Well said ! totally agreed with you 
thanks dkb for sharing⊠many of us will now learn from what you had gone thru. but, i will like to say u had the wrong approach, from the ±300 description it seems you were trading standard account with 500 bucks!!! :eek:
thatâs not what the pipslology school said.
but all the same, thanks for sharing and good luck.
well it depends on your risk tolerance as someone previously mentioned. When I first started FX i was a newbie and risked too much but in a 1.5 year i turned $300 into $120k, i know it sounds too good but i like to think of it as I just got luckyâŠlol
after that i decided to quit engineering and opening my own money management firm. of course now i dont take too much risk (i risk 1-3% per trade) and i trade only +95% probability trades.
so with a 1 million capital now (not all mine, around 500k for clients) I make like 100k a month (50k of that for clients)âŠso yes you can make it in forex but you need to get lucky at first (like me), have capital or get to know a good money manager.
iyados
Hell farkin yea you can be successful with $500.I did after losing alot of dough in both the stock and Fx markets.I threw out all the non sense i learned about FX markets and i decided to learn about the whole entire markets and trade my own ideas.I was so broke my sister had to lend me $500,it wasnât enough for me to trade in the stock market so i used it in FX markets.See almost everybody is levered,most countries,corporations,banks,what do you think auto&student loan,mortgage and credit card is?So with that $500, i knew i had control of large sums of money(aproxmately $200,000,400:1) With good risk management and leveraging my profits even more,i was able to payback the $500 and live off the same account.
CAUSE ITS ALWAYS THE SAME QUESTION !
Not one to ever give up an opportunity and noticing that the owner of my office building has recently produced a tiny girl as the heir apparent, I decided to open a $500 âtrustâ fund account as a gift for the girl.
working part time (i have a few more pressing accounts to attend to) i have increased it by 10% per day using 0.02 lot sizes with a foray into 0.04 when i felt extravegant.
I will never allow more than 4 trades open at any one time, of which 2 are hedges of the other two, be it currencies moving in opposite directions or holding longs and shorts of the same currency.
Please understand that I can do this because of 7 years of trading experience, where I had the same serious problems early on as any other newb ---- just that now it is much easier.
With a small account, one must be VERY careful of the drawdowns and the number of open trades as many have already stated, but print that out in BOLD 20 POINT TYPE, and hang it on your monitor(s) for you to FOREVER see.
The luxury of a large account is the cushion you have beneath you, where you dont start to get nervous until the drawdown is rather large, BUT you have NONE of that with a small account and therefore must make haste very slowly.
start small, keep the trades few and dont open many new ones without closing the others (at profit of course !), maintain your patience and treat everything as a real job and not a âget rich quickâ scheme and you may survive !
oh yeah â thats just the answer to the specifics of the question ---- you still have to gain the experience of trading, learn, learn, learn and learn and this is the site to get that info from.
digest pip school, open a demo WITH ONLY THE AMOUNT YOU WILL ACTUALLY BE ABLE TO FUND WITH (remember, a $50K demo will give you a âcushionâ that you simply wont have when you open your REAL $500 account.
when you learn how to take 500 up to 1000, and that 1K to 5K, then you will start to have fun.
but remember the turtle â âslow and steady wins the raceâ
enjoy and trade well
mpmp
I started with 550$ (200:1, mini account) and went to 1490$ in few days but then I got greedy and there was one trade I didnât want to close and that costed me a margin call.
There was some 50$ left in my account so I started trading 5c/pip because I was on a mini account. I made 62$ in two weeks, deposited 200$ more and again started with about 312$. Made 430$ in a week and then I got greedy again and had one trade I didnât want to close and that costed me another margin call.
Two lessons well learned, itâs not so much about the money as it is about a human factor. Plan your risk strategy damn well because that can be worth a lot more than your equity.
You become a good trader once you force yourself to follow the rules, without rules youâre nothing but a gambler.
I hope you all donât mind but I just HAD to post here!!!
I saw this thread come up with new messages and decided to go back to the beginning to see what itâs about and âwhat a shock I gotâ!!! Some of the first posts on this thread were replies by me to the thread starter and MAN OH MAN itâs REALLY SOMETHING to see how things âevolveâ!!!
First off: Iâm quite âimpressedâ with the way I âstated as factâ that you CANNOT be successful with only $500!!! I mean: it was said with such âarroganceâ!!! I think Iâd only been trading for about four months back then but youâd NEVER have said so!!! There is a lesson in this!!! When you get replies be sure to check where theyâre coming from because I can tell you right now that I had NO idea what I was talking about back then!!!
