when are trade positions too big? | Forex Factory

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when are trade positions too big?

  • #1
  • First Post: Feb 18, 2010 7:00am Feb 18, 2010 7:00am
Hi...

Of course i am not near that level yet... I am trading from 1 lot (10,000) up to 10 lots (100,000) currently... But i've been reading its better to have a small account so there is less chance of someone going against you in a trade... Am I correct in saying that 'someone' is a/your broker? Or a bank?

Also how big should the positions be to be considered eye catching to these sharks in the market?

Thanks
  • #2
  • Feb 18, 2010 7:28am Feb 18, 2010 7:28am
Depends, are you well funded?
If you are trading with $10,000 or less, it would be wise to stick with 10,000 position size. Experience also plays a huge role in this.

Unless you are consistently profitable, stick with the small account and only trade the minimum. Try and keep you losses small while practicing effective money management.
  • #3
  • Feb 18, 2010 6:23pm Feb 18, 2010 6:23pm
Quoting Jhig
Depends, are you well funded?
If you are trading with $10,000 or less, it would be wise to stick with 10,000 position size. Experience also plays a huge role in this.

Unless you are consistently profitable, stick with the small account and only trade the minimum. Try and keep you losses small while practicing effective money management.
Thanks for the response Jhig... But I may have mis interpreted my question... It wasn't a question on MM of my account size.. It was a question a particular order size... for example, if a some filthy rich guy decided to place 100 lots long on EU, would the banks spot this and trade against it? Or would it go amiss? I read some guy stated a smaller account was better as there was less chance someone would try to bet against you... of course its about completing orders in the market.

So the question is whether 1 lot is something they would spot, 100 lots, 1000 lots??

Many thanks
  • #4
  • Feb 18, 2010 6:37pm Feb 18, 2010 6:37pm
Although I wouldn't trade 100 lots with a small bucket shop, 100 lots with larger brokers is not a problem. Forex is a multi trillion dollar a day market, 100 lots isn't even a blip on the radar.

If you are large enough to trade 1000+ lots, chances are you won't enter all of the position at once. You will enter over several days or even weeks. You can't effectively scalp with 1,000+ lots.

I personally trade with around 40 standard lots without issue. I don't go any higher because I really don't need or want to. I mean seriously, 40 lots and even just 20 pips a day is a very significant weekly income.
  • #5
  • Feb 19, 2010 4:24am Feb 19, 2010 4:24am
Quoting magnumfreak
Although I wouldn't trade 100 lots with a small bucket shop, 100 lots with larger brokers is not a problem. Forex is a multi trillion dollar a day market, 100 lots isn't even a blip on the radar.

If you are large enough to trade 1000+ lots, chances are you won't enter all of the position at once. You will enter over several days or even weeks. You can't effectively scalp with 1,000+ lots.

I personally trade with around 40 standard lots without issue. I don't go any higher because I really don't need or want to. I mean seriously, 40 lots...
Completely agree... I am building up my account to be able to trade 10 standard lots for 10 pips a week ... though i am really far off from achieving that goal.

When you say 40 lots are you referring to 400,000? or 4,000,000?? If 100 lots isn't a blip then i guess its good news... I presume timing also plays a huge role here. Is it better to place this higher trades during quieter periods of the market or in more volatile times?
  • #6
  • Feb 19, 2010 7:11am Feb 19, 2010 7:11am
Quoting jaylovin
Completely agree... I am building up my account to be able to trade 10 standard lots for 10 pips a week ... though i am really far off from achieving that goal.

When you say 40 lots are you referring to 400,000? or 4,000,000?? If 100 lots isn't a blip then i guess its good news... I presume timing also plays a huge role here. Is it better to place this higher trades during quieter periods of the market or in more volatile times?
4,000,000

time of day is more of a function of what kind of spread do you want. After U.S. close but before Tokyo open spreads widen out too much. About 1 hour before Tokyo spreads start to narrow. This works out good for me because I mostly trade the daily charts (I scalp when I get bored) and the daily candle closes around this time. I set my buy stops, sell stops and move my stops on active trades. Never really had any issues with slippage. When I check the trades the next day I always look to see if the order filled at the correct price and they always have (within a fraction of a pip). This tells me that there are no issues with liquidity.
  • #7
  • Jun 1, 2012 3:02am Jun 1, 2012 3:02am
I believe that even 100 full standard lots is just a blip during European session on the majors like EU, GU, and AU. I think I saw somewhere that it takes 75,000,000 units to move the market 1 pip. That's 750 standard lots. And that's still just 1 pip. So in theory you could place an order of 750 standard lots and get just 1 pip of real slippage. Obviously delays in processing could make it look like you had no slippage or like you had more slippage.
  • #8
  • Jun 1, 2012 8:23am Jun 1, 2012 8:23am
Your trade size becomes too big the moment you feel even slightly less willing to take a loss because you can't stand how much it will sting...

You have to trade a size that won't affect your execution.
FXGears.com
  • #9
  • Last Post: Jun 1, 2012 2:10pm Jun 1, 2012 2:10pm
As others have stated, this market is quite huge so you have to be moving a huge chunk around just to move the pip a few points up or down..
And on lots, trading huge number of lots is never an issue as long as you can convert most of it into positive trades..
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