Only Have 5K

[Kohtro 10]

Ok, I've read enough books. I only have 5K and want to start trading. Can it be done with this amt? Which broker do you recom? Where should I start? Your help is greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks

Kohtro

 

PS. Not interested in paper trading

[gregn 10]

Velocity Futures requires $5000 and probably has the lowest retail commission of $4.5 round trip.

[MightyMouse 12]

Ok, I've read enough books. I only have 5K and want to start trading. Can it be done with this amt? Which broker do you recom? Where should I start? Your help is greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks

Kohtro

 

PS. Not interested in paper trading

 

Kohtro,

 

You can definitely trade with $5000. Its going to depend on how you are going to trade and what you are going to trade. The fact that you are asking, tells me that you probably aren't ready for prime time. Reading is not going to get you ready no matter how much you have read. You should paper trade to get a feel for the markets you want to trade.

 

I have been doing this for a while and when i want to trade a market that I haven't been watching, I first sim trade it to get comfortable with it.

 

Good luck!

 

 

MM

[Ceschiatti 10]

I would trade goods on EBay with this ammount. Much less risky!

[method 10]

I started with around 11k, velocity futures.

 

Really cheap commissions for eurex futures (DAX, FESX).

 

I don't trade the ES but it is around 4-5 per RT.

 

Just trade with your 5K. You can paper trade if you want but it will not hurt if u blow away your 5K, as long as you learn something from it.

 

Trading is a long haul game. You can't expect to be making $$$ after just months of 'study'.

 

btw you will probably lose your stake so don't feel bad about it, just take it in your stride and learn from it

[dam5h 10]

Velocity Futures requires $5000 and probably has the lowest retail commission of $4.5 round trip.

 

if you use the TT FIX adapter, velocity round trips on ES is 3.5, and 3.8 with Ninja

 

Sierra chart offers a good front end for the connection type.

[brownsfan019 17]

If you want to day trade, I believe with $5k you are limited to futures trading or forex trading. Both are leveraged products so make sure you understand how it all works before diving in head first. For futures, I use Open Ecry to trade from. For forex, you will have to ask a forex trader.

 

At the very least make sure you understand how the platform you are using works. Nothing worse than doing your analysis, being correct in it but a platform issue gets in the way.

[chazman38 10]

If you plan to day trade, I would advise sim trading first. If you want to trade futures, consider commodity spread trades, look into mrci.com. It is not as exciting as swing or daytrading as trades can last longer than a couple of months. Do not get into a hurry to throw your money into the ring, work on a business and trading plan. I know it is easier said than done, if I would of done that in the beginning, it would have saved me lots of $. Good Luck

[Charttrader 10]

Trade FX only. Trade one market only and watch for known set ups. Trade small. Trade short term. Cut losses and have an exit plan before placing the order. Trade your plan and plan your trade. Most of all be patient. One or two good trades will build the account or you must take small bites of the apple. Trade the condition of the road. If its wet, dont drive or speed. If its a straight road and you can see the end in the distance, trade it. Trade any other way, other than the analogy of driving a car, and you will lose the lot.

[Pipsqueak 10]

Hi

 

I trade forex. If you in the states then \Forex & Futures International are good brokers they work through pfgbest. They have multiple platforms. If you want to trade with more leverage (not really advisable) then there are quite a few brokers that will allow us traders to trade with them.

 

You would be able to trade in 10c moves on mini accounts which will give you lots of room to "make mistakes". Metatrader accounts have no extra costs also which is a plus, but they dont give volume (minus)

 

Anyway all the best to learning to trade

[dwt 10]

Your "don't want to paper trade" comment seems curious. If nothing else you DO want to paper trade to learn the ins and outs of whatever platform you choose.

 

That said, stock day trading is clearly out, and you're on the ragged edge trading futures, just based upon the % of your account risked on each 1 lot trade with a reasonable stop.

 

FX, OTOH, offers you trading in much smaller increments. With a micro account you could trade as little as $1k US at a time. I'd suggest you have a look at the FXCM proprietary platform and FXDD for MT4. Both appear to be solid firms, both offer micro accounts, both have excellent (though quite different) trading education programs, and either would welcome a $5k account, as it's 20x the minimum balance.

 

Good luck!

 

dwt

[metatron 10]

I would trade goods on EBay with this ammount. Much less risky!

 

Probably the best bit of advice on here so far.

 

Let us not forget trading isn't just about trading electronic contracts for commodities or currencies etc but anything including cars, property, horses, tools, cats, dogs, computers - I'm sure you get the picture the point is if you've only got 5K it might not seem like a lot to trade with but imagine being broke then that 5K starts to look like an awfully large and useful chunk of money.

 

Other than that I would add go to your local bar or strip joint and spend it in there because at least your have some fun losing your money.

[bobcollett 10]

dwt is correct. You Do have to paper trade.But you are adamant

So divide your money into $50 units. $5 commission + $45 stop loss and aim for $100 profit .

That will give you about 100 trades at 3 a day, initially. If you win 1 in 3 you can stay in business forever.But whos buying the groceries?

Regards

bobcollett

[doctoroe 10]

You can trade emini futures at many brokers with a $5,000 account. But if you jump in and start trading right away the professionals will eat your lunch. Some brokers like TradeStation and IB have simulators that let you practice before you use real money.

