Well done this week, awesome profits! If you dont mind me asking, what % of your account do you risk per trade? I calculated your week to be a 13.04% gain in the week, so that brings me to either two conclusions, you had a really good week of trading, or you risked more than the [I]recommended[/I] (not essential) 1-2% per trade. Anyway, im not going to start criticizing risk management of different people as believe me, ive done damage to my account this week…
Just asking out of curiosity, so dont take my question the wrong way…
I closed 1/4 at +20 pips and locked BE, free ride from here so lets see what happens…
Well thats three walls and a floor tiled and grouted… missed my vocation in life… really enjoyed it… hardly looked at a chart all day! I’m in short on GU too but not as good an entry as you guys (5957).
I have read many “professional” traders recommend that newbies should not open a live account with a small amount of money. Some trading platforms allow you to open an account with $50, and as I said, I have read many experienced traders say that this is just folly to do so. I never really understood why these guys objected to it until I was actually trading with around $50 in my account. Here is the problem, and eventually the answer to the “how much risk per trade” question.
As you may know, I trade a MICRO account. Each 1 lot traded opens a 1k position and makes each pip in a trade worth 10 cents. ( Incidentally, if you are wondering why my balance is denominated in $'s when I live in Scotland, it’s simply because my trading platform only offers micro accounts in dollars as far as I know. If and when I open a standard, or spread-betting account, I can change to sterling) Anyway, I digress.
So, if my account balance is only $50, and I stick to a strict 1-2% risk per trade, that would mean I could only risk 50 cents for 1%, or $1 for 2%. That would mean I could only enter a trade and give myself a maximum of a 10 pip ( for 2% risked ) margin of error.
And I think even the best traders would struggle to consistently be within a 10 pip accuracy on every trade. And at 1% I’d need to be within 5 pips, which when you also factor in the typical 2.7 pip spread on EU on a MICRO account, I’d now need to have a 7.3 pip level of accuracy for 2%, and 2.3 pip level of accuracy for 1% risked.
So while your account balance is so small, using a bigger % of risk is a necessary evil, in my opinion. And I think it is this that the experienced guys speak of when they talk about not UNDER funding your account.
So I currently use a 3-4% level of risk, which at the moment gives me around 20 pips to be wrong. And again, this is where the experienced guys know that if you constantly use a bigger % of risk, you stand a bigger chance of your funds depleting quicker during draw down periods.
Once my account gets back up to $100, ( may be a bit presumptuous of me) I can then move to a better level around 1.5% - 2%, which would give me 15 - 20 pips and that is obviously a much more desirable position to be in. Get to $200 and you could then move to a flat 1%, which gives you 20 pips margin of error, and I think that regardless of the size of your account, if you start to go much more than 20 pips the wrong way, it might be time to ask if you’ve got it wrong in the first place.
So I’m sorry my reply was so long winded, but I thought I’d better explain it as best I could. As I say, 3-4% just now as a necessary evil, once, (hopefully) I get to $100, I’ll move down to 1.5 - 2%.
One of my taxi driving mates actually done a ceramic tiling course and started picking up jobs here and there. Right at the start I told him not to do this, but since he had reached the age of 44, and never had any previous construction experience, he thought I meant not to do it because he wouldn’t be any good at it. So he ignored my fantastic, insightful…I could go on, advice.
Anyway, about a year later, he gave it up, why ?? Because, as I’m sure you will discover tomorrow morning RC, tiling floors gives the knees an absolute beating. And if you continue to do it over the course of months or years, you will inevitably suffer the fate of 99.9% of professional ceramic tilers, and be unable to play golf much past the age of 55. ( what a horrifying thought I hear you scream ) But 'tis true, tiling is heavy on the joints.
So enjoy it for the novelty factor RC, just don’t consider a career change would be my advice. LOL !!
