Very Low Capital Trading

[firehorse]

Adrian,

I love the topic you started.

It sounds like an excellent way to practice and test one's skills, judgement and temperment before committing large sums of money!

What resources were required to accomplish what you did. e.g. newspaper? live feeds? software?
Any particular strategies/techniques proved to be valuable and where to find information about those?

Of course the missing ingredient is your 15+ years of experience, but hopefully a few pointers can reduce the cost of learning
--
Alan

 

[khi]

Trading with small capital is good for new traders to gain trading experience or anyone to test an unfamiliar market, at least it is more exciting than just doing paper trades. but do not expect to earn a living from it. cos i would imagine that its like trying to bring an oak tree down with a pen knife...

 

[adrianallen99]

Hi,

Trading with low capital is different from having large amounts of money committed. Using the same strategy for both probably won't work. It is good for practicing discipline and sticking to your rules. With small capital if you break your rules with regard to money risked, entry and exit. It can be fatal and you may not get another chance. On the two occassions I have not stuck to my rules it has been costly.

I never base my decisions on newspapers, although it is worth keeping upto speed on what is going on in the financial world. I use real time charts and the software I use is Excel and Updata TA.

The strategy depends on what you are trading, but having an understanding of TA patterns can be a great help (Even if only a basic understanding). I use different strategies for different markets and have a few techniques I use. I have a few sneaky tactics that I use for boosting initial capital.

Adrian,

I love the topic you started.

It sounds like an excellent way to practice and test one's skills, judgement and temperment before committing large sums of money!

What resources were required to accomplish what you did. e.g. newspaper? live feeds? software?
Any particular strategies/techniques proved to be valuable and where to find information about those?

Of course the missing ingredient is your 15+ years of experience, but hopefully a few pointers can reduce the cost of learning
--
Alan

 

[LittleWhiteBull]

Keep moving your stop loss up behind the winner, once you have your stop loss at 'break-even' you have nothing to lose by letting the winner run, then keep edging the stop loss upward. Of course if the instrument is 'bouncing around' then you' ll get stopped out but if you do this often enough you'll get a winner that will run. Thursday pm was good for this on the US stocks - the DJIA did a nice smooth upward run for a couple of hours making an easy profit with little stress. Friday on the other hand was rough - got stopped out very early on, but losses were kept to a minimum.

I've found that betting on the indices is a 'low cost' way of getting into trading and generally less stressful than some of the instruments I've tried following.

 

[andrewmooton]

Adrian, would you care to elaborate on your strategies/techniques?

I hope i'm not being to cheeky by asking this.

Cheers.

 

[firehorse]

Hi,

Trading with low capital is different from having large amounts of money committed. Using the same strategy for both probably won't work. It is good for practicing discipline and sticking to your rules. With small capital if you break your rules with regard to money risked, entry and exit. It can be fatal and you may not get another chance. On the two occassions I have not stuck to my rules it has been costly.

A question from a background of innocence amd curiosity - If you stick to the rules when it is small capital, shouldn't you also stick to the same rules when you have lots of capital? If your techniques are repeatable on a small scale, (if you can mentally knock off 1 or more zeros), shouldn't the very same rules apply (even more so!) when you have more capital and produce a similar percentage increase (except on a larger scale)?

I have a few sneaky tactics that I use for boosting initial capital.

This is very interesting! I don't suppose you would care to elaborate? Would these tactics also work for large capital or does it take advantage of 'break points' in the trading system that won't work on the large scale?

Thanks
--
Alan

 

[asarda007]

SB with small capital

Hi Adrianallen,

Further to you original post .... did you manage to progress your ideas.

Regards.

A.

 

[adrianallen99]

Hi,


A question from a background of innocence amd curiosity - If you stick to the rules when it is small capital, shouldn't you also stick to the same rules when you have lots of capital? If your techniques are repeatable on a small scale, (if you can mentally knock off 1 or more zeros), shouldn't the very same rules apply (even more so!) when you have more capital and produce a similar percentage increase (except on a larger scale)?


This is very interesting! I don't suppose you would care to elaborate? Would these tactics also work for large capital or does it take advantage of 'break points' in the trading system that won't work on the large scale?

Thanks
--
Alan

Often with trading small capital it is difficult to stick to the best money management rules. Trying to risk 1-3% is hard so you often end up risking 5-10% possible more. In the long term doing this with higher capital is asking for trouble. Also fixed odds financial betting on some sites such as betfair, you will nearly always get the odds you want when betting low amounts, but start to increase this and you find it harder. Okay in theory it should work the same, but in practice you probably need to be a bit more conservative when you have larger amounts.


