For the love of Home Ownership

Easy to say and yes I am happy, actually I am ecstatic that I finally entered the home owner elite. Well it seems that way at the moment even though I know we are no more elite than anyone else. In actual fact nothing has really changed. I have to pay money to someone else every month for the privileged of staying in a house. I do not like where I am going with this. I love my new house, all mine now I need to make it my own. The mortgage and insurance are taken care of and I have my new carpets arriving next week so all is well.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Choosing Forex Accounts

By Ahmad Hassam

For trading success, good money management is the key. Many traders ignore this aspect of trading at their own peril and get their account blown in a few weeks of trading. Trading discipline means using a trading system based on money management rules that limit your risk and avoid making trading decisions based on emotions.

Without sufficient capital in your account, you wont be able to make meaningful capital gains. One of the worst blunders that forex traders can make is to trade without sufficient capital. Low capital increases your chances of getting blown out too soon. This does not mean that you should have a lot of capital before you start trading. You need to have sufficient capital in your account in order to take advantage of the movements in the currency markets. Low capital will never give you that opportunity.

Many forex brokers fix the minimum amount required to open a standard account as $2000. However, it is recommended by most of the professional traders that you should start with at least $2500-5000 to get good results. A trader with limited capital is always a worried trader. He is always looking to minimize losses beyond the point of realistic trading. Never ever trade live without practicing on the demo account for a few months. First, try to double your account at least three times in a row on the demo account.

A regular account or a standard account often also called 100k account lets you trade a $100,000 standard lot with a $1000 deposit. This $1000 is kept as the margin by the broker. This is a 1% margin.

When you open an account with a forex broker, you must first determine what the default margin requirement is. You can change the account margin requirement to whatever you feel comfortable with. If you start with a 2% margin, it will cost you $2000 to trade one standard lot of $100,000.

You can get a leverage of up to 200% in most of the standard accounts. Using 200% leverage means trading $200,000 with a $1000 deposit. Too much leverage is dangerous. Dont use more than 4% leverage while trading in the beginning.

Its not that leverage is bad. It is a double edged sword that cuts both ways. It increases your profit but at the same time wipes you out in case of a slight miscalculation on your part. Its just that you need to understand and learn how to use it. You can only do so with practice. With practice and more experience, you can increase the level of leverage in your trading.

The mini account was developed to accommodate investors who were looking for diversification of their stocks portfolios. You can open a mini account with a deposit of $300. This small dollar requirement allows many investors to participate in the forex markets who were previously unable to do so.

One lot on a mini account is equal to $10,000. This is known as a mini lot. As compared to a standard account, on a mini account you have a different lot size. You only need $50 to trade a mini lot of $10,000. This means a leverage of 200%. As compared to the standard account, pips size on a mini account is also small. A pip size on the mini account is equal to $1. 1 pip is equal to $10 on a standard lot.

If you lose 100 pips on a mini account, it means losing only $100 as compared to losing $1000 on a standard lot. You can say a mini account reduces your risk by 10%. But it also reduces the amount of profit that you can make. Start with at least $500 on a mini account. A mini account is a great way for beginners to practice forex trading. Once you develop the feel of how the currency markets work, you will have to open a standard account. It is on the standard account that you can make good money.

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