How much cash to start FX trading online

[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.

 

[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

 

[JPWTrader]

How much cash do I need to start FX Trading?

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.

 

[BSD]

Oanda.com 1 Euro / Pound / Dollar.

 

[rathcoole_exile]

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

 

[FXSCALPER2]

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

Entries are not easy. Entries are the reason people have heartaches about stops, etc.

As to reading trading books, it is likely going to make no difference to anyone. I am prepared to bet that almost no one becomes a successful trader by reading trading psychology books.

If it is true that tight stops will 'whittle away your account', then why not do the reverse and take small profits?

People want to believe all sorts of things. A lot of gurus have been telling people for ages that entries don't matter, it is about exits and money management. That is why they write books, they don't know what they are talking about. They 'teach' easy bull because they don't know what actually works.

Entries matter a lot. If you get that even half right, you have arrived. Entries involve low risk points, patience to wait for this levels, avoiding marginal set ups, being attuned to what is going on in the markets, being as short term as you can afford to be and executing the good trades without hesitation when they appear. How many people can do that? Hardly any.

 

[ampro]

That's a great post FXSCALPER2

 

[JPWTrader]

Thank you all for your replies. Very helpful, I have just opened a virtual with Deutsche Bank FX who coincidentally have a minimum deposit of 5K USD.

Fingers crossed

JPW

 

[Rhody Trader]

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.

I don't mean this to be personal, but this is a statement born of ignorance. It assumes no ability to trade small sized positions. If one were trading forex futures or full lot positions (100,000 units) then it would be correct. Given that there are mini (10k) and micro (1k) lots available - and Oanda has no minimum trade size at all - one doesn't need $5k to be able to trade with good risk management.

 

[Rhody Trader]

People want to believe all sorts of things. A lot of gurus have been telling people for ages that entries don't matter, it is about exits and money management. That is why they write books, they don't know what they are talking about. They 'teach' easy bull because they don't know what actually works.

Entries matter a lot. If you get that even half right, you have arrived. Entries involve low risk points, patience to wait for this levels, avoiding marginal set ups, being attuned to what is going on in the markets, being as short term as you can afford to be and executing the good trades without hesitation when they appear. How many people can do that? Hardly any.

I agree that the idea that entries are entirely meaningless is rather foolish. As noted, entries are where you put the odds in your favor. That said, equal time needs to be given to exits because if you don't handle them correctly you can completely destroy all the good you do with your entries.

 

[rathcoole_exile]

I don't mean this to be personal, but this is a statement born of ignorance. It assumes no ability to trade small sized positions. If one were trading forex futures or full lot positions (100,000 units) then it would be correct. Given that there are mini (10k) and micro (1k) lots available - and Oanda has no minimum trade size at all - one doesn't need $5k to be able to trade with good risk management.

the original question was:
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?

If YOU can do that with a mini or a micro account then don't waste my time on these boards, get yourself a job with Soros and show us what you can do

 

[rathcoole_exile]

I agree that the idea that entries are entirely meaningless is rather foolish. As noted, entries are where you put the odds in your favor. That said, equal time needs to be given to exits because if you don't handle them correctly you can completely destroy all the good you do with your entries.

I didn't say that Entries were meaningless.
I implied that they were somewhat easier to identify that Exits. And I stand by that. Any eejit can find any number of signals to get into a trade. You could even toss a coin to go Long or Short.
It's knowing what to do when that trade goes tits up, or indeed flukes a winner for you, that matters.
But I meant that "trading" - opening a trade and closing it at some stage IS easy - any fool can do it.

the difficult elements are RR, MM, having a plan, STICKING with a plan etc

 

[Rhody Trader]

the original question was:
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?

If YOU can do that with a mini or a micro account then don't waste my time on these boards, get yourself a job with Soros and show us what you can do

That was the original question, but he then came back and restated the question as "...how much money do I need to deposit to start FX trading", which is the quote you included in your response, so I could only conclude that was the one you were answering.

As for the earning a day's wages on a small account, we are in agreement. I commented to that early in the thread.