Well i’m just about to finish the school of pips. So much information. But anyways when i finish i am going to practice a demo account with the amount i am going to start with. The only problem is i dont know how much i should start with. I’m 18 years old in the USA and im excited for this journey. How much would you suggest i start with? Keep in mind of dont have thousands to spend.
And if i dont have enough should i use the knowledge im learning now to work my way up in binary options to get come capital before going over to forex?
I would say start out with any amount, because right now you’re still in the beginner learning stage. You can always start out with the standard demo account and once you’ve gotten enough experience you can switch over to the amount you would use live. Once you’ve demo traded for a while and are confident in your system/psychology then approach the market with what you are comfortable with losing, that is subjective depending on your circumstances, but I would recommend at least $500.
The name of the game is to preserve your money. Take your time before you jump in the pool with real money… It’s filled with sharks
If you don’t know what you’re doing, then you’ll be the lowest on the food chain, just trying to survive.
That does help! Thanks! Right now i have about 200$ set aside for Forex when i’m done with the school and after i trade demo for awhile. But it seems as if that’s not going to be enough. I will start saving more.
Also, would you suggest getting into binary options to get some capital? I am currently practicing on a demo account on binary options and with the knowledge i am learning here it is helping me tremendously when placing trades. Instead of a random gamble i’m making smart decisions and studying the market.
Since you reside in US, I would advice you to start looking for a reliable broker that accepts US clients. Most of them are offshore brokers and a few of them are very very good for trading. At least you should be able to start with $1000 and work your way up. With $1000 you will also have access to high leverages of 1:500 to 1:1000 offered only by Offshore brokers.
You said you have $200 set aside which means that is what you should start with, just make sure you put it in a mini or even micro account and do not trade lots higher than 0.01 until you learn how to trade. In regards to your binary option question: I would not advice that as it takes the same skill as with forex trading or any other asset class. Do not believe the terrible ads claiming no knowledge required.
With first accounts it’s good to start with whatever you can afford to lose (because you’ll most likely lose it like everybody else lol). But if you’re looking for hard figures, you can check out this thread where traders shared their first account figures.
Hope this helps and good luck on finishing the School!
The more your deposit the more chance to open an order and withstand drawdowns before price will go in your favour. Trading with small deposits is waste of time and money and eventually will bring you to the come-down
We must start trading in forex using minimal deposit. We must be able to maximize it to improve our trading skills, hone our trading further more. We must do it because although we have trading experience using demo account, it’s not enough for us. Our psychology also must be honed.
start with money that you are not afraid to loose, I’d say start with 100 dollars if can be done, just play with it for the next couple of months doing micro lots, forex is a journey and will take you years to get used to so dont rush for the big buxks, id say make it a hobbie for now, dont rush it! and best of luck
I started with $500… BUT purely to use to build my track record which then lead me to fund management…
Don’t be under the illusion that this will turn into a healthy living - to make a good living from you own funds only you’d need at least 100k to be able to keep risk sensible and see a good monthly return…
You most definitely don’t need anything close to a 100k to be able to live off forex. Of course you have to know what you are doing, but people can live off forex if their equity isn’t even a fifth of that. That 100k number is true for the institutional trader, not the retail trader.
I will advice you to keep practicing with demo account for the now until you get good experience about the market before thinking of to start live trading. Demo will give you solid foundation on how to face the real market. Please, invest little you can afford to lose.
Zaghloul - making a healthy living from a 5th of a 100k…
So lets say you have a 20K account… a healthy living is lets say 2k a month (unless you live in the third world)… so you need to be making 10% a month on your account which you simply cant do unless you are risking too much… if you could possibly make 10% a month on your account consistently and while never risking too much youd be a multi-millionaire and all over the tv.
If you take a look at the likes of the Barclay hedge index, some of the best performing traders in the WORLD are making 20% per YEAR, not a month, so that’s 1.6% a month which is far more realistic and sustainable.
So I reword my statement, you can not SAFELY make a CONSISTENT healthy living from a smaller account…
I must respectfully disagree. Its possible to double your account or more with one good trade with ZERO risk. I did it last month on the USDTRY when the lira was collapsing and I did it again yesterday on the USDPLN. You just have to be very patient until you see the perfect trend. I start off with fraction of a lot, then move the sl to break-even, then I double the position keeping sl above break-even, then double it again and so on. Most of the times it ends up closing the position with no gain and no loss, but when things are good the upside is massive. I made over a hundred pips on 6 lots yesterday on the USDPLN. My position is still open and has the possibility of increasing the gains to over 300 pips. I’m using 500:1 leverage and my margin is more than double my balance.
I’m still fairly new in forex, but i believe that such opportunities do come up at least every month or two. So yes, not every month will be 10%, but every now and then you can get well over 100%.
The trick is discipline. I’m extremely conservative and accept no losses or drawdowns, but when its good, ITS GOOD! I also news trade and have made some amazing returns off of some those, but with news trading I do get some big losses, but my win rate is close to 70%, so overall things work out with that too.
Ben its not about the leverage, its about the risk. I can use 100000:1 leverage and still have zero risk in the method I described. The risk is determined by the stop loss, not the leverage. You are missing out on a lot of upside potential using such a low leverage. You also have to keep much more money in your brokerage account than I do. No wonder you think you need a 100k to make a living from forex. I know that everywhere you look, people are warning about the perils of leverage, but used properly, leverage is really your best weapon, and it is what gives forex a huge edge over equities.
I’m under no illusion that I can keep doubling my account all the time. My point is that you will get some months when your return is much better than 10%. So if you average that out, you can achieve the 10% on average.
Fantastic question. Takes me back to my first days. Sensible thing to do is trading a demo account with the exact amount of money that you are able to invest in a real account. Explosive setup system: What’s the Z Pattern?
[QUOTE=“BenNathanFTA;607761”]Bob5star makes a good point… Zaghloul - making a healthy living from a 5th of a 100k… So lets say you have a 20K account… a healthy living is lets say 2k a month (unless you live in the third world)… so you need to be making 10% a month on your account which you simply cant do unless you are risking too much… if you could possibly make 10% a month on your account consistently and while never risking too much youd be a multi-millionaire and all over the tv. If you take a look at the likes of the Barclay hedge index, some of the best performing traders in the WORLD are making 20% per YEAR, not a month, so that’s 1.6% a month which is far more realistic and sustainable. So I reword my statement, you can not SAFELY make a CONSISTENT healthy living from a smaller account…[/QUOTE]
I have to disagree with you. With the inherent risk of the FX markets 10% is possible.
I know this because i know traders that have goals of 10% a week, and they hit them most weeks. Just because you haven’t seen someone do it doesn’t mean they can’t. Saying its impossible is putting a limit on yourself. Now obviously mathematically speaking with 10% a week these traders shoulder be trillionaires… But you have to remember as retail traders trading a 5k account to 1m+ It will take a while, throw In drawdown(which is inevitable) and it takes even longer.
The reason some of the best performing traders only hit 20% a year is because once you get a sizable amount to trade, your priorities will change and you will go from trying to rapidly advance your equity to equity preservation.