New member

[AJ100]

Hi folks I am a new member who has been doing online research for about 12-18 months now trying to pick up some knowledge and tips. I have tried 2 demo accounts, (Barclays and city index). Both have the same platform which seems quite easy to use. I now feel ready to have a go for real money but was wondering what would be the min amount to open a cfd account and what be the min trade value. Also what do people think of Barclays and City index as brokers? Thanks for any help.

 

[Black Swan]

Hi folks I am a new member who has been doing online research for about 12-18 months now trying to pick up some knowledge and tips. I have tried 2 demo accounts, (Barclays and city index). Both have the same platform which seems quite easy to use. I now feel ready to have a go for real money but was wondering what would be the min amount to open a cfd account and what be the min trade value. Also what do people think of Barclays and City index as brokers? Thanks for any help.

why cfds?

 

[AJ100]

why cfds?

cfds because I dont have a lot of spare cash and the leverage will increase any gains,(or losses of course). Are you not a fan of cfds?

 

[virtuos0]

Hi folks I am a new member who has been doing online research for about 12-18 months now trying to pick up some knowledge and tips. I have tried 2 demo accounts, (Barclays and city index). Both have the same platform which seems quite easy to use. I now feel ready to have a go for real money but was wondering what would be the min amount to open a cfd account and what be the min trade value. Also what do people think of Barclays and City index as brokers? Thanks for any help.

You seem a million miles away from having the knowledge required to trade successfully. But I guess you might as well jump into the fire and find that out for yourself.

 

[AJ100]

Thanks for the vote of confidence lol

 

[virtuos0]

Thanks for the vote of confidence lol

Sorry, just being honest.

What books have you read?

What in rough terms is your strategy?

 

[AJ100]

Ok fair comments. Havent read any books yet, (what you recomend?), and havent got any strategy yet, but was only planning on trading a small account <1000 with small trades.

 

[ha0dho]

Ok fair comments. Havent read any books yet, (what you recomend?), and havent got any strategy yet, but was only planning on trading a small account <1000 with small trades.

In my view you should not open a real account until you have a strategy that has worked on a demo account consistently for a min of 6 months. I dont think you need to buy books all you need is on this site as well as plenty of stuff u dont need. Just start at the first steps section.

Oh yeah what are u planning on trading.

 

[AJ100]

Thanks for the advice bud, been trading forex with demo accounts as it fits in with my full time job,(I can trade between 17:30 and 23:30 ish). Where can I find a decent blueprint strategy, have found 1 or 2 online but not suitable for forex.

 

[dealer911]

Ok fair comments. Havent read any books yet, (what you recomend?), and havent got any strategy yet, but was only planning on trading a small account <1000 with small trades.

some times the best way of learning is to trade real money.. set yourself a budget (say £500) and try and lose it as slowley as you can.. try trading £1 per point and keep your maximum stop loss to £50 for each trade... you will learn more about trading by doing this than paying thousands for courses- best traders learnt their trade through early losses.. read any book about jesse livermore !

 

[virtuos0]

Ok fair comments. Havent read any books yet, (what you recomend?), and havent got any strategy yet, but was only planning on trading a small account <1000 with small trades.

I've said this before a few times, but it bears repeating. Trading is a business, and a profession. Those that are successful at it treat it as seriously, and with as much effort and dedication, as they would if they were learning any other profession such as medicine or the law.

If you enter the markets at this stage you are just market cannon fodder and a broker/dealers wet dream, because you will just throw your money at them.

As far as books go you wouldn't do badly to start with Reminiscenes of a stock operator, which is available as a PDF in this thread http://www.trade2win.com/boards/gen...-picking-book-how-do-you-take-leap-faith.html

After that it is up to you to create your own syllabus of learning. Be a knowledge hoover, but also question everything and be extremely discerning in who you listen to.

 

[ha0dho]

Thanks for the advice bud, been trading forex with demo accounts as it fits in with my full time job,(I can trade between 17:30 and 23:30 ish). Where can I find a decent blueprint strategy, have found 1 or 2 online but not suitable for forex.

What time frame are you going to trade? I would think it would be best just to trade the dailys. I would not bother trading smaller time frames after work Im sure you wont beable to focus.

 

[Black Swan]

cfds because I dont have a lot of spare cash and the leverage will increase any gains,(or losses of course). Are you not a fan of cfds?

Sorry for the late reply, do not bother with cfds, trade the indices/oil or forex through a SB firm such as IG. Do their 6 week trade sense 'course' betting no more than 10p - 20p per pip, limit your potential loss to no more than 2-3% of your initial capital per trade. So use perhaps 40 pip stop loss.

Then move up to 50p after a month. Commit no more than 250 quid at first and as someone said up thread lose it as slowly as possible...learn from each trade, keep records, fully immerse yourself into the knowledge available this industry and you've got half a chance.

Oh, and as for time frames try 4 hour, should give you plenty of signals in terms of swings. Check 'em every four hours....set your alarm for 4am...

 

[AJ100]

What D911 suggests is roughly what I had in mind anyway. I dont mind losing 500 notes if I learn something from it. Surely the best training for anything is actually doing it and you dont get the psychological or emotional factors with demo accounts or paper trading. A lot more research and learning is obviously needed with the live trading.
I do appreciate that trading is a skill that needs a lot of time and effort learning like any other job but the story of the turtles does give me hope!
Ive been trading with 5 min time frames on demo account.

 

[SimpleTrader09]

You should mind losing 500 notes. Without a strategy, you will lose the 500 and probably only learn that you have no strategy. You're right that trading with money will teach you the psychological side of it. But that comes next. First learn about trading and decide your trading plan. That should actually take some time to do. Then go to demo and see if you can actually trade the strategy you devised. As you mention the turtles, you should be aware that they were given a strategy by two experienced traders who knew it worked. They then had to follow that strategy to the letter.

 

[AJ100]

Sounds like a good learning curve Black Swan but I have heard some bad things about spread betting. Have heard the spreads can be wide and the dealers are bookies not brokers

 

[AJ100]

Reply to ST09. I do realise I need a strategy and I do fully understand why we need to trade with a strategy. A strategy gives you something to work with whether your succesful or not, its a datum point or foundation that can be modified, tweaked, (or scrapped and replaced with one that works). I am working on a strategy

 

[Black Swan]

Sounds like a good learning curve Black Swan but I have heard some bad things about spread betting. Have heard the spreads can be wide and the dealers are bookies not brokers

er...ok....:whistling