Making Money?

Hi,

I have read through a lot of posts and fundamentals; and have now been trading for a fortnight through a demo account.

It has been a good learning experience and the demo account is in the positive. I plan to continue demo'ing for a lot longer.

I have focused my trading to five core pairs. Entry was based on technical indicators (daily and weekly charts).

On my $50,000 equity I have unrealised profits of ~$1,000 (2%). Great. Now what?

1) Do I top up my existing positions and by doing so increasing my risk, tightening my stops?
2) Do nothing and ride the winners?
3) Look at entering trades on other pairs?

Also, I have been lucky and assuming I continue to generate wins how can I make more money?

I know this is no "get rich quick scheme" and I have only had limited exposure to FX trading.

Does one need significant more capital to make this a full time job? Or does one need to factor in (ac)cumulation (a rather generous assumption)?

Regarding question 1-3, that depends on your strategy. Like planning your entry (assuming you didn't entered on random), it is something you need to work out.

If you are trading a 50k demo then do everything in your power to assume it is yours. So in that respect you now protect the winning trade. I used to say that 1 should not demo with more than they expect to trade live but if the past 5 years of watching and listening has taught me anything it is that regardless of what you start with demo wise very few take the live trading any more serious.

Now 50k is a good amount to start with. Under all assumptions there would be many here that would say you could trade full time off this amount. That public also has the assumption that making 100% per year is a consistant goal. In reasonable terms to trade live you really need an account that under compounding generates enough for a weekly, fortnightly or monthly withdrawal without taking away more than is needed for compounding to build.

So if you are achieving 1-2% per week consistantly (that is a generous assumption) and your total living costs average $600 per week then you would need at least a starting amount of at least 50k preferably more. THE more part allows you to still live for a number of weeks in the event that you dont make your consistant amount WITHOUT damaging the compound process.

The other way you can do it is have a separate living and growth account that you trade in sync and you take profits on the living account where you need to and have the growth account managed more for growth. This option seems more difficult but it is up to you...

Take your time with the demo. Trading full time may seem appealing but it is not for everyone. You can do just aswell by doing it part time or in your own spare time provided you stick to a plan and treat even small profits like gold.

Razor