3 Questions For You Lot!

1. What is the best paper trading site to get started on?

I'm new to trading so want to learn without losing money

2. For a beginner, what is a good sum of money to start on?

I don't have much money, probably around £1000 to play with. I can add to this monthly a few hundred or so.

3. Should I save alittle more then trade?

This might take me a few years tho.

1. What do you want to trade? It is best to put some money down, rather than paper trade.
I might suggest Finspreads because, if you join their academy, you can trade at 1 penny per point but others don't think much of it and its years since I used anyone else, so can't compare. I must be a satisfied customer.

You can open an account with them for £100, which is quite enough for rolling bets of 50pence per point. If you lose that £1000, think hard before adding more.

Split

pudha said:

1. What is the best paper trading site to get started on?

I'm new to trading so want to learn without losing money

2. For a beginner, what is a good sum of money to start on?

I don't have much money, probably around £1000 to play with. I can add to this monthly a few hundred or so.

3. Should I save alittle more then trade?

This might take me a few years tho.

Click to expand...

1) There isn't any such thing as a paper trading site.

-Determine what instrument you want to trade, indices,Forex, shares, commodities, etc

-Determine what time frame you want to trade, day trading, scalping, position, etc

-Determine the trading platform you wish to use such as spread betting or direct access.

-Find a broker that meets all your needs and sign up!

Paper trading normally just means recording a trade you would have taken and monitoring it's performance. Many brokers will give you a 30 day simulated account but after that you still do not have to put any real money on the line (Other than the deposit to open an account)

2. There is no such thing as starting money for a beginner (or anybody). Trade with money you can afford to lose. DON'T BORROW TO TRADE.

£1000 is a LOT of money, don't ever let anyone tell you it isn't enough to start trading!!


3) Save and trade at the same time.

Good Luck

Hi Pudha

Seems that not many know about this site.

Demo trade to your hearts content without risking a single penny.

http://www.tradertrainer.com

Best of luck

Fibonelli
(a fellow newbie)

I doubt whether you will be able to open an account with a direct access broker for
£1000. It will have to be a spreadbetting company, but that should not hold you back, if you want to trade. If you do papertrade, when you decide to put money into your trading stay with minimum bets and increase gradually.

Split

Splitlink said:

I doubt whether you will be able to open an account with a direct access broker for
£1000. It will have to be a spreadbetting company, but that should not hold you back, if you want to trade. If you do papertrade, when you decide to put money into your trading stay with minimum bets and increase gradually.

Split

Click to expand...

Agreed. I just get a little concerned when newbies say that they "only" have £1000. It is a lot of money and should not be squandered recklessly. Spread betting may be the best way to start, it may be the only way to start.

In original form, paper trading is an old outdated form of practice trading using pen and paper. In the online trading arena that has come on leaps and bounds in the last ten years and IMO is changing rapidly over the last year or so, its becoming harder to keep up with the latest developments, trading platforms, demo accounts, charting improvements, direct access v spread betting......and the merger of the two, the minimum deposits required, jeez im getting lost. its all fluid and moving all the time of late, especially this site...oh dear me...was that really necessary

pudha

Do a search for spread betting platforms that have demo accounts - tradindex, capital spreads do, city index I believe now have one, cmc have a time limited demo (of the live platform). there's probably a lot more.
After playing on a demo, fins is probably best to start with and cut your teeth on as Splitlink has mentioned above as you wont be risking much cash (£100) and you will be using the full platform rather than a naff, not realtime substitute that doesn't represent the live platform when you decide to get real(capital spreads being an example here).

a quick search I did for sb demo accounts

http://uk.search.yahoo.com/search?p...ei=UTF-8&fr=yfp-t-501&x=wrt&meta=vc=countryUK


trading simulators may also be a good way to start, to try out strategies and the like, I havent tried these, but again a web search will unearth a few. They are probably going to be limited in the choice of instrument for free which may not suit what you would may like to trade but still good for practice in market direction, strategies etc.

fibo's tradertrainer looks good, I've set it up and going to give it a go. nice find there.

What ever route you wish to take stay safe and dont become liquidity for the market, remember the cash you lose ends up in someone elses pocket.

Best of luck

don

Lightning McQueen said:

fibo's tradertrainer looks good, I've set it up and going to give it a go. nice find there.

Click to expand...

I agree; an interesting find fibonelli. I've not come across the site before, so I can't vouch for its effectiveness but, as a starting point for any new trading idea, it's almost certainly better than throwing real money at the market.
Tim.

thanks for the appreciative comments re tradertrainer.
I can't recall where I found it.
i'm also going to give it a trial too.

Thanks for the feedback guys.

So I'm totally new to this.

With spread betting, how much money would you start per point?

What is an 'average' monthly return on spread bets?

Average? That depends on the skill of the trader.

pudha said:

Thanks for the feedback guys.

So I'm totally new to this.

With spread betting, how much money would you start per point?

What is an 'average' monthly return on spread bets?

Click to expand...

Think of it this way. For some reason, you want to be a professional angler/fisherman, but you've never fished before. What would you do? Your answer to this question may have some bearing on your potential success in trading.

new_trader said:

2. There is no such thing as starting money for a beginner (or anybody). Trade with money you can afford to lose. DON'T BORROW TO TRADE.

