (was as bad as $800 intraday) and this is after a $550 loss two days before. Today is down another $230 and to my dismay even my 3 oil stocks are tanking.

So long story short, by backup plan in case of economic and stock market collapse, of selling all my small caps and moving them into oil service stocks, who due to peak oil, should continue minting money, is shot to hell, or so I fear.

So now it looks like I will have no choice to move all my money to Forex, to protect it in case of a market meltdown and recession.

But I have read much online about shady brokers and Forex scams and am afraid of moving my $15,000 into an Oanda account, (I do plan to use them since they offer the most use friendly order system, with pip value calculations, and SL and TP all in the same form).

So my question is this: For those who have Oanada, or any Forex account for that matter, how much do you dare to put in?

Since Forex is the only safe place to put your money when all economic hell is breaking loose, (Even if the US went into depression and took the whole world with it, currencies are relative to each other, so one could still make money trading a solid system with religious money management practices), I would need to move all I have to protect it from ungodly drops in the stock market, a tanking real estate market, and inflation that could run into the double digits.

But I have this terrible image of me moving $20-25,000, my life savings, (well technically, I am only 21 and all my discretionary capital is tied up in my brokerage account right now), trading sucessfully, multiplying my account to $100,000 within a few years and then BAM! One day I find out Oanada ****ed me and every other client, stole our money and their management team fled to Bermuda.

Does anyone else worry about this?

And on another note, is it true that brokers like Oanda can’t let you succeed?

Don’t they make their profits via the spread? So isn’t it in their best interest for clients to deposit as much money as possible? So that they make massive trades and thus bring Oanda profits of a couple hundred dollars/trade?

I ask because I plan to learn Forex, and trade consistently for the next 50 years, so my account will hopefully grow into the tens of millons of dollars.

But again I fear that the more sucessfull one is with Oanda, or any other broker, that you may find yourself swindled at some point, your money either stolen or your account closed out by the broker who can no longer cover you.

Now I am by no means a news trader, and I know most people who ***** about any broker do so because brokers try to prevent news trades and or scalping, which I also don’t do.

I will also be funding my Oanda account with only $400 or so, which means $4 dollar risk/trade, and 4 cent pips at first.

But with the threats to the stock market presented by the perfect storm of sub prime loan defaults, a crashing real estate market and high energy prices, I fear I may have to move my money in a hurry.

So I would appreciate hearing from others who have Forex accounts, especially Oanda.

How much do you currently have in your account? Do you have any problems getting your money out of your account? Have you ever expereinced broker harassment of any kind, such as intentionally non executed trades, or any other actions designed to lose you money?

All replies are appreciated.

2

Hi adamgalas,

Well i use FXCM as my broker right now and they havent given me any trouble at all…in the forums and other places you will find that people say that most of the brokers are out there to scab the money off you but i am a bit skeptical of it. Now regarding the amount i had in my account. I had started a mini account with $300 but past couple of days i lost $250 because the currencies fell and fell like crazy!!! so i would suggest if you go with a mini account fund it atleast with a $1000…and you would need some margin to work with…

With FXCM all the trades i made i didnt have any problem my stops were executed where they were placed everythign was fine…

Hope this helps…

Cheers

Gagan

3

Gagan, you lost $50 out of $300? Weren’t you useing money manaagment? What percentage are you risking each trade? And are you only going long?

This is quite the frightening thing to hear. I am planning to use Oanda and risk 1%/trade, so hopefully this never happens to me, since I won’t dare open a real account until I am convinced my system is up to snuff.

4

Adamgalas,

I lost $250 in a $300 account, but i had made quite a bit before that (relatively) couple of days ago my equity was $375. You see you cant really use money management in a $300 account. It just doesnt work out. And no i wasnt going along all the time. But i did lose the money because of my own fault. But thats alright…you see the lessons i learnt by trading with REAL money cannot be learnt when trading in a demo account. I hope for your sake as well that nothing like this happens to you :slight_smile:

5

Gagan,

The real problem with that dollar amount and trying to use some sort of risk/money management is your lot size. Minimum lot size is 10k with FXCM, which isn’t suitable for a $300 account and proper money management. There’s nothing wrong with starting with $300 in my opinion, I would just find a broker that offers micro lots or smaller. Oanda is one of them.

6

even if i traded stocks, i wouldnt be so worried about the bearish real estate numbers. these numbers are just residential real estate. not comercial.

a thing about brokers, the bigger the better, more liquidity, and less likely to get in trouble with the NFA when they close everyone who doesnt have 5+mil.

7

The chaos in the stock market underlines one of the reasons I trade forex.

And I’d echo the comments above - I advise my clients to start a mini account with $2000 if possible to be able to practice sound money management and acceptable risk per trade.

8

I deal with PFG. Excellent sofar. They allow 400 to 1 and also as little as 1k per lot. You can set your own lot size and risk ratio.

Also forgive me but you sound a little naive as far as trading stocks etc.

9

2-3k is a great start

10

Hi.

This particular thread “popped up” in the “Similar Threads” list while I was busy reading another (current) thread so I figured I’d “chime in” here.

The thread starter raises many issues etc. and I’m not going to deal with each of them right now i.e. I’m only going to address the DIRECT question (thread title) of “How much can you put into a Forex account”.

I’ve yet to see a broker limit the MAXIMUM amount that you can put into a trading account (be it a FOREX or any other type of trading account). OBVIOUSLY: most all brokers have a MINIMUM (which, off-topic, and by the way, I believe, in most cases, including ours, is “BS” and should be increased “umpteen fold” and HUGE amounts of leverage should NOT be offered either but THAT’S been a “hot topic” and the cause of some “heated debate” over here so we’ll “not go there” right now either)!!! LOL!!!

What you should be on the lookout for is this: WHAT IF your broker “goes broke” (it CAN and DOES happen as we all know). Are your funds “covered” and, if so, to what extent (amount). REPUTABLE REGULATED brokers will have some type of “investors compensation agreement” and belong to an “investors compensation fund”. Unfortunately: it gets a bit complicated from here i.e. it depends WHERE the broker is REGISTERED AND REGULATED as to HOW MUCH your funds are “covered” for etc. Here’s a link to a relatively old post of mine (see below) that goes into some detail on the matter:

DFMarkets.co.uk Discussion - Page 2 @ Forex Factory

(Sorry: I don’t see the point of “copying and pasting” the entire post / thread from over “there” to here as it’s a long, and dare I say “rather entertaining” too, thread)!!! LOL!!!

Regards,

Dale.

P.S. If you REALLY want to get “carried away” then here’s some more info:

MIFID | FSA | CNVM | FSC | BNB | Regulated Forex Broker

and

European Commission � Internal Market &raquo Securities&raquo Investment services and regulated markets (MiFID)&raquo Investor Compensation Scheme Directive