The sneaky tactics arent really trading as such, and would be pretty pointless on high capital. They are also not very secret and not very sneaky, but it made me about £200 to start with, with no real work and no risk

 

[bracke]

adrianallen99

"The sneaky tactics arent really trading as such, and would be pretty pointless on high capital. They are also not very secret and not very sneaky, but it made me about £200 to start with, with no real work and no risk."

You must surely realise that you aren't going to get away with this explanation. More detail please

Regards

bracke

 

[Buddhist]

I also enquired about the strategy, and was told by Adrian that he would set out the details for me. Since then I have sent2 emails to Adrian asking for the details he volunteered but have heard nothing more. Not sure if I will get to hear how it is done...

David

 

[firehorse]

Often with trading small capital it is difficult to stick to the best money management rules. Trying to risk 1-3% is hard so you often end up risking 5-10% possible more. In the long term doing this with higher capital is asking for trouble.

So would it be fair to say that in your experience, by sticking to the strictly to your trading rules like stop losses, that when the capital is low, then it has been worthwhile risking 5-10% of the capital on each trade?

Also fixed odds financial betting on some sites such as betfair, you will nearly always get the odds you want when betting low amounts, but start to increase this and you find it harder. Okay in theory it should work the same, but in practice you probably need to be a bit more conservative when you have larger amounts.

Does this mean you are doing sports bets rather than trading stocks/indices/forex at the low capital levels?

The sneaky tactics arent really trading as such, and would be pretty pointless on high capital. They are also not very secret and not very sneaky, but it made me about £200 to start with, with no real work and no risk

I know finspreads give you £100 (attend free course & open an account (£100 min I think)) so can you let us how you get £200

 

[adrianallen99]

Nope I don't do sports betting (okay so I had some money on the super bowl and the grandnational). I do the financial bets on these sites.

 

[firehorse]

I do the financial bets on these sites.

Aha! Had a second look at the site and finally found the section you are looking at.

So ... for low capital, I take it that the odds on betfair are better than those at SBs?

 

[adrianallen99]

Maybe, maybe not. But if you have £100, you can risk £2 min bet on betfair. Which is 2% of capital. The odds you can can range from 1000 x your stake down to 1.01 x your stake. They are straight win/lose bets. So you know you exact position (what you can lose/win).

Of course it isn't easy, but with a decent strategy you can make money.

 

[lennonac]

will I reach £1000?

I have been trading part-time for a couple of years with some success until one day i risked to much and yes I lost it! in the end i needed what money I had left in my sb account so took it out. about 6 months past and I wanted to get back in the game again but due to my finacial situation did not have any money to trade with. I had used betfair before so went to the site and deposited £50. that was 4 days ago, I am at £81 now just betting in £2's will post again to let you know of my situation.

 

[YUVA]

Hi Adrian....and the rest
My first time on here...and hope to carry on
I have started to trade with as little as £1500 two wks ago. first day gained £20 second day traded the £ against $ ...lost ~£80 third day lost another deal and was left with £1344.
since then I have traded on a share which bounces ....and have crept to£1488...
I am not looking to make a living out of trading, but winning and loosing and speculation is all so exiting

 

[adrianallen99]

I have been trading part-time for a couple of years with some success until one day i risked to much and yes I lost it! in the end i needed what money I had left in my sb account so took it out. about 6 months past and I wanted to get back in the game again but due to my finacial situation did not have any money to trade with. I had used betfair before so went to the site and deposited £50. that was 4 days ago, I am at £81 now just betting in £2's will post again to let you know of my situation.

Just keep your bet size low until you have at least broken the £100 barrier. I use to use the lay bets quite a lot, especially when market is moving quickly - you can often then place a bet at higher odds so that you win whichever way the market is going.

 

[bracke]

YUVA

Exciting is dangerous.

If you aim to suceed at trading, minimise emotions to gain clear thinking and logical trades.

Regards

bracke

 

[lennonac]

Just keep your bet size low until you have at least broken the £100 barrier. I use to use the lay bets quite a lot, especially when market is moving quickly - you can often then place a bet at higher odds so that you win whichever way the market is going.

Yes I aim to stay at £2 a bet until my bank reaches £200 then every £1 per bet more I want will require another £100 i.e £3 per bet requires £300, yes I have been laying and backing rather than just one or the other.

 

[firehorse]

... it made me about £200 to start with, with no real work and no risk

:?: