How much money do I need to start trading?

ciguli

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First to say, I am a total beginner watching Online Trading Academy DVDs to get educated and inspired. What is the minimum amount of money to start day trading? I live in a poor country so 200-300 $ a month in profit would be great to me!
 
Well, assuming you are a good trader (which you won't be as a beginner) and also assuming that you get a return of about 50% a year on your account (a very generous assumption)... then you need a starting capital of around $10,000 to get a $250 a month return. Plus extra if you want to increase your capital as well (a necessity unless your capital is already massive).

More realistically... the starting sum depends entirely on what you are trading. Not sure if you can spreadbet in your country, but you can start spreadbetting with around $200, although i'd expect this to be wiped out fairly quick as a beginner. You can also trade FX with these kind of amounts. You won't get the kind of money you are after from this though! Not for a long time, and that's assuming you are good! In your first year you should be aiming to just not lose too much. At the beginning, survival is the key. In order to survive you need to be able to withstand a string of losses. Hence, although you can start with $200, i'd recommend at least $1500. And take that as a training fee- don't expect to make money.

From my experience, when i did start making money, it was inconsistent and in small amounts. One month i might make around $100, the next month i might lose $75, month after i might make $500. Over time this has evened out some but inconsistency still remains to a certain extent. This is not like a job where you sit down and work 8 hours and collect a regular salary. I can't stress this enough.
 
I live in eastern european country and plan to trade on US markets (NASDAQ) through online platform (Think or Swim, AmeriTRade). I can only invest 2000-3000 $.
 
Find a demo platform to test your strategy out, first.

Agree entirely.

Some people argue that this won't give you realistic "psychological" exposure - and that may well be right for some individuals. However, I've found demo trading to be quite realistic in this respect and it's helped me greatly in developing a disciplined mental approach. It certainly got me properly trained in "cutting losses" which demo account showed as one of my weak areas.

IMHO If you can't crack it on a demo then you're not ready for real (and if you are ok on demo it doesn't necessarily mean you'll be ok on real !)

Good luck (though a disciplined trader doesn't rely on that). :)
 
First to say, I am a total beginner watching Online Trading Academy DVDs to get educated and inspired. What is the minimum amount of money to start day trading? I live in a poor country so 200-300 $ a month in profit would be great to me!

lots of newbie breaking this rule, but i still saying this anyway.

do not put any real money until you can profit consistently for 3 months from demo..
 
Ok.. people.. thank you!

I know I am still not ready to trade for real and I know there is a long and painful learning process. I am ready to spend years training my trading skills and to risk all of my trading money.

I just want to know if 2000 - 3000 $ money is enough to start trading online? This is the maximum amount of money I am able to put down to trading. And also, I am ready to possibly lose all this and not to be dissapointed. I look at this as my scholarship.
 
not so sure about demos. the emotions simply are NOT there as its not your money. I have found I constantly won in a demo and lost for real.

I would suggest start with a small amount of real money that you can afford to lose and practice at the lowest $pp you can. try hard to preserve your capital, this is what I am doing now. I consider this my "training" and I'm not worried about the small amounts I am losing currently as I am learning
 
Ciguli,

If you plan to daytrade US stocks, I'm afraid you're going to have to come up with $25,000.

Quote from ThinkOrSwim website:

What is a pattern day trader?
Effective September 28th, 2001 the NYSE and NASD imposed a $25,000 minimum equity requirement for 'pattern day traders.' Consistent with the new margin rules, if a thinkorswim customer's margin account falls under $25,000 and the customer has opened and closed positions on the same day four times within five days, the customer will not be allowed to open new positions until the $25,000 requirement is restored.
Additionally, for a designated 'pattern day trader' account, the customer is allowed on any day to open new positions up to a total of the account's Day Trading Buying Power (defined as four times account equity less maintenance margin requirements). The rule requires orders exceeding Day Trading Buying Power to be rejected."

