Hello all guys. Now that things with trading are slowly getting in better I got much more concerns than when I started. I have spent about two years (I still trading demo) to develop the skills and becoming consistent.
Now I start to consider that I got in front of me at least other two years of hard work to see how far I can go managing a small account of few hundred dollars.
I started the thread asking if for an individual that does not have 30,000-50,000$ is a waste of time doing this profession. I was not dreaming to live in Miami or California, but, is difficult to work out the tons of money I need to pay me a basic wage.
Does anybody have a similar situation ? Do I have to consider that when I will be 40 years old I will go out clubbing with a lot of Play mates ?!
P.S: I do not want to share negativity, so I apologise if somebody gets the feel of a negative post written buy someone that wants to knock down people’s psyche. It is not my intent. I am just trying to have a picture of my months coming since after many sacrifices I still see big barriers to achieve my goals.
First thing i would say is why are you on a demo account for 2 years??? I no other people on here disagree but i hate demo accounts and believe you should go live asap(even if its a small £100 account). There is sooo much difference between the two. Secondaly you say you plan to have a small account for the next 2 years so why are you worrying about turning it into being a full time career? At this stage of your trading journey you need to be worrying about your next trade and your next trade only! Once you have 2-5 years of consistent profits then you could consider a full time career. Just my opinion but worry about now and improving your strengths and weaknesses and dont worry about something which may or may not happen.
[quote=“jamessheppard,post:2,topic:45629”]
Secondaly you say you plan to have a small account for the next 2 years so why are you worrying about turning it into being a full time career ?
What I am trying to say that I will manage no more than 1000$ and maybe in 1year I can put more money.
[QUOTE=jamessheppard;384381]
At this stage of your trading journey you need to be worrying about your next trade and your next trade only!
I feel a bit confident about the progress I am doing and I always try to manage risks trading with pretty much 1% risk, so I do not feel worried about taking trades, even If I manage a demo account.
You are on the right track. I believe you don’t have to have $50k to trade forex and be successful.
You will have to limit the amount of trades you take and the limit the lot size so you don’t run into
an obstacle you can’t control. If you are in the US I would recommend finding a broker that allows
you to hedge, ie. Citi FX. or EES FX or someone like that. I still believe as a full time trader that to
make consist money you need to have the ability to hedge, so becoming more comfortable with that
aspect of trading would be a good idea.
Starting a demo account with $5k and $10k would be a good idea. At the end of the day when you are
trading on a demo it’s not about how much money you are making since it’s fake, but more about the
consistency. On the $5k account I would trade 2-3 pairs one method and on the $10k pair I would trade
the same pairs different method. Keep everything simple and organized. So after 3 month you can examine
the relationship between the two methods on the same pairs. I would also create an account with myfxbook
so you can manage the drawdown, risk, rate of investment on the two accounts. This helps you realize your
progress and keeps you focused on staying with your two methods and not changing it up just because you
want to try something new.
So to answer your question YES, you can become a successful trader without $50k to start with.
[QUOTE=Zen4x;384388][QUOTE=jamessheppard;384381]Secondaly you say you plan to have a small account for the next 2 years so why are you worrying about turning it into being a full time career ?
What I am trying to say that I will manage no more than 1000$ and maybe in 1year I can put more money.
I feel a bit confident about the progress I am doing and I always try to manage risks trading with pretty much 1% risk, so I do not feel worried about taking trades, even If I manage a demo account.
It’s nice thing you say.
Yes i think you are on the right track for sure. Open a small live account (doesnt have to be your full $1000 to start) and then manage risk as you are doing and you will be fine. I am not a full time trader and have a long way to go until I am. I feel personally that as long as I use proper risk management, never stop learning, be patient and increase my lot size as my account grows, I will become a full time trader within a few years (touch wood)!
All my bests.
I start thinking that psychological draw down I am going through is particularly about the career change I was planning.
When I started I thought It could be a nice thing being an independent and I could spend a couple years studying to reach my target. Now the funny thing is that the more I learn, the more I realize that it takes more than a couple of years and capital at the end is still a big concern. We will rock anyway. Life starts at 40
I am sure I can be a good trader even managing 200$ applying a good money management and making 100% ROI or 150% in a year of trading. My big time problem is to keep daily job and trading for other 2-5 years, but If I do not have money to quit the job (which is a stupid occupation) I do not sort out anything. As I said I started to trade as career change, but even if I am going to be consistent without a decent capital, nothing is going to change.
That’s why I thought that I was wasting time at the end, because I did not have the resources to do this profession.
Thanks for your reply.
Most people, at least here in the US, have to work their (possibly stupid) daily job for 40-50 years of their life. After that, they still need to get a part-time job to pay the bills because they don’t have enough money to “retire”. I’d say 2-5 (or even 10) years of hard work growing a small account into a big account is well worth gaining financial independence for the rest of your life.
That’s apart from trading it’s a funny thing is happening in Europe as well. With the actual public deficit that governments are going through I will get retired at the age of 70 If I am lucky.
Once you reach “The Zone” and i don’t mean precisely to make money you will realize that the sacrifice worth it, then you will discover that money comes second. It is a wonderful feeling to be there, no matter if you work with a million or just the minimun deposit.
2 Years on Demo…why so long. The demo is there so that you can use it to come up with a trading strategy and become more familiar with the platform…moving along, just think about one day at a time. Often when Traders set fixed goals like “gotta make $50,000 in 24 hrs” it often leads to disappointment…just sayin’
Because I have been studying lots of methods and I jumped and changed lots of them, until I found things that I liked and I could be patient to understand that I could take a loss, but the method and approach was alright. Basically when I started to trade price action without funny indicators. But took a while, since I started to code indicators, Eas etc etc.
I hope it makes clear now.
Sure - granted if you are going to use custom indicators, you may take a while to get it to work. But out of curiosity, you are coding your own EA’s, right?
Forget about Playmates and every thing else. Focus on your trading (demo or live)
It’s not necessarily a ‘waste of time’ if you are trading an account that is below $10,000 - $50,000.
Remember cost of living varies widely. I know a few people who trade or started with less than $1,000.
You just need to build it up with experience.
The main issue for you here is that you should not rush it. Continue working if you are employed, while doing your demo trading. It might take you two years, or more. Just keep your eyes on your goal.
Exactly why you need to build your account up.
Of course, trading with $30,000 is much more comfortable than trading with $3,000 or $300.
You hate your job - use that as a stepping stone and reason to do well in trading. do not quit your day job now, quit only when you’re consistently doing well in trading.
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