I like the sniper as I know it works. However nervousness kicks in as I mentioned earlier, and then I take myself out of the trade. From now on, discipline I promise. Uptil now though, I have been trading on IG Index but Im planning on moving to Alpari. I know the tax implications of such but it would be easier to monitor my trades via Alpari as MT4 works in conjunction with them. What would you recommend to be my startup capital?
I like the short-frame ethic of yours. What system have you developed exactly and do you trade indices at all? If so, do you mind helping out an absolute novice in the world of trading mate?
no probs,
I also spreadbet which why i went the route of developing my own system. as as you mention no taxes.
as for stratup capital- several things are needed I will keep it simple I like simple as I am a simple person.
1.how much can you afford to lose. if cant afford to lose to dont trade.
2. how much do want to make a day / week/ month
as both will have a relevance to each other and also guide to how much start up you need as you also need to satisfy the intial margin requirement
as an example lets say you want to make £100 per day on the forex pair Eur/USD
each broker Sb co have there own margin req but lets say it is £125 per £1 bet if the trade goes against you you can get a margin call so then minimum would be £500 but before we go with that lets look at some other things we need to consider.
as guide you will only risk upto 3% of your bank ( most risk between 1 and 3%) trading is not a get rich scheme. you also need to allow for a run of losses with out losing your shirt (I have had a run of 10 loses in a row)
if I remember Sniper generally has as stop of around 50 pips
so if you risk 3% then you would need a bank of aorund £1500 and 35 would leave you with a rsik of £45 on a 50 pip stop loss. if the stop is hihegr than that you cannot trade as the risk is over 3% risk level.
to achive a risk reward of 2:1 (1.5 :1 absolule minimum) you would set 100 pips as your profit traget.
now lets assume that 100 pips on one trade isnt really going to happen every day ( or it can but we are not around to take advantage of it)
e.g. moving away from forex the current total daily move of the ftse 100 last month was 97.5 Pts for Jan it was 124.7. ( this is what I prefer to trade, hence why I have the facts). so iknow that if was to take a trade on the ftse to target 80 pts it is possible but i need to enter near the high of the day or the low of the day and exit near the low/ high of the day to achive this, now i know this is not going to generally happen. sothe only thing I can do is set a target which is more easily achiveable.
so let's say I set a daily target of 20 pts, this means a stop loss of no more than 10 pts
therefore if i want to make £100 pr day I need to place a trade of £5 per pt, my risk is £50 my reward is £100.
if my set up shows a stop loss of 8 pts can increase my stake to allow for the target of 16 pts, or you would need a second trade to make your daily target
now of course if we had a crystal ball and new that every trade we took would always make target we would do the lottery insteadand be done with it.
so to recap you need to know the market and current daily harmonic as it is called this can provide you with info on "is the rade realistic"
you need to set a target of what you want to make
you need to be sure that the money you are playing with is money you can lose. consider this for your minset
once you mkae the deposit that money has already been lost. plenty of people have had the bank wipeout syndrome me included.
if all things in the equation add up you will have your bank and the begining of your stratagy to work hand in glove with sniper.
I also advise that you also have an account with another SB co which gives you a demo account. that way you can work away developing you skills without losing any money. IG do not provide a demo account.
Shorter tiems frames and what i use i will do later as this is getting a bit long. enough to ponder for know. I need to close down and chill
Keith