[rtv2 10]

Ok, I've read enough books.

 

Any on trading Psychology? If not please do.

 

 

I only have 5K and want to start trading. Can it be done with this amt?

 

FX can be traded with that amount of money, however 90% traders fail. Have you thought about a mentor? There are loads of them, the trick is to find the right one out of the gazillions of scammers.

 

Which broker do you recom?

 

Question: Have you defined what kind of trader you are? That is, are you Technical Analysis, Fundamental Analysis or a combination of both?

 

If you are only Technical Analysis then MT4 is adeqaute. However if you are a combination of Technical & Fundamental Analysis MT4 is wholly inadeqaute.

 

If you are a combination take a look at the platform ThinkOrSwim, it is nice to have equities, options, currencies and more on the same platform when you trade. If you don't think so install both MT4 and TOS and compare, see any Level II on MT4? TOS will blow MT4 out of the water!

 

Where should I start?

Paper trade is a must. You must learn your chosen platform. Why lose money because you don't know the platform?

 

Start here -> Develop your own trading Plan. If you cannot then don't trade, put your money in a "Certificate of Deposit" until you can.

[ichernysh 10]

Kohtro,

If you are new to trading - spend at least portion of those 5K on education.

You can start trading futures or FX with 2-3K. Jumping into live money trading

without skills is a sure way to lose whole account.

Sincerely,

Igor.

[PQL111 12]

Actually its uneccessary to trade, but if you want to prove paper trading and research its ok.

 

Of course if you had the holy grail, than its not about the capital as you could take any sum and make whatever you wish.

 

WD Gann took $1,000 into $12k in 1 month

[Tams 20]

Ok, I've read enough books. I only have 5K and want to start trading. Can it be done with this amt?

...

 

 

if you know how to make money,

you can turn $5k into $XXXX overnight.

 

if you don't know how to make money,

you can turn $5k into $0k overnight.

 

 

...

PS. Not interested in paper trading

 

...then, what are you interested in?

[noego 10]

No Offense....But are you really serious about trying to trade a $5k account by reading a few books and then not trying to gain some experience by simulating live trades under real market conditions first? Simulated trading has some limited benefit in learning your execution system and testing yourself to see if you will honor your trading plan and your patience. However, after awhile paper trading will hide your mental flaws as a trader because we all act differently under the pressure of the real trade with real cash. My advice, don't rush in and become the guy or gal that the rest of us neighborhood bullies pick on. There are only a very small few traders who really make it...the rest jump in and find out very quickly that they are in the majority who should have found something else to do with the $5k. Take your time and put in about 5000 hours watching live markets under the watchful eyes of someone who has been there. You will thank yourself many times over down the road. Good Luck.

[robertm 10]

Trade FX mini's, say 2 lots to give you flexibility in your strategy (I haven't found a good reason for more than 2 legs/exits in any system anyway).

 

It will fulfill your desire to avoid paper trading (although still use it for learning the platform) and if you risk small your account will last longer giving you more feedback to learn from. You may not make any money but you may hang around long enough to start to learn a thing or two.

 

If you were planning on making a living trading with 5k then you may want to postpone that thought for a year or two, or ten.

[method 10]

Like I said, open a futures account and start trading.

 

Blow it up, then decide whether you still want to pursue this dream or not.

 

Don't be afraid of failure

 

ps I may or may not know what I am talking about

[robertm 10]

Appropriate quote for the moment :

 

If you are not prepared to be wrong you will never come up with anything creative.

 

:-)

[chcculle 10]

If you want to donate your 5K to other traders like me then go right ahead. Take my advice don't learn on your own capital because odds favor that it will be gone.

 

It's interesting that you don't want to paper trade but if that is your choice then good luck.

 

The way to trade paper is to trade it as if it is real money, gain some skills, gain some confidence, and most important become consistently profitable. 99.9% of the people who have tried have been unsuccessful.

 

As far as brokers are concerned. You should be able to get round trip commissions around 2.00 to 2.50. if you're paying more than that, you're paying too much.

 

good luck

[robertm 10]

The way to trade paper is to trade it as if it is real money

 

But it's not real money, and it will never be real money. It's fine for working out rough things like how much slippage your system will encounter and other real world factors, but you need to put a number on it such as 20 trades, then at the end of that review, or if it looks good, go live for 20 trades, and at the end of that (without changing your system over the 20 trades) review, maybe sim another 20 trades with the modifications. Repeat until profitable. Note all observations along the way.

 

It's highly imperfect anyway as you could hit all 20 sims in a blitzing trend then go live as it smacks into congestion. If you have your eyes open and are making notes you should see that though.

 

You can easy risk only $50 a trade in FX, so you can stuff up around 100 times without a single win, that's 5 complete cycles even if you never have a winning trade (at which point you clearly need help if your account is now dead).

[Future trader 10]

Actually 5K is quite enough to trade future. Some smart people are able to turn even 500 into hundreds of thousands after reading few books and a little bit practice. Others are only able to lose hundreds of thousands even after decades of trading. It depends on people. In fact, if a trader is not able to turn several hundreds into tens of thousands in several months, what is the point to put half a million and then lose all of them? For those traders, trading hundreds of thousands of dollars is just gambling.