I have read in the school of pipsology that it is not advisable to start live trading with a small account of say 100$. I would like to hear your comments, do you think it is possible to trade successfully starting off with a small account? My feeling is that if you cannot make it with 100$, why will you be more successful with $10 000 or even $100 000? Will you not make the same mistakes just in a much larger scale?
it’s because of the leverage on the account and how it works.
when you gave this scenario [quote=“GLTrader, post:1, topic:137154”]
why will you be more successful with $10 000 or even $100 000? Will you not make the same mistakes just in a much larger scale?
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you left out a lot of things in consideration.
now. if it was just about scalability, you would be correct, BUT IT’S NOT
so… long story short, it’s not advised to start with $100 However you can try it with a $1,000
if you start with $100 you will probably find that given the min lot size, you won’t have enough money to finance a trade and the amount of pips you need to set your stop loss at, which would otherwise be normal
if you however start with $1,000 you can pull off moves that would be normal, that’s the difference
It depends on the type of trader you want to become. You can start with $100 with a leverage of 1:100 but just don’t be greedy, cause your gains will be too small and people tend to take bigger risks to flip their account.
The size of your account doesn’t have a lot to do with being a successful trader. Money Management, is money management; 1% of your account is the same principle whether your account is $100 or $1,000,000 . Along with money management you need a trading plan that based on a balance of probabilities should give you more wins than losses and then you need to develop patience to give your strategy of enough time to work long term
If you do decide to go with $100 make sure the broker you choose will accept that small a trade. Hope that helps
Gp
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Thank you for the comment. The idea is not to get rich quick, but to rather make small gains and add additional funds to the account on a monthly basis.
That is exactly the way I see it, don’t be greedy, stick to a shorter time frame such as the 1hr and manage your risk. Its ok to take $5, $10 or sometimes even $20 and limited your losses. I am with FxPro and they do accept small trades.
Hi Martin, glad to see you are still with us!
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How well are you doing in your demo account ?
Trading with the small trading account is challenging but not impossible! When you have good trading skill then Forex trading will be more flexible to you! By the way, without proper knowledge there is no value on big trading capital.
Hi Falstaff, I opened a live trading account late in December 2017 and deposited $100. Currently I am at $175. I think such a small account teaches one to be more disciplined and careful in your planning and execution of trades. Although I had many more losing than winning trades, the winning amounts were always slightly more than the losing amounts.
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Thank you for the comment. The idea is not to get rich quick, but to rather make small gains and add additional funds to the account on a monthly basis.
Time at patience. Start trading 1% of your account, when you can do that more successful than not move up to 2%. You’ll be surprised how your bankroll builds expecially once you can tell the difference between normal market movement and making bad trade
Good Luck
Gp
Actually there are different type of trader. If it is not possible to start with 100$ like you said than how there are so many trader who are using small account. But big amount will help you to make big profit. [quote=“GLTrader, post:1, topic:137154”]
why will you be more successful with $10 000 or even $100 000?
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Did you get my answer for your this question? With small account by taking leverage you can do well.
Thank you Logan and yes I do agree with you, with a small account you start small, make small profits but eventually your account grows if you have the right strategy.
Ok - well that gives us an idea where you’re at.
Clearly you have a system which works “At the moment”. You are trading 75% positive in 2 months 
To keep your risk per trade small, you must be trading quite frequently and making it work. I can’t see that we have anything to teach you mate, not many of are doing that well !
All I can say is “Don’t change a winning system” - well done !
Yes there is no difference. But you need a minimum amount where you can apply your trading strategy and risk management system as well. If your balance is 100$ and maximum risk is 2% which is 2$, your risk pips will be 20 in 0.01 lot. So you have to find a strategy like that. Hope it helps you.
Forex being a potential investment field today and here proper money management is essential to ensure security of funds as well as earning good money. And you obviously have the equal opportunities to earn good money if you have properly utilized your money with proper cautions as well as using various risk management tools and techniques.
I am currently trading with $100 in an account using 1:20 leverage. I have up days and down days like any trader, I can feel the sting of losing money (especially when I lose $7 in one trade - that really stings). However, there are a few noticeable differences that I see by trading that small:
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You can only trade one position at a time. I entered a trade this morning for 1 micro on GBP/USD and my margin required was $67, leaving me without enough margin to open a second position.
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Unless your broker offers flexible position sizes or you have really tight stops (like 10 pips), you will not be able to implement a 1% or 2% risk rule. You will be running closer to 5% - 10% account balance risk per trade.
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If you make $3.00 on a trade, you did good - the raw dollar value might seem insignificant, but it is a good percentage of your account. Likewise, losing $3.00 may not seem like much, but treat it like a big deal.
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If you blow up your account, it’s easier to get back in the game as $100 is much easier to come by than $1,000.
I opened my account about 6 months ago, so I am still very much learning and getting comfortable trading. Sometimes the one position limit frustrates me as I spot multiple good opportunities, but it also forces me to be selective with my trades. The things that I really like about my tiny account is that if I blow it up I don’t take that big a loss, and I can afford to test new strategies in that account.
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Something to think about…If you believe you now have the ability to correctly choose pairs and price action with a degree of accuracy and that your profitability is being held back by your small account size… maybe you need to rethink your strategy…
With a 1:200 account you could have opened a 0.05 ($30.40 margin) position on the GBPUSD/GBPJPY and a 0.05 Position on the NZDUSD/NZDJPY both with 11 pip TP’s and closed with a +$13.00 payoff …a possible 13% in a few hours
Or kept the positions opened after moving your SL’s to BE or better (0% risk) and garnished more value as the trend south continues… all within the last 4 hours…8.00AM - 12.00pm (UTC+11)
8 pip SL’s (2 x $4.80) still falls within the high end of your 5% - 10% risk appetite for both trades, and as you correctly state you cannot remain under 5% per position with 1:50 leverage and a $100.00 account unless you a using 0.01 lots…(the preferable other option)
Or top up the account to $200 to alleviate any possible margin calls and give you some breathing room, continuing to use the same risk profile as you are for the $100 account…
I understand It’s hard to justify time spent learning FX after a while, when you are making $0.50 per position…As I said, just something to think about…
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Bigger risk not assure you about bigger earning until you are not able to adjust trading with skill. It will be like a race on a vehicle when you do not know about driving. Small accounts can be profitable with wise trading and big investment will be a big loss if ine deals it with low trading skills.