Trading with real money

First. Is this the right forum section?

It is time to go live. I have tons of backtests and forward tests. It should work. Waste of time to continue testing. It feels a bit scary though.

Worse than that. I probably know the answer to this one. Can I start with 100 $? I can increase it to 1000 $, but that money is a bit hard to get. So that is why I want to take the easily accesible 100 $ I have and start with that. Not go get rich. Just to get a feeling. I will add more and more as I start feeling more confident. Then again. I know everything about a micro lot, not risk more than 2 %, losing streaks, risk of ruin and so on. If I start with 100 $ will that require me to use far too much leverage?

Another thing I find very important is an archive or reviewing. Is myfxbook recomended? Fxblu? Is that good? Forexfactory? I want statistics and balance growth for specific time frames, for a specific currency pair. I have also heard about edgewonk, but that costs a lot of money.

The last thing that has been on my mind are taxes. No one talks about that. I wonder if people just ignore it. In the country where I live one has to document every trade. So if you have 500 trades a year or even 5000. What is the solution? Get an accountant?

If you’ve forward tested, you should already know that it DOES work–not should.

Well, you already know the answer.

Perhaps there are books in your country about trading and taxes. Find them and read them. Educate yourself before going to an accountant.

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Hello Enrich77,

I’ll respond to this message with what I have understood from your writing, so if my opinion isn’t accurate please do not take it personally, my intention is NOT to offend you but makes you feel uncomfortable with your thoughts to protect you from your self because I see uncertainty and you are using wrong words and you are focusing on the wrong targets.
First thing first, “It is time to go live. I have tons of backtests and forward tests. It should work. Waste of time to continue testing.”
Here I need some more information about it, yes you have tons of backtests, did you find 1 system that it works for you? the time frame you are going to use? your entry model? your exit model? partials? always you will keep full volume till the target you have set? And if closes you breakeven what you are going to do? How you will react? Will this make you feel unsettled?
The “It should work” sentence doesn’t convince me, if you have a strategy that gives you consistency, then you have a plan, if you have a plan then you can profit in these markets. If you don’t have one, then you are gambling, my opinion on that? If I may propose you, wear your tuxedo, go to the casino, and play roulette with this 100$. At least there you know that you are gambling 100% and you are also in the right place without daydreaming.
Yes, you can start with 100 $ and yes you can increase them to 1000$ but how much is going to be your risk-reward ratio? 1%? 1 for 5? risk 1$ to take 5$? Then good night, 1000$ are coming in a very long time.
Yes, there are plenty of moves every day in the market, for the market makers, you are a market maker? 10%? 10 wrong trades and the 100$ are gone. more than 10%? less wrong trades and again, the 100$ are gone.
There are many prop firms that give you accounts with 5 or 6 figures, BUT before we get there, they offer also trials, but with trials, they keep your records, your Metrix, and you have log statistics and you can review what work and what it doesn’t, I highly suggest you pass 2-3-5 times the trial, review the MetriX, learn your self in trading how reacts and then consider buying one challenge and move on, one step at a time. Or more, until this “it should work” be “I have done this X times and it gave me X risk-reward ratio and I’ll be profitable, so now it’s my time to go live”
So I think this covers also your reviewing your trades, which you can do in your email on Google with an online excel form.
Last thing about taxes, you are stressed enough about something that you don’t have, so it is like “I’ll buy a new house with a garage because in the future I’ll have a Maserati” but now you are using a bicycle,
if you want to talk about taxes, in my country, Greece, the taxes from forex are 15%, so for every x amount I make, directly I deduct 15%, for the declaration of the trades, my broker gives me a list of the trades every end of the month, and I give this to my accountant, and my accountant processes it through the government and so on and so on.

I’m going to close this message and tell you this, please, if you don’t have a system, please, do not consider to try to invest this 100$, I don’t know where are you coming from or how hard/easy you earned this amount of money, the thing I know, is your money. If you lose them, and you don’t try to change your system, and try again with 100$ you will lose your faith, you will thing this is not working and you will make other mental problems that you don’t have right now.
Find a system and fall in love with that, one that it works.
I lost a lot of money in the beginning, I didn’t had a system, I had a big ego, I was overcomplicating things, I was procrastinating with irrelevant things, start to have trust issues in myself, self-doubt, not enjoying life and if I continue the list goes on.
Suddenly I took a decision, evolve, find a system that works, and follow it NO MATTER WHAT, and now I can’t be profitable with a 40% success rate.
This is from me, in a friendly tone.
Until next time, take care, be healthy and trade safely.

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I believe you can ask your broker for information about your trades.

Well, if you’re trading a pair including GBP or JPY you’re gonna have to dump a lot more real money into your brokers bank account to do the same trades if you’re unlucky enough to be under the thumb of the USA’s not-so-free-market financial system.

The NFA has declared these and other GBP and JPY pairs must have high margin requirements beginning this Sunday (or at least that is the story being told by brokers.)

This comes as a complete surprise to me… I haven’t seen any forum discussions or NFA request for public comment… has anyone heard about this before now?

The new rates:
AUDJPY 5%
CADJPY 5%
CHFJPY 5%
EURGBP 5%
EURJPY 5%
EURTRY 25%
GBPAUD 5%
GBPCAD 5%
GBPCHF 5%
GBPJPY 5%
GBPNZD 5%
GBPUSD 5%
NZDJPY 5%
TRYJPY 25%
USDJPY 5%
USDTRY 25%

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you can, if your broker allows near-infinite granularity

but i’d strongly recommend that $250 is the minimum one needs, to trade one microlot (0.01 lots) safely

i’d also strongly recommend limiting your maximum risk per trade to 1% rather than to the 2% you mention above

nobody ever takes up either of these bits of advice, though, and that’s maybe why 90% of beginners are said in the industry to lose 90% of their money within 90 days of starting

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Which broker are you using right now?

same question i want to know by 33base , what is your broker name ?

Gain Cap. I’ve seen published lists from OANDA that suggest brokers can offer different terms to particular US clients if they wish, which suggests that this rule is really more of a suggestion that gives each broker cover to do what they wanted to do anyway and blame it on the NFA. Gain Cap has left me in the dark (barely 3 days before the new margins go into effect;) so, I’m gonna have to dig for answers.

Are you in the USA and what brokers are you using? Will you see margins changes this Sunday?

BTW, let’s try to separate issues: I’m just looking for facts related to regulation, not an argument aboutf margin levels!

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I have felt completely exhausted lately. So I have not been in the mood to answer. Thanks to all who answered! I know what to do now. I have experience. 3 years of it, plus at least 20 backtests on excel sheets, 500 forward tests and around 400 podcasts listened to (I know all the cliches. “Trade the plan, plan the trade”. “Buy high, sell low”. That last one was the over way around. Anyway). I guess people were misled by my newbie question (trade with 100 $). Which was newbie because I have not traded with real money before and never touched the lot size “button” before.