The begginging

Hello all, im looking to start trading, i am going to try trading full time in July and August and then part time when i return to university in September. I have £1000 set aside to begin do you think this is adequate? I am going to take an aggressive approach and risk £300 per trade but pick my trades very carefully. I am currently looking for brokers and am considering depositing here very soon https://www.barclaysstockbrokers.co.uk/Accounts/MarketMaster/pages/at-a-glance.aspx

Does anyone here trade with Barclays StockBrokers? Feedback would be much appreciated. Also any recommendations of brokers that have good charting software etc and low commission fees.

Can some more experienced and profitable traders please give me some feedback on what their views are on the Barclays MarketMaster package? Thanks

Don't risk 30% per trade, or you will soon be begginginging.

R. Charnock is right about not risking 30% per trade, and with such a small overall trading pot I think that spread betting is this only cost-effective route rather than using a stockbroker as you (PositiveInput) seem to be proposing. Here is a fuller explanation of the relative costs of spread betting versus share dealing, and I hope it helps.

LOTONtech said:

R. Charnock is right about not risking 30% per trade, and with such a small overall trading pot I think that spread betting is this only cost-effective route rather than using a stockbroker as you (PositiveInput) seem to be proposing. Here is a fuller explanation of the relative costs of spread betting versus share dealing, and I hope it helps.

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Re: Spread betting

Thanks just researched spread betting that's what i am going to do instead. Anyone use IG Index?

Re: Spread betting

PositiveInput said:

Anyone use IG Index?

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No, no-one. It was such a shame they spent all that time and money developing a whizzy interface an' all, and then the marketing, and yet not a single client. There was a chap in Swindon I think, but he just teased them for a while, never signed up.

Please take your £1,000 back to university and spend it at the student bar. I guarantee you will get a better return.

Without a proven edge and the psychological skills to profit from it (think 5years unless you are the exception) you are almost certain to lose your margin sooner rather than later although risking 30%/trade it will likely be sooner.

G/L

Re: Spread betting

Jack o'Clubs said:

No, no-one. It was such a shame they spent all that time and money developing a whizzy interface an' all, and then the marketing, and yet not a single client. There was a chap in Swindon I think, but he just teased them for a while, never signed up.

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That's a ridiculous suggestion. I know for sure that IG has at least one client who doesn't live in Swindon, even if he hasn't traded his account for three years. You must be thinking of CMC.

PositiveInput said:

Hello all, im looking to start trading, i am going to try trading full time in July and August and then part time when i return to university in September. I have £1000 set aside to begin do you think this is adequate? I am going to take an aggressive approach and risk £300 per trade but pick my trades very carefully. I am currently looking for brokers and am considering depositing here very soon https://www.barclaysstockbrokers.co.uk/Accounts/MarketMaster/pages/at-a-glance.aspx

Does anyone here trade with Barclays StockBrokers? Feedback would be much appreciated. Also any recommendations of brokers that have good charting software etc and low commission fees.

Can some more experienced and profitable traders please give me some feedback on what their views are on the Barclays MarketMaster package? Thanks

Click to expand...

Reading all these posts, One gets the false impression, that in order to trade you need to have 10k to start trading.
1k is morre than sufficient to trade with, its the ideal amount to start.
Open your account with IG, aim trade 50p a point aim for 20 points day , work on your money management. You will soon be fine.
Good Luck!

It's possible to start spreadbetting with £100, in which case you're virtually obliged to risk a relatively large chunk of the pot in the early stages (assuming there are any more stages), but 30% of £1k makes no sense.

justtrader said:

Reading all these posts, One gets the false impression, that in order to trade you need to have 10k to start trading.
1k is morre than sufficient to trade with, its the ideal amount to start.
Open your account with IG, aim trade 50p a point aim for 20 points day , work on your money management. You will soon be fine.
Good Luck!

Click to expand...

It all depends on what you are aiming to get back from your trading imho.....
Working capital is very key in order to "make a living" out of trading (apart from many other important aspects as well), but as training or starting point, of course you can start as low as you want, and try to get better and better, but always under a "realistic view and expectation"....

Apart from that, those predictions of "well, I can go x p per tick and make x amount of pips in a daily basis, then I'll be making x return a day in 2 months, as per what excel sheet is telling me, etc, etc............." almost never works like that in the end.... so you won't want to put any more pressure than the current market does, above all, when you are starting in the game...

Yeah, I agree.

Any thoughts of making a living from trading should be forgotten for the near to mid term. Ain't going to happen any time soon unless you are extremely lucky or the new trading messiah.

Survival first (how? trade tiny quantities), preservation of capital next (how? see before, + money management + not over trading), capital appreciation next ( how, see before and when you get lucky run your winners ++ compounding).

All of this takes time and lots of it. Also, don't forget oppotunity cost: if you plan on staying at home, day trading the market, how much are you already in the red before you start by not having a job etc.? £20 to £30k per year in the hole. Now that money has either got to come from other savings i.e. borrowing from Peter to pay Paul, or you need a very large account to be taking your change from.

As soon as you start trying to take money from the account on a regular basis you will be scuppered: you will not be able to 'win' more than you are taking out unless you're running a fairly large account and trading for chump change.

Think long term capital growth rather than short term income.

Re: Spread betting

Jack o'Clubs said:

No, no-one. It was such a shame they spent all that time and money developing a whizzy interface an' all, and then the marketing, and yet not a single client. There was a chap in Swindon I think, but he just teased them for a while, never signed up.

Click to expand...

Cool story bro, needs more dragons an' **** though