Hi,
please i am just starting out trading FX and wish to start with a $200 account. please which lot size would be good per trade for this account size. which trading system can anyone recommend that i start with.
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read the babypips school. That’ll answer most of your questions.
yes dboy, just read the babypips school and will find that a $200 acount is not a good idea. You better get at least another $800 
i would go with .01 cent per pip.
advantages of starting small
- you will not be affraid to loose your account and you will build your confident level and you will be fierless.
Don’t do what I did, I started with 10K account and lost about 10% $1000 and now I am also using micro account with $100, trying to build that higher. It really helps to build my confidence. I am not affraid anymore to trade.
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But then again it’s not a good idea to remove fear from the equation. Then it becomes just like demo.
My suggestion is that when, and only when, you feel ready to try it live, start with a sum that’s big enough to hurt a bit if you lose it, but small enough to not hurt your economy. That’s how you get the realism factor right. Absolutely not too much! But not too little either.
If that figure is 200$ for you, I’d have a look at Oanda since they have no lower limit for lot sizes. No matter how small your account is, you can always open a lot size that for instance gives you a 2% risk in the trade.
There may be more brokers that offer this nowadays, but Oanda is a big, trustworthy one and also the only one I know of that has this ability for sure.
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I’m starting with a $100 account and trading one micro .01 lot at a time. Hey, what’s $100? if I loose it so what? It’s a learning experience. For me, I would risk more with a very small account because it won’t hurt much to loose it and with luck you might make a lot. but as account size gets big enough to matter then decrease your risk and let money management become more important. Well that’s the way I look at it anyway.
Personally I think that sort of reasoning invites gambling instead of learning how to trade.
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The whole point with starting with a small account of a couple of hundred bucks is to set the foundation of how to trade with good money management and establish a trading plan. People are creatures of habit, if you develop bad habits initially, they will stick with you and when you have serious money invested, you’ll be in trouble because you still have not learned to trade and control your emotions.
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You are right, that is gambling, and I don’t mind gambling a little bit with a $100, nothing wrong with that. I’ve gambled with that much at blackjack tables. But when the stakes get higher, that’s when I stop gambling and get serious with money magament. Besides, my intention of a single .01 lot with $100 stake is not that bad of money management in my opinion. The real important thing is to not risk too much on any one trade. But if you can afford to toss away a hundred dollar bill and not hurt because of it, then why not go for the gusto?
Ok, to backtrack a little. if you are serious, and we all are, then you should practice the best strategy and MM as possible even with a small starting capital. Be serious from the very beginning and not gamble.
Just as long as you’re aware of it and able to make the switch to serious money management, sure.
sorry, didn’t mean to suggest that anyone should gamble, this isn’t Vegas. but .01 is the smallest size available isn’t it? That’s only ten cents a pip. a good size to start with for real money experience.
Yes, micro lots is the smallest generally. But I’ve heard of nano lots recently, and then there’s Oanda without a lower lot size limit.
As I’ve learned more and more, I’ve come to realize just how much truth there is in the saying that money and risk management is the most important part of trading and psychology is the most difficult part and the system part is the easiest part…
Cdawg is right, it’s hard to unlearn bad habits. It’s better to get it right from the start.
From what I’ve read, money management is the hardest part. But for me that seems easy. I have enough sense not to risk too much on any one trade. But what I find difficult as a newbie is to find a way to consistently make something like 20 or 30 pips a day average.
Well, hang in there, don’t give up, exercise your mind and you’ll get there.
In time you’ll find your own unique style that fits you.
And yes, money management is simple, but for many it’s not easy… I’ve had to struggle with it until I learned good discipline.
Total load of BS. I fully disagree because of first hand experience. That would be true if there were not reputable brokers that allow micro lots and fractional lots. That would be true if you could only trade standard accounts and trade full lots.
My micro account at ibfx allows me to trade anywhere from 1 cent a pip to 50dollars per pip. So, you can dial in the risk proportionate to your account size very easily.
You can easily do any risk amount as far as money managment. Hell you could do it with 10 dollars and still only risk 1-3 percent per trade if that is part of your money management.
In fact I think opening a small micro account is a waaaaaaaay better idea than opening an xk standard account to start. Most traders tank their first couple of accounts, a couple hundred dollars is far less painful than a couple K, especially if a couple k is a big deal to you.
Why do you think more money matters? If one is using proper money management, you still have the same success whether you have 100 bucks or 100 million bucks.
If you go with Oanda you can literally trade a single unit. Which is a fraction of a penny.
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1 cent per pips.
micro account 0.01 size
I thought it should be 10cents per pips huh?
0.01 std lots is 1,000 units
$0.10 per pip when trading pairs when the USD is the cross currency, e.g. GBP/USD, EUR/USD…
0.001 std lots is 100 units
$0.01 per pip when trading pairs when the USD is the cross currency, e.g. GBP/USD, EUR/USD