My $25 dollar FXCM Forex Account

Hello, I requested free tickets for the New York Trader Expo and I received an email promotion for a $25 dollar account with FXCM. I had planned on opening an account with a $1000 or so with Oanda in the next month or so. Now, I guess I'll play around with this. I am already starting to feel a level of excitement and anxiety I have never felt paper trading for the last year.

From what I understand, I can only trade in microlots which are 1000 units a piece. So thats .10cents a pip. This is obviously a problem for a 25 dollar account as I can't money mange as well as id like to. I am all ears if anyone would like to give me any advice about money management in this situation. Should i even try to trade a longer TF?

Anyway right now i'm looking at eur/usd. seeing what happens at resistance at 3036 area. im overall bullish on this pair. I think it may break thru resistance.

OK. Long order. 1 lot. 1.30404. target 1.3050
stop......i don't know how to put a stop on but if i did i'd have r/r 1:1

closed @ 1.3059. profit $1.90

That was exciting. I guess i have a mountain to climb now as i figured i would be able to execute my first trade like a calm proffesional.

so throughout the night i've managed to whittle away my account to 19.85.

got to be a little more selective about the trades as id like to see if i can at least stay around break even.

its really tough when a ten pip "swing" is 4-5% of your account. guess i just have to be very discplined

short euro/usd 1 lot

target is hourly trendline at 1.2720

short another lot at 1.2828

Hit t/p 1 lot @ 1.2800

see if i can let the other one run

stopped out of my second trade @ 1.2826

over all i stuck to my guns and ended up taking a profit. Risk reward was less than 1:1 i believe so not a total victory in that execution was not so great. Then again i may have got out at a good time on a trade i think i'm generally wrong about longterm. I've managed to survive my first day.

cool.

heres a chart

sold then bought red and black dots, respectively

Patience

Use of stops is always a wise thing - but use of stops that are to small is unwise - it ends up eating your cash faster than one or two big losses. Widen your stops and wait for a low or high before taking a trade.


On FXCM you can place a stop by looking at the open positions tab - column to the right of your entry will say stop - click it and select your pip size for a stop. in that window you can choose advanced options - when you click that you will get options to add trailing functions to lock in profits - Once you get to know the trading station you will soon be a master at spotting lost pips

Hope that helps!

Cheers

c_c405 said:

Use of stops is always a wise thing - but use of stops that are to small is unwise - it ends up eating your cash faster than one or two big losses. Widen your stops and wait for a low or high before taking a trade.


On FXCM you can place a stop by looking at the open positions tab - column to the right of your entry will say stop - click it and select your pip size for a stop. in that window you can choose advanced options - when you click that you will get options to add trailing functions to lock in profits - Once you get to know the trading station you will soon be a master at spotting lost pips

Hope that helps!

Cheers

Click to expand...

Thanks alot C! I am pretty unfamiliar with FXCMs platform, but over my marathon session last night I did start to get the hang of it. I know I should use stops, it is in my trading plan, however it is also part of my trading plan be trading on oanda where i can manage my lot size. Since I am now undercapitalized on FXCM i am thinking I must be less risk averse as a 10 pip swing the wrong way would take over 3% of my capital. I know how to do this on the money management side but I am a little shaky with the setups.

Unfortunately I have to go to work in a few minutes and I wont have another marathon night. Maybe if i'm still up ill look for setups on for the UK open at 3am. (I guess maybe i can sleep through one class tomorrow!)

Edit: I didn't notice the charts for some reason. Thanks for explaining the trailing stop, i was confused about that. So if I enter "10" for rate min move move my stop once it gains > 10pips? am i understanding this correctly?

thanks
:drunk:

Short 1 microlot EUR/USD @ 1.2800 30 pip trailing stop. target 30 pips

Chart Skills

Heres what im looking at.

just feeling like price wants to test the daily trendline below. 200ma above.

