Porgie sounds like you are in the same boat as me. Good luck! A side note, I have taken another job, one that won't interfere with either trading or skiing. Now between the two I will be able to add $500 give or take to my trading account a month. Will be a workhorse though....That is OK. Work is good for the soul. Guess what the job is? Bagger. Now I truly am the Bagger Lord!
I am curious about Forex so I opened a $50 account with Oanda. I shorted GBP/USD and shorted EUR/USD on Friday. Trying to ride big trends, which I have heard is the way to go. Nobody get their panties in a knot over me trying something else new, I'm just playing with $50.
Covered my FOREX shorts, decided I might be chasing them. Made 3.40 on the trade, or 6% or so. LOL. Just shorted AUD/JPY, as it looks like it is set to break to the downside.
Well it has been an interesting ride. 2k to 4k, 4k to 1k, and now 1k to 2k, right back where I started, all in under 2 months. I've accepted that I don't have the funds to trade the way I want to trade. Any losing streak and I am gone. So I am saving my dough for now, trading my $50(now $65) forex account, and studying/papertrading. If I want to build up my trading level I will do it in forex, because I can do it there in reasonable increments. I won't get back into the minis until I have 5k, and then I will open an IB account. I ruled out swingtrading stocks because I don't want to be handicapped by the PDT rule. So Forex it is for now, until I have 5k. This journal just morphed into a forex journal.
I've been actively trading for a few months. My original plan was to daytrade options. Should I have stuck with that? I learn, and plans change. I'm certainly not risking my whole basket on my newest venture. I don't have the funds for minis, plain and simple. Forex is my only real option that provides me with the leverage I need to do anything worthwhile with my limited capital. I like Forex, nice and laid back, and hours that suit me better than US markets. I can scale in and out of positions with my miniscule account, and this makes a huge difference psychologically. There is no such thing as taking partial profits trading the minis with a 2k account. I can do that with my $50 account($72 now) in Forex. Thanks for your concern though.
Baggerlord, I'm interested to read your new adventures with Forex. A few questions: 1) What timeframes do you look at, and what time frame do you enter trades from? 2) How often do you check your positions and adjust stops? 3) How much do you risk per trade on your $50 account? I like the small account idea with Oanda. Please post charts of your trades when you get some time.
Howdy, I am liking the Forex very much. My $50 has morphed into $117. The style of Forex suits me very well, nice slow trends with predictable breakouts. I trade off a 3 hour and daily chart, with a 30 min for entries. No indicators, MA's, anything. Just price. I check back every three hours if I can, but I don't stress it too much. I am risking 5-10% of my account per trade, depending on my confidence in the setup. I know those are big numbers, but not on a $100 account! One thing that has really helped me is taking partial profites. I will take small profits at every 5 pip increment, so that if the trade should turn against me I will still make money in most cases. Try forex, start small, and have fun!