£1000 is a LOT of money, don't ever let anyone tell you it isn't enough to start trading!!

Click to expand...

I disagree... 1000 is hardly enough if you want to daytrade. Take futures... even for less volatile markets the margin requirements are usually higher. Also, you'll want some reserve in case you start out with a losing streak.

If you are interested in forex than 1000 can get you started, but don't forget that a lot of brokers require a minimum amount of cash in the account of their clients, which is usually around 2000 - 4000 USD...

firewalker99 said:

I disagree... 1000 is hardly enough if you want to daytrade. Take futures... even for less volatile markets the margin requirements are usually higher. Also, you'll want some reserve in case you start out with a losing streak.

If you are interested in forex than 1000 can get you started, but don't forget that a lot of brokers require a minimum amount of cash in the account of their clients, which is usually around 2000 - 4000 USD...

Click to expand...

True. You can't buy a house in England for £10,000 but that doesn't mean it isn't a lot of money. Would you flush £10,000 down the toilet?

I was probably wrong to suggest a direct access broker but if his intention was only to paper trade for a while then the amount is irrelevant, excluding the minimum required to open an account. I day traded for a long time on a budget less than £1000 using a spread betting account. I think £1000 is plenty for a newbie.

pudha said:

Thanks for the feedback guys.

So I'm totally new to this.

With spread betting, how much money would you start per point?

What is an 'average' monthly return on spread bets?

Click to expand...

Pudha,

Stick to the absolute minimum when you start. Make sure you familiarise yourself with the terminology each company uses. In the case of the S&P500 - Igindex uses the same terminology as CME and refers to the increments left of the decimal as a POINT and increments right of the decimal as a TICK. ie/ each TICK is 0.25 so 4 ticks = 1 point

Igindex minimum bet on the S&P500 is £10/point

CMC for whatever reason refer to increments right of the decimal as a POINT and specify a £1 minimum per point. Their increments are 0.1 so basically a minimum bet using CMC is exactly the same as a minimum bet with Igindex, even though 1 company specifies £10/point and the other £1/point!

Confused enough??

What is an 'average' monthly return on spread bets?

Click to expand...

If you stood with your feet in boiling water and your head in the fridge you should feel good on average....

Average as in % wise?

If you had £1000, what % would you expect to average in a month/year?

pudha said:

Average as in % wise?
If you had £1000, what % would you expect to average in a month/year?

Click to expand...

Pudha,
Your capital base is not relevant to the monthly or annual %age return. If you start with £1,000 and make £100 (i.e. £1,100 in total), the %age return is the same as if you start with 100,000 and make £10,000 (i.e. £110,000 in total). The return in both examples is 10%. The instruments available to you to trade and the brokers with whom you can open an account are limited with a small capital base and there is also an increased likelihood that a larger %age of your capital will be committed to any one trade - i.e. greater exposure to risk - than would be necessary with a large capital base.

As a very rough guide as to what the pro's on these boards achieve, think in terms of 1-2% per day for day traders and 10-20% per month for swing traders. As to what you might achieve; well, you could open an account as described in the posts above and enjoy returns of 10%, 20%, 30% or more in a matter of days. However, given that you're new to the game and are likely to make mistakes - lots of mistakes - your much more likely to lose these sorts of sums than you are to make them. If you can return to this thread in six months time and honestly say that you haven't lost a large wedge of your capital, you'll be doing well. If you want to have something to aim for, pick a conservative monthly return like 3% and build a strategy around trying to hit that target. 3% may not sound much but, compounded over a year, your £1,000 capital will increase to £1,426.00 - well in excess of a 40% return. You'll have to scour the financial papers for a very long time indeed before you will find any sort of investment offering a return anywhere near as good as that.
Tim.

pudha said:

Average as in % wise?

If you had £1000, what % would you expect to average in a month/year?

Click to expand...

pudha, if you were serious about trading you wouldn't be asking irrelevant questions like this one. Are you interested in trading because you think it's an easy ticket to wealth?

Do you think Bill Gates wrote software because he wanted to be rich?

People who achieve financial success in their chosen fields of endeavor are passionate about what they do. They don't normally think "How much can I make". Yes, trading is about making money, but it is NOT easy. If you aren't ready for months and months of toil (often only to end up losing money)then try something else.

new_trader said:

pudha, if you were serious about trading you wouldn't be asking irrelevant questions like this one. Are you interested in trading because you think it's an easy ticket to wealth?

Do you think Bill Gates wrote software because he wanted to be rich?

People who achieve financial success in their chosen fields of endeavor are passionate about what they do. They don't normally think "How much can I make". Yes, trading is about making money, but it is NOT easy. If you aren't ready for months and months of toil (often only to end up losing money)then try something else.

Click to expand...

Yes, agree.

Can't remember who originally said it but I think this quote sums it up nicely

" Trading isn't about money. Money is just a way of keeping the score "

dd

Trading is at it's best when you don't need the money.

£1000 is ample, but you are very limited.

And if you don't know what you are doing, you will lose it.

And you certainly will not get a feel for anything blowing money.

Keep with the paper trading until you know what you are doing.