A little embarrassed to post this but i got stopped out pretty quick. And i shorted it again at around 15 min 200ma. Not sure if this was a smart idea or not but it has swung in my favor. still looking to hit the same target. I should have been more patient and waited for another test of the MA to enter originally.

It seems to me my analysis of s/r is mostly accurate, i just underestimate the violence with which the levels will be tested. Thats how im justifying getting back ino this trade to myself. It may be flawed logic, but i dont know any better.

Good Stuff

ramrob said:

A little embarrassed to post this but i got stopped out pretty quick. And i shorted it again at around 15 min 200ma. Not sure if this was a smart idea or not but it has swung in my favor. still looking to hit the same target. I should have been more patient and waited for another test of the MA to enter originally.

It seems to me my analysis of s/r is mostly accurate, i just underestimate the violence with which the levels will be tested. Thats how im justifying getting back ino this trade to myself. It may be flawed logic, but i dont know any better.

Click to expand...

The trailing stop function is a point spread between the price movement and the increments that you wish it to move in your direction - for example if you enter a sell on EUR/USD and you want to use a stop you set the stop for say 10 pips above it, then the price moves below your entry and your in the money, lets say it moves 50 pips below your entry and you want to lock in 10 pips and trail it by 30 pips you would enter a 30 in the trailing number, when the price moves 30 pips in your direction the trailing stop will then move down 10 pips if price moves 60 pips in your direction the trailing stop will move down another 10 locking in 20 and keeping you in the trade.

That's the just of it and it works well for keeping your losses limited when you spot good high probability trades. I dont' use the trail function much as I find it take you out of an otherwise very good trade. Sometime you just spot a good one and the set up is perfect but the volatility will almost alway swing up and take the stop out knocking you out. several hours of a day later you wake up and find that the pair is way lower than your entry but your trade has been closed for a measly 50 pips or something like that.

Don't chase trades

Keep trying you'll spot them!

Cheers

Study 1 & 4 hour charts 1st

oh ya i wanted to say that you could study the 4 hour and 1 hour charts first, then drill down to the 15 and 5 for a timing purpose to get the better top of bottom. 15's and 5 min charts can whip you in and out hitting stops like crazy - pull back a wider view ad plan an entry based on your studies

just a thought

c_c405 said:

oh ya i wanted to say that you could study the 4 hour and 1 hour charts first, then drill down to the 15 and 5 for a timing purpose to get the better top of bottom. 15's and 5 min charts can whip you in and out hitting stops like crazy - pull back a wider view ad plan an entry based on your studies

just a thought

Click to expand...

Thanks for your advice C. I think I hit every pitfall I've been preparing to avoid for the last year in the last 5 hours. Specifically, I was over trading and under prepared. I wonder how I can limit those impulses.

After I dust myself off I am wondering, what does anyone think a proper amount of money would be to trade with considering I would trade ONLY on the longer timeframes and I would only trade microlots.

thanks

Forget the scalping -

ramrob said:

Thanks for your advice C. I think I hit every pitfall I've been preparing to avoid for the last year in the last 5 hours. Specifically, I was over trading and under prepared. I wonder how I can limit those impulses.

After I dust myself off I am wondering, what does anyone think a proper amount of money would be to trade with considering I would trade ONLY on the longer timeframes and I would only trade microlots.

thanks

Click to expand...

if you are starting with micro lots you could start with at least 300 $ - it will give you some room to breath and allocate stops properly

personally I would not trade anything smaller than mini lots but that just my preference

another tip for ya would be to look at 1000 candles or more whn analysing a pair this will give you a better clue of the range and where a pair may be within it's range.

Buy low Sell High

Here is a chart of a trade I still have open it's currently up 300 pips and was up a lot more previously - If I had used a trailing stop this trade might have been knocked out

See how I line out the range and trade the extremes of that range - I will do this until price breaks below the range or above it - if/when it does I will then trade the new range if i'm not already in the trade.