If you’re going for a 10-15 pip stop I’d be wary HoG - Chinese GDP figures being released at 2am by the Ministry for Made Up Numbers could quickly stop you out if they come in high as has been rumoured throughout the day. Waiting for LO might be better if you have to keep things tight. Chinese numbers are a total lottery - they just make them up to suit whatever their agenda of the month is half the time it seems to me.
Surely you’re not suggesting for a second PB that the Chines might be…dare I say it?..lying??? LOL.
No intention of trading my friend, done for the week as I mentioned earlier. Not unless the Euro personally phones me and says, “Listen Hog, I don’t think I can go on, I think I’m going to collapse now, right in front of your eyes. Look, watch me, here I go.” Then gives me a 30 second start to open my trading platform and hit the SELL button.
And in reality, how often does that happen ?? LOL.
Perhaps not tonight but looking to the 4h GU the 38 fib off the 5807 low to the present high 5983 comes in around 5916 which coincidently is the mid 20 ema and bottom of a 5 DNC.
I retired at 50 Hog LOL. Yep one thing I noticed… you think your tiling the floor but in actual fact your playing an elaberate game of ‘twister’! LOL!!!
When we moved in to our current house, my wife had me tile the hall, dining room and kitchen floors. Just over 40 sq metres of floor. Took me 3 days, couldn’t walk for another 3 days after. 4 weeks later the lovely Mrs HoG informs me she hates the tiles and they’d need to come up !!
A period of intense “negotiations” then followed. Wasn’t an argument, just a frank and honest exchange of opinions ! She’s been happy with the new tiles this last 5 years ! LOL
Ah… beware of the… [B]‘can you just’[/B]… it usually involves seven skips of rubble, moving out for six months and/or a complete change of address! LOL!!!
Morning all, Just looked at the EU 1 hour and it seems as though the last 4 or 5 hours have been pretty much side ways. Price right now sitting in the middle of nowhere ( although it is sitting almost slap bang on the fractal low on the 1 hour ) But could go anywhere.
However, that internationally recognised " RISK ON" indicator I spoke of earlier in the week, ( the sun ) is sitting proudly in the sky in Glasgow this morning, but don’t be fooled, the forecast ain’t great for this afternoon. And if I was a betting man, I’d think they’ve called it right today.
I think as long as you have some sort of risk management strategy in place and not just throwing trades on all willy nilly sizes, your far much better off…
Just to throw it out there, if you primarily trade bigger % sizes to ensure that you can have a somewhat significant stop size during your trades, possibly look to open a nano account - where they trade at $0.01 a pip? Im pretty sure Oanda and i think IBFX do this… I realise your account will never grow half as quickly, and it will take probably unnecesarry time and effort shifting account to move to a nano - but just a suggestion, apologies if you’d already considered and decided not to lol…
GU has been pretty much the same, although as i speak were getting a further push down out of last nights range into Wednesday high… Still holding my short at 5984…
Nice work SanJ! I figure thats the correction taken care of and normal service will resume long on EU next week. With that in mind I’ve placed a long @ 3079… -0.27 daily fib piv is 3070 rather than incur those outrageous Sunday spreads. Its a risk but what the heck.
Looks like my original TP would have worked out almost perfectly and would of grabbed every pip on the table of GU… Ah well, more than happy bagging what i had already…
Yup, GU is looking the same to me, today’s action stopping almost exactly on the upward channel line… Think i will wait til Monday NY before getting out on the battlefield again, good luck with your long though!..
Does your broker allow you to break that down from micro to nano? So instead of a $1000 lot size, can you use a $100 lost size?
In other words, rather than trading $0.10 cent pips, can you trade $0.01 pips?
That should be possible with almost any micro broker account. You wouldn’t be able to break it down like Oanda does into any conceivable number, but breaking it down one more decimal point in terms of lot sizes would afford you much more freedom.
On an IBFX mini account a 1.00 lot size is a buck a pip, a 0.10 is your micro lot, and 0.01 is a nano, or one cent pips.
Don’t know what your broker offers, but it’s worth looking into for you. In fact, if your broker doesn’t offer that option, switch;)