EndQuote

It's certainly worth giving them a call to see if there's a way around it, but the rule was brought in after the DotCom crash to protect people (from themselves?).

Otherwise, check if it's legal in your country to run a spreadbet account.


Regards,
Joey
 
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Oh my god... 25k $ requirement... It's definitely a richmen's game for someone from Croatia

I need five years to save that amount of money
 
Being in E. Europe you should be able to open a spreadbetting account in UK and your 2k-3k should give you the profit target that you have in mind per month, considering you practise your craft really well indeed:

Pick up an instrument like the "Dow Jones" and make all your practise work on that one only - keep watching every move this instrument makes for many months b4 you commit yourself with real money. I would stay away from Forex altogher if I were you!

For the good measure an experienced trader should make between $100-200 per day with the money you mentioned.

Some of the stuff on my blog may help give you further insight into trading:

The CFD Traders

Good luck and let us know how you've got on.
 
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Oh my god... 25k $ requirement... It's definitely a richmen's game for someone from Croatia

I need five years to save that amount of money


crap isn't it :(
I would love to be able to daytrade US stocks but the 25k rule makes that pretty much impossible.
 
what ?? $25 k wow Im really can afford to trade that much of money. As per what candles said we would love to be able to daytrade US stocks. $25 K is a huge amount.
 
How much does OTA dvd cost?

I am also a beginer, just stated last friday. OTA trading couse costs $5k, That's my entire trading capital. So I am looking at a cheaper version. Please let me know.
 
You don't need to spend $5k to learn how to trade. You don't need to spend $1k, $100, or even $1. Plenty of good info. including full strategies available on this site but it will require some considerable effort to read through it all and explore all the ideas on offer.

Trading is not like other careers, where you can read a book, watch a DVD, take a course and off you go. It is more about an accumulation and application of knowledge and experience over time. Lot of effort required.
 
You don't need to spend $5k to learn how to trade. You don't need to spend $1k, $100, or even $1. Plenty of good info. including full strategies available on this site but it will require some considerable effort to read through it all and explore all the ideas on offer.

Trading is not like other careers, where you can read a book, watch a DVD, take a course and off you go. It is more about an accumulation and application of knowledge and experience over time. Lot of effort required.

Have to say I disagree with this... at some point, you are going to have to put money on the line - then you're playing a whole new ballgame, which you have to learn from scratch.
 
As a newbie myself, and people can shoot me down, but I have found that looking at some blue chip CFD's, eg BT, British Airways and a few others, there seems to be a definite trend and the CDF's seem to bounce, which if you can catch at the bottom and sell at the top, will provide an average return. Providing you are not too greedy then probably around 100 - 200 a day..... Although having said this, I got caught by the crash a few weeks ago and lost 800, as I left them in over the weekend. But from a day trade may be a good idea.
 
Don't do it my friend!!!! You have so much to learn. I have been learning and educating myself for the last 5 months and only now have I started to develop an understanding of the market and show consistent results paper trading. You have a long yourney ahead and you will lose your money if you start trading immediately. Believe me....it's a fact!

What's the rush....?

There's plenty of free resource available on line oif you look. Try informedtrades.com for a starter. All free and good basic educational material to kick you off without trying to sell you the $1M trading secret.....The secret is.....there is no secret! It's all about learning and developing your trading knowledge. Try this link as well....ttp://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=d092akXrH_w It's Martin Cole and he has a good methodology in my opinion as well and a reasonably priced course based on sound methodology. Not done it myself but I like the common sense approach to the market.
Think your money would be better spent on education at the moment but be wary of expensive 'systems'.....!!!

Hope this is of some help my friend as just giving you the benefit of the journey I started on a few months back and maybe save you a bit of pain on losing your money.

Up to you but that's my advice.

Regards

Darren
 
Please note that I am not trying to promote anyone or anywebsite in particular just offering you a few suggestions to look at

Cheers

Darren
 
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