I'd recommend your first deposit be to PokerStars, they have the ultra low-limit games there that you can cut your teeth on and learn the game. Then, when you are ready, deposit $90 at Interpoker and they'll give you a $90 bonus to say thanks, play a little, cash out and go to Paradise, deposit $200 with bonus code GRANNY and they'll give you an extra $100. Maybe go back to InterPoker or Will Hill or PokerPlex to grow your roll a bit with bonuses until you get to $500. Then take it to Party. Party is where to be. This is all assuming you don't want to lose money ever- you don't have to because of all the free bonus money. If you don't care about that and don't mind dropping a few hundred just make a deposit to Party first. PM me and I'll give you my bonus code so you get some extra money and I do too.
This is interesting and it's cool. Is he daytrading? I was thinking a guy could take a little more high-frequency setup, maybe 3 or 4 trades a day. The fun thing about trading is if you can do it from $500 to $5000 you can do it from $5000 to $25000 to $125000 ... etc you get the idea. I'd say to whoever that once they start trading 100,000 lots to just go over to the Euro Futures instead of spot forex. I'm intrigued with it because it just sounds like a cool way to teach people and help them get started and get confident without staking their life savings on it. I really believe that when you are trading so much that you feel pain when you lose that you'll make mistakes. Paper trading isn't the same because there's nothing staked on it.
I set up very strict protocol with him and usually he will know the night before if there is even a chance to trade the next day. When the conditions are right he sits and waits ALL day sometimes. I do not believe this is the best way to trade but I developed it like this for him because it eliminated to much thought and second guessing in his case. I also do not believe that this kind of trading is scalable because with larger size a trader needs much more confidence and understanding of what they are doing and why, otherwise they will lack confidence and emotionally they will blow up and not trade correctly. I do agree with the fact that this is by far the best way to learn to trade especially with the forex mini account which will allow you to trade 10k of a currency if you like.
Chopper77 "Is this viable these days? A lot of guys I know are just getting started playing cards because it's the newest fad or whatever, and because of all the action online you can get started and play for very cheap. Starting at with $90 at $.50/1 limit hold'em I've seen students of mine get up to $5,000 - $6,000 within a few months with hard work and study. .... Is it the same way with trading now with spot forex? Has anyone out there started an Oanda account with $500 and slowly built up their bankroll, moving up in leverage as they gain money and experience? Has anyone out there done that? Is this feasible?" It is possible of course. You have to have a system with a positive expectation though. Just like poker or blackjack, you must have an edge otherwise you will eventually lose it all. I have not done it in currencies ( i loost 250) but like another poster on this board and some of your students I did it on a small scale with poker. Mostly through bonuses. Chopper77 Agreed. It's one of those things that sounds like a fun job to have, but is pretty unfulfilling after awhile. The money can be fantastic though, but who knows what happens when the poker boom ends.. Then you have to look for something else. This is wahat has happened to me after blackjack. Chopper77 Back to the thread though! Does anyone know anyone that built their trading bankroll this way? Is this good advice to give a newbie? Yes and No. No, because a newbie will not have a positive expectancy in the currency game. They will lose it all. Yes because maybe the newbie will quit after the small loss or look for ideas that will turn them inti a winner. Unlike poker and blackjack that information ( a wiining strategy for trading forex) may not be as easy to find. gotmessner Starting with a small amount and compounding your winnings is definantly feasible and has been done. Beware that it's not the easiest route though. The easiest route is starting with a large amonut and losing it quickly. This has also been done... lots of times. samson77 So it is doable but like poker it takes extreme patients and discipline and it's very BORING to trade like this. Patience not patients. Thats what the doctor ordered! But Samson77 is right. Poker, blackjack and trading cann all get boring. Sometims you want to make a bet on a marginal count or play a borderline hand from early position or just trade to trade. Your discipline is wahat stops you from doing this. EricP started off playing real money poker about six months ago at Paradise Poker, when they had a promotion offering a free $2 account to try out their microlimit tables. In order to better learn the game, I recommend buying Turbo Texas Holdem software (~$99) I started (or restarted) like this , playing a small bank and parlaying to a bigger bankroll. A lot of my later wins were through bonuses though. The Turbo Texas Holdem program is very good and just like the blackjack simulators I used it has taught me a lot. Why didn't I buy this program sooner?? EricP To summarize, online poker is very beatable at the lower levels I disagree. Unless I amunclear about what you mean by lower limits. At 0.50/1.00 the players may be as beatable or more beatable but the rake will eat away all your profits. I am surprised more players dont see this. Use your Turbo THE program and simulate a good player "Bret Maverick" Vs a loose passive tabe. Adjust your rake (you may have to use a2/4 game and divide by 4) the profit, if there is any is negligable. TTHE has showed me that the 4/8 game in Calgary where I played a little is not viable. 5 percent rake to 5.00 max, average tip 1.00 and bad beat jackpot drop of 1.00 for a pot over 50 make this game unworkable, except for entertainment purposes. Chopper77 I think that's a little loose. I think 500-700 BBs is more reasonable. I used to think 300 big bets was enough also but from the playing experience I've had ,chopper77 may be right. This is pretty disheartening though. Whowah
http://www.crushingonlinepoker.com/ I'm not into the artwork there, but the info is free and the data presented matches up with poker reality.
Well of course you need a system that works. The thing is though I could give a system that works to a newbie and he'd still lose money with it because he's new to the game and the emotions involved are many. Starting with $500 and something simple and workable I think could really reduce the learning curve. I'm going to try it with someone, a friend of mine volunteered so we'll see. This is so completely wrong. Wrong wrong wrong. Rakes online are lower and the players love to pay off. I know lots of people that have beat .50/1 for over 4 BB / 100 (after rake) over 20-30,000 hands. Party's and Paradise's .50/1 is very very beatable. 1/2 is a rock garden but it has some lessons to teach, 1/2 6 max is really soft and 2/4 is just as soft as .50/1. Good times and good money to be had by all during this poker boom.
I find the no-limit games the best for boosting your bankroll In the ring-games you can be as tight as you want but really cash in when the odds are in your favor Just see your buy-in as a % trade, eg. if you have $1000 roll and you get in on a a buy in table for $20, that's 2% of your equity so you should be completely comfortable going all-in if the pot is large and you got the hand sure you'll bust out on bad beats, but when you win you double or triple up patience is the key, you could fold for hours until the action gets to you, and then you cash in it's like a trend-following equity curve, steep inclines and then gradual declines
I have to agree with you about giving a person a system that works and then seeing that person lose money. This was the case many times in my blackjack days. People would have a system and not use it properly or at all. They must have thought just because they are in posession of a winning system they didn't have to use it in orser to win. I used to have this lady sit beside me and she counted but would lose the count. She knew I was counting and I would tell her when to bet big. Se just couldn't drop her bet down in a low count especially after losing a few big bets. In about 26 months of play I saw her win onece! I had my ups and downs but was a consistent winner. I still disagree on the rakes at the lower limits. Yes they are lower than a casino but as a percentage of the pot are very large and can be as high as tem percent. The bonuses can help offset this though. Beating 50/100 for 4 big bets per 100 hands is very good especially considering the rake they have to endure. I would guess that these people have moved on to higher limits. Good times in online poker should last as there are many players not interested in studying the game. The same was true for blackjack.