Starting small

Hi. New here. Will be short.

I wish to start to try some forex trading.
I'm willing to risk max 5.000 Euro but i would prefere to start with about 1.000 Euro to play with.
I'm more interested in intraday, i would like to close my positions before going to bed.

Questions:

1- Which platform/broker to choose? i've seen many use fxsomething but i've read it's only minilot while with my money i've read i should prefere microlot. I would like to use a good solid platform but should not be too costly as my account is small, so my margins, too. Also, i've seen eToro and read it's not any good for trading but it's pretty flashy and shiny. Exactly why it is not good? A link to an exhaustive web page or web site reviewing the most important brokers/platforms in the field, with info about the quality of the trading application, cost and quality of service, presence of simulated trading and duration of demo, would be appreciated.

2- Which books to read? When i say books i mean books, not some forex for dummies lures. But also would prefere to not delve deep into heavy classical analysis when it's not useful to being operative. By making some reading around i made the strong impression that not all the maths around trading is actually useful and it remains pretty empiric. Also, what software do you use to make graphs analysis. I've seen you often take graphs and draw support lines, trends and such, are there applications for that? Is it included in the trading platform?

3- I'm curious about the people here. Are there professional traders in this forum? By professional i mean they make a living by trading, but not necessarily only forex. If you do what is your risk capital? Do you think is reasonable for a trader to gain let's say 1%-2% of the risk capital a day (let's say 4-6 hours of trading, no trading on sunday and friday as i've read it's more difficult), i.e. 50-100E by risking 5.0000E?

what is the reason you want to close your positions before going to bed? If it is the fact that you cant sleep with an open position then you should consider trading a smaller amount until you are comfortable holding overnight... many of the best trades are overnight and on longer timeframes. Risk to reward can be as high as 1:100 on a daily trade.


I would advise trading with Oanda. Reasons why... you trade units not lots.. you can trade as little as a 1$ unit.. it really lets you adjust your risk perfectly down to the penny. another reason why is that Oanda automatically hedges trades by computer it will not because you a new trader place your trades on an internal book not hedge and make the profit off of you being an inexperienced trader. Oanda also has a very large capital backing which lower the brokerage failure risk. Another reason for choosing oanda is you can trade over the weekend when many MT4 powered brokers are closed. Oanda's platform is also powered with java and the base for the program is in java this means that no matter what system you trade on you can use Oanda... one of the most stable ways to trade is on a linux powered computer not a windows based for several reasons I wont get into. Some major cons of using Oanda is during peak hours the platform can get overextended and crash intermitantly which is dangerous scalping or trading during a news event. As I said before trading larger timeframes reduces risk especially broker failure risk as well.

If would want to read books on trading Some main ones are Surinotes, fooled by randomness, bird watching in lion country, way of the turtle there is a couple more but surinotes is where its at.

there are probably a few professional traders in this forum but about 98% are lost. Most who write about price action trading struggle to understand what that even means to use PA. I define a professional trader as someone who has traded 7+ years and has been profitable 7+ years and has a well defined equity curve because this is the way firms look at whether you are a professional trader or not. My risk capital is something that I look at different than other traders.. its 5% but thats a block trading segment.. or a trading unit... as my account is quite large I cant stand loosing more than 5% ON A STRING OF LOSSES.. so i say over the course of 100 or so trades my max draw down must be no larger than 5%... my trading blocks are fixed because by using fixed trading sizes and raising in plataues you raise efficiency .. or example...

a normal trader says ill risk 50% on this trade for 100% return.. or 1:2 risk reward.. you would think as long as the trader wins 50% of the time he will make money but that isnt the case...

here is the trade sequence
100-50=50+50=100 in this sequence a trade won once and lost once and at 1:2 risk reward ended up even... because % dont work the same way as fixed lots...

here is a fixed lot trading sequence where a trader risks 50$ to make 100$ every time
100-50=50+100=150
notice that the trader won 1 and lost 1 but is now in profit... this is different than % based risk management and how most professional traders reduce risk when not diversifying.

the difference is 35% must be achieved at 1:2 risk reward on a fixed position sized system for risk to break even while
a 50% must be achieved at 1:2 risk reward on a percentage based system for the risk to break even.

good luck
NCFTRADER

If you are a complete beginner then I suggest that you should go for a Demo account first where there is a zero risk. Keep those small amount to trade it later when you are already good enough.

this is my first post at FF after 4 years as a guest, feel so happy become a junior member hehe. Thanks GOD....

Have you ever seen someone who learned to ride a bike through a book?

I have never seen anyone learning to ride a bike all alone.

Best way to learn something is someone teach you while you try.
Next best way, if you don't have a trainer, is to read books and then try.

Worst way is to just try from scratch, alone and without any basis as this will guarantee you will make much more mistakes and some of these may even be fatal.

This is my opinion and i think it's valid for every topic, every profession, every activity, no matter if intellectual or physical, so i'm trying forex in the same way.

I also understand that in forex, my faults may become advantages for others such as you, so this is a big reason to spend a little more time investigating the matter and double checking every hint people gives to me.

I obviously already have a demo account as this is a good way to try without losing anything but i believe this is not enough to become effective in a reasonable amount of time.

I would advise trading with Oanda. Reasons why... you trade units not lots.. you can trade as little as a 1$ unit.. good luck
NCFTRADER[/quote]

Hi NCFTRADER. I came upon your post and read on about (Oanda) and started to google it and could not find it's link. Would you be so kind and indicate how I may link up with this broker, and many thanks?

Sign: LAG

As a trader I think, low or high profit doesn't matter at all in this market. If you want to survive in this market you need to make plans to make profits consistently.

Leverage is very important for low investors. But to use leverage you need to have proper knowledge and education about the market.

If the trading education is correct, then you can do successful trading with whatever investment you make.

Yes, but its still safe to start with a small sum than going big initially when a trader neither has enough experience nor enough knowledge. Better to risk an amount which they can afford to lose.

Yes successful trading requires skills and knowledge about trading and trading mind set. Most people only focus on analysis and ignore the psychological part. But trading requires stong mind set.

Yes you are right. But most traders don't give emphasis on learning. They are so much obsessed with the thought of making quick money that they overlap the learning part.

Brokers don't put emphasis on learning. Sure, they pay lip service to organizing some educational courses to reel in newbies, but those courses give just enough information to get a person interested and believe they could profit and do so sooner rather than later. Then they lose their accounts. Lather, rinse, repeat.

If you are a new trader and want to start your trading journey then I would like to suggest that you must start your trading with a demo account and do some practice over it before investing your money. Although investing small money at the start of your trading period and in this way you can avoid a big loss.

True, demo is the best way to start out in forex,that would give you a good insight. Do spend good months on it before going live.

I agree. Starting directly on a live account is a poor idea, I think.

It’s not possible to get right 100% percent. First question you can ask what went wrong. Sometimes it’s wrong analysis, sometimes it’s early entry, sometimes it could be emotional. Find that make a note of it and try not to do that again.

One should always strive to trade on a cool head. If you let your emotions dictate your decisions you'll end up in big trouble.

Always make trading decision with clear and calm mind. Trading is a mind game.