How much money do you need to begin trading for a living?

Beginner Questions
#97

Oh MAN. That looks wonderful. Where’s the speedboat??? That water almost like glass. Used to ski (but some MANY years ago i.e. LONG before my initial trading “career” even began) (something I SOLD out of choice as opposed to having LOST it!!! LOL!!!). Always promised myself another boat sometime though. Was a real pain in the you-know-what to own etc. but missed it the very first week after I sold it!!! LOL!!! Murphy and his law at play!!!

I reckon I’ll start a thread today then and post my musings and maybe we go from there @anon46773462 and @GilasTrading??? How does that sound???

1 Like
#98

Sounds good. :slightly_smiling_face: I’ll try and look at it later today. Pivots are interesting.

There is no speedboat here. Its very like “outback” style. Water from a spring and only electricity from a solar system i installed a few years back. But it is so peaceful.
Sometimes there are signs of bears and elks but i have never actually seen either of these.

Its just an old log cabin as a getaway. But pretty lake, yes! :slightly_smiling_face:

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#99

I agree with a lot of what you guys say, but at the same time i cannot agree with your approach. Anybody can make money trading if they apply themselvs correctly and have a sickening work ethic in terms of studying etc. This is not the same in something like football/basketball and many other sports. You have to have supreme talent, i would argue trading requires less talent and more hard work. Ofcourse you must have a certain mind set and ability to digest information. I think people who come into trading expecting to be able to quit there job within a month and make hundreds of thousands of dollars at the roll of a dice are not the kind of people that will be reading your comment and trying to better themselvs as traders as these kind of people will next month have a different idea to become rich and will have forgotten about trading.

I respect your opinion and actually agree with you in the most part, i just think it would be a lot better to see experienced traders (who clearly know what theyre doing) like yourself maybe speak about some of the positive things trading has added to your life and not just the negative.

I am speaking only in terms of that one post btw as i have not seen many of your other posts. I also have to agree with zhadow in terms in lonliness, it is a lot more lonely/depressing working a 9-5 in a job you hate wasting your life making other people rich. I don’t think you should just quit your job and start trading but if you have just a one percent chance to change your life from that to a life of a trader working for yourself i think you should go for it, in a calculated way ofcourse.

Apologies for some of my spelling and punctuation, and thanks for reading.

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#100

That is perfectly ok @El-Nino :slightly_smiling_face:
The more points of view the better!

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#101

@El-Nino

Thanks for the post. Please know that nothing was directed at you personally or your earlier post. And you make some good points. Truth be told: there are positive aspects. Several. I’ll try to detail some myself in the coming days.

Thanks for the post.

Regards,

Dale.

1 Like
#102

@anon46773462 and @GilasTrading (and @AnyoneElse)…

Time to stop lounging around in the country or nursing headaches etc

https://forums.babypips.com/t/pivot-points-revisited-the-definitive-guide-to-trading-pivots/217788

#103

That’s beautiful!

Can you disclose location?

Or is it a wpp situation?:grin:

KC

#104

Hi

@frandlost :slight_smile: what’s a wpp?

#105

Witness protection program!

Light early morning humor attempt from the south of Boston Massachusetts

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#106

Too funny.

#107

No secret. @frandlost :slight_smile:

Put it this way, last night i was watching the Finland -Britain ice hockey world championship match. If GB had won i would be hiding out here for fear of my life - and that that would be just from the missus! :joy:

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#108

Massachusetts will always be synonymous for me with Rep. Barney Frank!!! LOL!!!

I spent a good part of my life watching hours and hours of testimony in the House Financial Services Committee.

Frank, Dodd, Reid, Paulson, Bernanke, Greenspan. Big fan over here!!! LOL!!! Kept me entertained while Rome was burning!!! LOL!!! But: they had class (personal opinion anyway).

#109

I know! I always find it truly amazing how few people wield so much power that effect so many!

I would agree! Class seemed to be heading for the exit when Willie Horton arrived in the Mike Dukakis/George Bush presidential campaign.

Can use a lot more tolerance and class today.

KC

1 Like
#110

Yip. Those were the days… Bear Stearns, Lehman, Citi, JP Morgan, Fannie and Freddie, AIG (probably forgotten one or two MORE that I was long on at the time and added to in copious amounts while they went down!!! LOL!!!). A lot of the smaller ones don’t even exist anymore. Nothing to be proud of though. Only comfort is that I wasn’t the only one that’s for sure.