I also sat reading âwith a tear in my eyeâ (well not LITERALY) about my losses at the time!!! $4 000!!! Let me tell you that sometime between me posting that post at the beginning of this thread and earlier this year my losses at one point were well over the $70 000 mark!!!
Now that Iâm not âquite as wet behind the earsâ let me tell you this little âstoryâ:
AT SOME POINT, when I had little to NO more money, BUT had an account balance of about $10 or so left after being margin called time and again, and not having a trading system or anything like that, I had no choice but to trade Silver because it was the only thing I could buy or sell because the lots are so small. The cost of being CONNECTED was FAR more than I could ever have hoped to make trading with this small amount of money. And it was EXTREMELY frustrating I can tell you.
Now believe it or not: it was probably the BEST thing that I could have done and hereâs why:
Iâd always thought that if you had âBIGâ money in this business you âcould not go wrongâ!!! WRONG AGAIN!!! What I learned back then was that if I could not CONSISTENTLY make profits on those âminute little lotsâ of Silver then Iâd not be able to make profits with ANY amount of money in an account. It FORCED me to find a trading system that worked CONSISTENTLY for ME. It FORCED me to learn money management. I learned more when trading those tiny lots of Silver than Iâd learned in the preceding ten or so months with, at one time, if I remember correctly, $10 000 in my account at some or the other time prior!!!
I suppose the (my) point is this (and, in my own defense, I was not ENTIRELY wrong in one or two of my statements back then):
Being âsuccessfulâ (to me) means being able to make profits CONSISTENTLY. If those profits, in monetary terms, are only $0.50 BUT that single $ equates to say 10% per day or per week or per month or whatever then you ARE âsuccessfulâ. You OBVIOUSLY would not be able to LIVE off of those profits BUT it ALSO means that you then KNOW that you CAN put some ârealâ money into your account and at least stand a CHANCE of making some ârealâ profit.
And donât get me wrong here: Iâve âmessed upâ once or twice SINCE then EVEN WITH âBIGâ money. Having âBIGâ money can ALSO âscrew you upâ BIG TIME because NOW youâve got LOADS in the account and, before you know it, you become reckless, overtrade, and THINK that you can do no wrong!!! Iâm still recovering from losses as recently as six weeks ago!!!
All Iâm saying is that âbeing successfulâ means that you CAN trade CONSISTENTLY OVER TIME. You are THEN a âsuccessful traderâ and, if you can âkeep your wits about youâ when you have a decent size account: then youâve BECOME a SUCCESSFUL TRADER!!!
So: can you be successful with $500??? YES YOU CAN!!!
Regards,
Dale. (forexbrokersonline.net).
Moral of the story, with the ability to trade small/micro lot sizes you can be successful or fail with $500 or $5000.
All more money equals is the ability to trade larger lot sizes and make or lose more money at a time. My only concern, upping size, be careful and make sure micro lots donât trade differently than larger lots as size increases.
You can start small and build it up. If you over leverage and trade full lots with a small account itâs likely you will get margin called because you canât weather the draw down.
Iâve been through a few systems in the last few weeks. All systems have drawdown periods. You may get lucky and have it go your way on full lot and small account, but try it another time and itâs going to wipe your account.
With brokers offering micro lots you can adjust your risk percentage appropriately and maybe learn something.
A large account = a large cushion for drawdown, but the account will still be lost if the person trading it is a bad trader and continues with a bad system.
Take $500, add 1% to it every time you trade, and never take out money and keep compounding it 1%, every day you trade. Take out the calculater and add it up. Getâs pretty big quickly. Sure there will be days you get -x%. 1% is being conservative for a skilled forex trader. Iâm not even skilled yet, and Iâve done .5% or more every time I demo trade just fooling around with different systems.
IMO, your initial concern shouldnât be, âmaking money,â, or, âbeing successful,â it should be learning to be a, âextremely skilled trader.â The success and money will follow that as a bi-product.
I have to say I agree with ThePhoenix (on at least one point):
I know it may SOUND ridiculous but donât worry about the money.
