Day Trading & Forex Forum

JPWTrader

Hi I am new to this and fascinated.

However, I don't manage a multi billion pound hedge fund. With all my other business ventures, I like to invest a small amount and see a bit of real money coming in.

Ok, I know you can open virtual accounts, but is it realistically possible to earn a days work on FX starting with a few hundred pounds?

JPW

shadowninja

In a word, "No."

A few hundred? If £500 in the account. Should only risk about £25 per trade which could give a reward of £25-£50. And then you have losing trades. Practice on a virtual account until you can consistently win pips.

__________________
The markets can stay solvent longer than you can stay irrational.


Check out my blog if you're new to trading or skip the advice and obtain fame and riches beyond your wildest dreams the easy way but you might end up a bit like this.

Rhody Trader

This seems to be a common theme of late: "Can I use a little money to make a lot of money?"

Read this: Take the Trading Long View

__________________
John Forman
Author - The Essentials of Trading

GammaJammer

But it's not such a long walk from there to an account with a few grand in it, at which point imho if you're smart there is indeed 'a days work' to be had out of the FX market. No guarantees though.

GJ

__________________
"That which doesn't kill me makes me stronger"

JPWTrader

Let me re-phrase my original question, how much money do I need to deposit to start FX trading.

shadowninja

What ever the minimum is for your broker, then. Alpari require £100. IG Index, £10 for spreadbetting.

__________________
The markets can stay solvent longer than you can stay irrational.


Check out my blog if you're new to trading or skip the advice and obtain fame and riches beyond your wildest dreams the easy way but you might end up a bit like this.

BSD

Oanda.com 1 Euro / Pound / Dollar.

__________________
Markus
Doing without doing

rathcoole_exile

[QUOTE=JPWTrader;393081]Let me re-phrase my original question, how much money do I need to deposit to start FX trading.[/QUOTE

don't even bother unless you've got at least $5,000 you can deposit into an account, as an absolute minimum.

Any less and your Money Management rules will dictate (if used properly) that your Stops will have to be so close ypu'll get stopped out time and time again by meaningless market noise. Even if you're right about 100% your trades, getting stopped out with too tight Stops will just whittle away your account in no time.

And don't make the mistake of thinking you'll use wider Stops on a smaller account. This will mean you're not using rules, which will mean you're a sucker, which will mean you're a loser, which will mean zero sympathy around these parts.

I suggest that your priorities should be to study Trader Psychology and Money Management while saving up enough to set aside $5-10,000

The trading bit, especially the Entries, that's the easy bit. Managing Risk, specifically Exits, that's the tougher part of this business.

I'm sure other people will have a list of suggested reading, but IMHO you should study Mark Douglas's books, "The Disciplined Trader" and "Trading In the Zone"
the Alexander Elder books "Trading for a Living" and "Come into My Trading Room" and best of all John Carters's excellent "Mastering the Trade"

ISBNs: Elder - "TFAL':0-471-59224-2 "CIMTR":0-471-22534-7
Carter - "MtT":0-07-145958-8 sorry I don't have the ISBN number for the Douglas books

Finally, signing up for John Carter's free daily video wouldn't be the dumbest thing you ever did ! tradethemarkets.com

good luck, hope it helps,
rathcoole_exile