Hey everyone. First let me introduce myself. I am an 18 year old business student. I have been trading forex for a little over half a year now, and have been getting vey good results with my trading. My biggest problem is not the learning, the trading, the psychology, system or anything that most traders have problems with in the beggining. My biggest problem is funding an account. I am a full time student, and i work part time. Every penny i make i pour into school, school, the gas to get to school, insurance and all the fun things that come with school. I know if i could somehow raise like, $5000, i could do so well i wouldn;t need to worry so much about tuition and all my other expenses.
So, my question, just out of curiosity, is what capital did you start out with, and how did you obtain that capital. I’m mostly interested in the younger trader’s responses, but you older guys are welcome as well
Well i am new to Forex but not new to investing… While i was studing for my BS, i took a student loan each year cause it was available to me and invested it (and basically starved n struggled my way through… LOL… those were fun times).
It was just before property values in my area skyrocketed, i ended up buying two houses and renting them out. so to make a long story short, at the end of uni, I sold both houses, paid off the student loans and had a nice chunk of cash left over. Ofc I was very lucky in the timing of it and real estate values.
While i kinow borrowing money is not a “good” idea to invest in FX, but if your doing well with your system, and your only 18, it might be worth the risk. Just an idea, cause SLs are generally easy to get, and you don’t generally have to start paying them back till you finish school and get a real job. So if you got one today, your first payment due would be in like 4 years or so… In addition you really could use some of it for school and make your life a bit easier…
Heres what I did in a nutshell and I of course do not recommend you do what I did or sacrifice your current education :
I went to school for one school year, decided that it definitly was not what I was looking for as far as education goes, called it a wrap in the Summer '07, switched gears and worked my but off to get the PT job I have now (I live in Michigan - and I’m sure you know the situation here), and I work exclusively for the sole purpose of funding my forex education and trading accounts…I live below my means
Yours is a tough situation. I know If I were in school, It would be quite challenging to raise funds on top of gas, school books, chicks, and of course tuition. In fact, I would most likely not even consider trading with so many other obligations, so I commend you for it. Its a lot to focus on at once.
Cdawgs suggestion sounds more realistic…take out a loan to fund your account if you REALLY think your good enough…Or you could take the route I took and, uh, well…like kany would say - be a College Dropout.
Hey, your situation is very similar to mine! I went to school for an extra year and half though, and am 20 right now. I was originally going to finish my degree while learning Forex, but then I realized how much that could set me back, if I already knew I wanted to trade for a living. That’s 1.5 years of tuition, 1.5 years of lost income from a FT job, and tonnes of trading experience lost. Thinking about that made me hate school so much that I had to quit in the middle of the school year, between semesters. School-life felt draining and was a big obstacle in front of my goals.
So I got a pretty good paying job, and am now saving up money for my account and paying off some of my debts from student loans and the new computer setup I got for trading. My goal is 50K in about 2-3 years. I hope by then to have a tried-and-tested system which I can then rely upon to switch to full-time trading. I intend on trading the account, with small goals, while making monthly deposits until that point. I believe $50K will let me withdraw sufficient living expenses, while still allowing for account growth.
I’ll be very happy with myself if I’m trading “professionally” by the time I’m 23. Even if it’s just making the same amount of money I’m making now. I’m willing to work very hard for this goal, which I’ve realized is very reasonable now. So far, it’s been a lot more rewarding than school ever was. The learning is far more applicable, and therefore keeps me interested. I really am doing this for myself, which is great for your confidence and overall mood, both of which have seen a dramatic improvement since the changes I’ve made!
I might’ve been able to make this decision earlier, since I traded NASDAQ OTCBB stocks during high school (now THAT is a crazy trading ground), and really enjoyed it. I never really got into technical trading though, just buy and holds. I actually profited $11K from that venture. I never really seriously considered doing it for a living at the time. If I can make it in the FX business, I’ll probably diversify back into equities, considering I learned a lot about them during high school.
But for Martin’s question: I started with $2000 from my savings. It was earning 4% a year, woopty-doo though, I’d rather play with it!
nice post akea, I honestly didn’t think there were very many people who went through a similar expereince as I have (am?). I’ve spent roughly the same amount of time in school learning ABOUT business as I was studying trading currencies. I don’t regret going to college though, as it allowed me to see that going to one was not an alternative in my life I wanted to pursue.
I only owe like 2-2.5 grand in student loans, but that’s something I don’t even have to worry about until June or July (because I got out before I got my degree, I have to pay sooner) and I’m already on track to just pay it all off in one fell swoop and call it a wrap on debt.
I don’t think I answered how much I started with…I started with 280$ I believe…yea, that was a good start off point. As you gain more and more experience, you may have to add more money in your account to make “real” money for your effort and time.
Hi,
Joe and Akea,
could you tell us how u’v faired with the $280 and $2000 capital?
i plan to start with $1000, though i can afford to lose the money, i really don’t want to lose it.
and no, i didn’t drop out of school, and am glad i didn’t, i would not have made the $1000 capital. :D:D
started with 1000$, because back then when i was wise i knew that if i lost them i wouldn’t be crying around. It was my savings gotten for my birthdays in the last 10 years ( thx to grandma, grandpa, and all the aunts).
now i took additional “credit” from paaps…but he wants 20% of my profits…
…i guess forever…?
damn.
IMO…work hard earn 1000 ( at least) and if you have 1300 at the end of the year ( means you done 30%) it is good and go work as a trader somewhere.
GL M8
I’m 28. Married. Wife’s pregnant with twins. So the idea of me putting any sizeable amount into forex wasn’t pleasing to her. So I opted for a different solution to fund my account.
I initially put in 100 bucks into Oanda and started trading my system. I went to the HR department of my employer and filed for tax withholding exemption. Meaning, that Uncle Sam isn’t going to be ripping out 17 percent of my income to hold on to until the end of the year. Rather, I’ve been taking that 17 percent each pay period and adding that to my bankroll. So far so good. After a month and a half, my account is over $1000 now and $270 of that is profit.
Come the end of the year, I’ll just cut a check out to the government when my taxes come due and the difference will be all the profits I’ve made off that money that Uncle Sam would have just been sitting on.
I’d encourage any US taxpayer to do the same. Provided they had a winning system of course.
right now pips I am way in the black. I’m basically trading like I was when I was doing a demo account, but with real money…didn’t realize it would take as long as it did to adjust to making and losing real money.
So ya, I never give specific figures, but I can say that so far, I’m +32-33% this week…not sure how high I can get (i don’t care, I just like trading well), but If I just stay focused and keep doing what I’m doing, it’s not unrealistic to attain 50-75% for this month. It takes alot of focus and concentration to do this right.
I do set monetary goals though, I’ve since blew past my most recent one, now I have to come up with bigger goals to achieve