I know of one or two people who actually use something like a âPostItâ note to âcover upâ the account balance and current profit/loss display (or, if your software allows, âturn offâ those displays). That way: you CONCENTRATE on the TRADES and your SYSTEM or METHOD as opposed to âhow muchâ youâre making or losing. Watching / worrying about your profit / loss is the ânumero unoâ reason why some people cannot follow their trading system or trading methodology and either take profit too early or close out losing positions for no reason at all (and the losers in this case almost always WOULD have turned to profit). I think itâs human nature to look at the profit âon the tableâ and (even if itâs subconciously) say to themselves: âNow what could I do with that profit thatâs showing right now? Iâd better take it now before it becomes lessâ. This may sound silly but Iâll tell you that for a long while now: I get FAR more satisfaction when Iâve followed my trading system and followed trades through to their âlogical conclusionâ EVEN IF the trade turned out to be a loser than I do when I TP early with profit (which does still happen to be honest)!!! Of course: ALL of the above ASSUMES that you do INDEED have a trading system or methodology that WORKS!!! I mean: thereâd be NO point in being âthe manâ and following your system if itâs not working i.e. youâre NEVER going to get a âpat on the backâ when you tell someone that youâve wiped NUMEROUS accounts out BUT you DID follow your trading system!!!
Regards,
Dale. (forexbrokersonline.net).
I just started reading this thread, and i wonder where âthepipkidâ is, and how he is doing with his âtuitionâ account.
As for me, i started off with USD10k. Initially only wanted to deposit USD5k, but the broker advised that the spread will be better if i deposited USD10k. WellâŠi never got to enjoy the âgood spreadâ because the a/c went below USD10k after a few trades (obviouslyâŠduh).
Come to think about it, i should have started small, like maybe 1k. Even if i got Margin call, i would have only lost 1k.
Anyway, i lost more than half of it while trying the âHoly Grailsâ. Now that iâve managed to devise my own strategy (after 7 months) that works consistently for myself, iâve managed to bring it above 5k. My next goal will be to breakeven. It will be slow as iâm only trading 1% per trade for now. So far, itâs really slowâŠbut still working at least.
while half your sentence is correct, your first act of misunderstanding is the belief that with larger amounts of money behind you, the trader is automatically increasing lot size, therebye NEVER decreasing risk â this is completely false. You will find most decent traders may increase their lot sizes a bit as their equity increases, but Iâve never met one who did it geometrically, along with their equity increases â actually, from my experience, a trader trades BOLDER, but not necessarily LARGER ! (thereâs an inuendo in there that I dont want to go near !)
MOST traders and institutions use the larger equity amounts as a cushion, as stated, and are required by law to do so, so it is rare that any trader that has raised equity due to trading and not influx of capital would be so stupid as to increase their risk beyond what they used to increase the capital in the first place.
The increase in equity DID NOT come from being stupid, after all !
and btw, a SYSTEM for a decent trader is KNOWLEDGE of how the market is moving and adopting to it â she is not using a SYSTEM per se, but years of experience that immediately recognizes trending, ranging, congestion, consolidation, and any other names one can attach to price movement ---- systems are cute, and enable one to actually start trading, but by their very nature they are limiting â being usually designed for one of the above markets and not usually doing well in others.
ANYWAY â may your holiday be cooked to perfection, your children attentive and polite, your lovers hotter than mexican chili and your day what you want !
trade well and ENJOY !!
mp
You had the, âleverage,â You did not have the, âmargin,â percentage/requirment to weather the draw down. Please donât confuse the terms. It was hard enough for me to understand the difference in the first place.
i believe you are able to be a successful trader with small amounts of money.
with a 500$ account you would have to trade with 1k lots instead of the standard 100k or even the mini 10k lots. trading is never about money its a percentages⊠that goes for all of trading. and people talking about doubling there demo accounts in a couple of weeks. thats great. personally the last time i traded on a demo it took me three days of trading to double it. but it is a demo and doesnât matter there is a different mentality with trading with real money for most people but if you can get over the fact that it is money it is very possible to see those kind of results. but very uncommon. personally i believe that the key to trading is looking at it as [B][U]percents[/U][/B] never money.
you all have a nice day:)
[B]ps â dont take what I say too seriously as im just in a pre thanksgiving mood and a bit giddy.
Best to all of you and yours and enjoy !
mp[/B]
I once turned $100 into $5k. Provided, I eventually lost the $5k because I became very emotional having made so much money in just a couple of days. The fact is⊠you can make a lot with very little trading in Forex, but itâs not very easy or even likely.
Wow! That sounds kinda like me.I get emotional and panic at the same time.Try taking large gains out of your account occasionlly to avoid giving them back.Build equity in your bank account not FX acc cause it flactuates too much.