It’s for sure not the same as going to a casino. You are making and educated decision based on your strategy. So instead of 50/50 *actually worse because you have 0/00) you have a definitive edge. But i do agree it’s not for everyone and am not encouraging it. It’s great if you want to take a couple of big shots then settle in.
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Small amount for scalping can be okay but it depends on your risk reward ratio and your winning percentage. If you open .01 lot to lose 300$ you have to lose 3000 pips which is a lot of pips to lose. With small amount you can sharpen your trading skills.
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Yes you are making an educated decision but what about any sense of capital preservation and responsible money management?? Betting all your capital on one trade you have at best 60-70% chance of winning and that is not much better than 50-50 at the casino. Yes at the casino you have a 50-50 chance but realistically if you undersatnd risk reward AND probability you will understand that putting all you capital on one trade is virtually betting it all on black.
Cheers
Blackduck
The main problem trading with a small account comes traders focusing on the money, not the percentages. The money is small, both the capital risked and the returns per trade / day / month.
This has two effects. Firstly, as has been said, the max risk on a $300 account should be 2% per trade. That’s 6 bucks. What can you buy with 6 bucks that you really really dream of having? Nothing much. So a lot of traders move their risk to 10 or 20. An extra $10 or $20 a day for doing not very much is pleasant and how much does it hurt if you lose 10 bucks? But this is way too high a percentage, likely to lead to wipe-out.
The corollary of this is that in dollar terms, the returns on a $10 position are not impressive - at an ambitious r:r of 1:2, that’s still only 20 bucks. Will that re-fill your car’s tank? No. So the novice’s answer is the same, increase the trade size.
Apply the same strict discipline to a $300 account that you would apply to a $300k account. Small traders just don’t take the job seriously.
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And just to add, it seems many people don’t understand percentages. As a private retail trader, its more important to understand percentages than to understand national fiscal policy.
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I get what your saying, but we are talking about an unrealistic topic in the first place. So that’s why i recommended either saving up or going all in. I can’t imagine trading an account for a year to make 30 bucks… i would rather lose everything in a few minutes as my time is worth a lot more than a few bucks.
My target is 6% per month. That will double the account every year.
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I agree and the reason i don’t recommend demo accounts for anyone that already knows the mechanics of trading. You will just use play money to make wild trades and dream about what could have been. I’ve traded 1k accounts to multi million accounts and never changed my strategy. I’m not against 2% risk trades, but it’s just not what works for me and i think it’s okay to share alternative methods.
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I can see the attraction of scalping however it breeds over trading which in turn blows your account. Better to use the system but limit your trades. I have a mantra for this “Score Score Stop”
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Depending on your strategies… if you have good strategy which works perfectly for you then you can make more than that
Yup exactly… whatever works for you should be the way! There are tons of ways to win and just a few ways everyone loses. So do what makes you the most $$$.
i just wanna add 2 more cents> if i can t do scalping for example, doesn t mean that no1 can!!! or better yet, every1 has different limitations! cos i see a lot of comments that scalping leads to this and scalping leads to that etc…it might, for you, that doesn t mean that what applies to u goes for every1. second cent> if you (you beeing whoever, including me) can t manage 100 bucks, for sure u won t be able to manage 1k, 10k or 100k for that matter. so enough with this nonsence of sending people to save so they can lose more. learn to manage risk(preferably in %) and when u do that on whatever acount then sky is the limit. cos the accounts nr is just a number. it really doesn t matter if ur trading 100 dollars or 100k. it s all in ur head cos ur thinking about money. do procentages, and u don t have to care about how much money that is. keep same % risk on each and every trade, and if ur doing something right, ur % risk per trade increases with ur account. simple and painless. take 100 bucks, turn it into 200( and not betting it all on 1 trade lol)
then add 100 bucks more cos ur proving to urself that u know what r doing, u don t chase price, u wait for ur bread and butter trades and u execute no mater the outcome of any individual trade. cos even the most perfect setups fail, so get good at losing and moving on to the next trade(that was really difficult to do for me). hope this helps.
cheers
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Yes I agree with you there.
Cheers
Blackduck
Actually it does matter, that’s why no one is giving a trader that turned 100 into 400 a job at a top trading firm. Your right that on a percentage basis it’s the same and MM is still important. But at the end of the day things change when you move into bigger accounts (not necessarily the strategy) and your ability to handle the psychological stresses of managing substantial amounts of $$ and clients.
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hhahaha, tell me 1 retail trader that went to ask for a job at a prop after turning 100 into 1k. 
and again, it matters to u, cos it s in ur head that way. to me it doesn t matter how much an account has. i do procentage based risk on each and every trade( no matter if it s 1mil or 1 cent). i think about the execution and the trade management. that s what most important to me.( and ofc some will say getting out, but u have to be in a winning position first to get out off). anyways, like i said, different views, different people, and thank God for that.
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Exactly … Different view are important and neither of us here are ever right or wrong. Our accounts tell the story so setting rules only limit our potential.
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i know what ur sayin, the psich aspect of moving to a bigger account, the little devils in our head etc… the way(for me) to overcome that was to think about the trade that is according to my plan, the execution and how i manage the trade once i m in it. the risk for me it s the same no matter the account size. that s how in my opinion u get over this hurdle… all i m sayin,
cheers
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Account size does not matter, what matters is how disciplined you are coupled with risk management.
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Scalping is a good way to make quick money, as long as you have a positive psychology. I have moved an account with a -4$ balance and a 4$ credit to just above 112$. As long as you making money, spreads don’t matter, it pays for them to not be too wide especially when trading smaller timeframes. Have very tight stops is a good practice, good trade management, minimises loss and increases gains.
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I agree some of what you saying, if u can’t manage 5 dollars how you gonna manage 500:joy:
. Work on the skill and the equity will take care of itself.