Take out profits or re-invest?

[stevewhitworth]

Hello guys,

Newbie here, by the name of Stephen. Been paper trading CFD’s on commodities for a couple of months which went really well and finally made the move to live trading last week. Have seen a 34% increase on my initial investment of £500, which I'm happy with but seems unrealistic in terms of carrying it on.

I wanted to ask some advice on terms of profit gained - do you think I should leave it in my account to grow the size, or take out a percentage in order to enjoy some tangible gains from trading? It seems like a hard decision: I want to enjoy some of the successes but appreciate that I am trading with a slightly limited account size.

This website has already been very helpful for me, so thanks v. much.

Stephen

 

[BeginnerJoe]

Take out the 500 and trade with your winnings. At 34% capital gain a week, you will have millions to play with in no time. If it doesn't work out, you would have gained a free lesson.

 

[Masquerade]

You're trading over-leveraged. Keep the money in and lower your leverage drastically.

Otherwise, pull it out. Keep gambling and try make some more money till you inevitably bust and hopefully don't have to pay more than you have in your account.

 

[DashRiprock]

i started a thread about this ageeees ago.

IMO you should do a bit of both but have rules for it.

 

[DashRiprock]

http://www.trade2win.com/boards/general-trading-chat/116932-taking-money-account.html

 

[stevewhitworth]

Apologies, I didn't see that - thanks!

Masquerade: Yup, in fairness I am highly leveraged. I guess I am in a bad habit due to the limited size of my account, I just carried on what worked for me. However, I am far from risky with my trading, only allow 1% losses, and execute many smaller profitable trades, rather than pile on the margin and have tighter stops. Will attempt to bring it down

 

[Masquerade]

Well as you said it yourself, your account size means you're going to be highly leveraged. It's how these companies make their money: let the punter leverage themselves up to the eyeballs and then it's just a waiting game.

How & why are you restricting losses to 1%?

 

[stevewhitworth]

I just set my stops at 1% of my available capital, but go up to 2% if it's a little more volatile. Like I said, I trade small amounts, gaining many £5-£10 wins, rather than taking a bigger position and getting blown out due to my leverage. I'd much rather keep a tight lid on losses at the moment.