Ironic as it may be: I feel kinda privileged that I was around to witness the whole thing. It was history in the making unfolding right before my eyes. Couldn’t get enough of it. Still watch a lot of it if and when I can find it on YouTube etc.

From what I’ve read over the years: the general consensus seems to be that they actually did a good job. They did what they had to do with whatever tools they had at their disposal. Have often wondered what the current crowd would do faced with the same.

Have always remembered Greenspan’s words: “it’s not a question of if we end up here again but rather a question of when” (closely quoted anyway).

Regards,

Dale.

P.S.

By “Rome” in my earlier post I was referring to my trading account at the time!!! LOL!!!

Oh. Forgot about Pelosi. She’s still around and alive and well and kicking I see.

#111

One of my favorite interviews of all time:

https://charlierose.com/videos/14635

If nothing else he’s got a good sense of humor. Not to mention well spoken. Doesn’t take sh*t either.

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#112

@anon46773462
Why are you posting a picture of my back yard? You stalking me?

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#113

I see many people asking “How much money to get started”?
Several brokers will allow you to deposit as little as $25 in your broker account to get started.
The amount of money is not the answer because you will learn this through proper risk management, and you will not get an exact answer in “the amount of money” to start with.
The truth comes from “Your Experience” as you grow as a trader.
Become consistant with focusing on Pips, not money. For example : Some people scalp for 30 pips a day. They will learn a structure and approach several strategies until they find their niche using a method they can understand.
Once they are consistant and can see the average “Pip per trading day”, they can move into proper leverage and risk management. Depending on your style and your patience.

Once you develop a method and you are consistant with you trades and have a “realistic goal” of how many pips per day you can actually trade. Then your will get your answer on how much money you need.

One rule people use is 1-3% of the balance. So for an example if $100 is the balance in the trading account, only leverage .01. If I have $1000 then I would leverage no more than .10

So the 1st step is to learn a strategy that works for you.
Then once you develop some good trading habits you can see results based on your method and style that works for you, start small and earn your balance as you grow. Learn from your mistakes and grow your knowledge and your balance as you grow as a trader.

Learning how to trade isnt the hard part, controlling your emotions and your greed is going to be the challenge. Once you have those under control, then you’ll develop your strategy based on the time frame and time zone you trade in. Your Risk management and your patience to find the right trade and follow through.

This is not an overnight skill. It takes time, patience, persistance, then you need to be consistant.

#114

@chimmyfx

After reading all the essays on what you must do in these posts, I will tell you what I told Manxx

In the context of quantum mechanics, you will receive an answer, no matter how incomplete the question. In quantum physics on the other hand, your question would be rejected as invalid or not complete in complexity.

I am sorry to say, but your question at the beginning of this thread was incomplete, even though everybody had an opinion, including myself.

Ignoring time paradox and sticking to the post thread, you said the following:

1…You started yesterday
2…How much money do you need?

To answer you would be complicated at best, since your validity is negative on your question.

But this is the best I can do with the info available:
You are meat to the machine, due to your experience…This is not an insult, we all started that way. It is the brutal truth, you will spend months, even years feeding the beast before you become profitable…School fees

How much to start of with? One of the Babypips admins wrote an article few weeks ago about people starting with too little, and another article equally important about NOT using short time frames if you are not experienced. Read those two articles, if you can’t find them, simply send a message to the Babypips admins, I am sure they will point you in the right direction.

Good hunting in the bloody trenches of FX trading.

2 Likes
#115

I started with 100$ with leverage of 2000. I kept going without knowing margin leverage etc. I kept earning very well. This pushed me more to earn more. One day everything lost because system force sell everything so I left with one $. I did trade enough on demo etc. But live trading is totally different. So in one way loosing initially is also better to learn the right lesson, if u don’t have a mentor. So trade safe with as little as 50$. Then increase .

#116

a perfect example of not doing this was Friday… Last Friday I had a lot of free time and chose to spend it in front of the charts trying to catch the bottoms on faster time frames, using larger lot sizes than typical for me.

Was not very pretty as my drawdown is now at a historic high for me.

Be patient, stick to your rules trade the dailies with small lot sizes like .01.
As trades go in your favor you can add additional .01s

100 pennies still equal a dollar!!

Good luck,

KC