Chapter 4 How Much You Should Deposit?
Minimum Deposit
To begin with, if you are ready to trade using a real account and make real money, you should know that the amount of money you need to start trading depends on the account type you choose.
For example, to trade on the micro account you will need to deposit at least $5. You will be able to open orders which starts from 0.01 lots and use decent leverage. If you plan to open many trades, consider a standard account with a 0.5-pip floating spread. This type of account requires a minimal investment of $100.
Your Deposit Determines Your Trade Size
The minimum trade size with a lot of brokers is 0.01 lots. If you buy 0.01 lots of EUR/USD and your leverage is 1:1000, you will need $1 as a margin for the trade. If you deposited $5 on the micro account, your deposit will cover this margin and you will be able to open another 4 trades of this size. Each pip of price movement will either bring you or cost you $0.1.
Let’s consider some good options for a beginner trader. The examples we bring here are safe and sound from the point of risk management.
Deposit = $100
The amount of risk for a single trade should be below 5%, no matter how big your deposit is. Let’s go with a 3% risk ($3). If you trade 0.01 lots, you can have a Stop Loss of up to 30 pips-this, which is more than enough for an intraday position. The recommended risk/reward ratio is ⅓, so the potential profit for this trade will be 90 pips ($9).
Deposit = $500
What if your deposit is $500? With 3% risk ($15), your trade size can be 0.15 lots. In this case, each pip of profit/loss will account for $1.5. There will be 10 points for a Stop Loss. If you need a wider Stop, you can trade 0.1 lot, this will make each pip cost $1. Stop Loss will be 15 points. With 5% risk ($25), you can allow a 25-pip SL. The profit in this case (if your Take Profit is 3 times bigger) will be $75.
Deposit = $1000
If your deposit is $1000, the risk of 3% for a trade ($30) and 1:1000 leverage will allow you to trade 0.3 lots. The risk of 10% ($100) will allow you to trade 1 lot. In this case, 30 pips of profit will account for a gain of $300. The optimal risk of $30 a trade will allow you to trade 0.1 lots with the SL of 30 pips. The potential gain will be $90.
Examples of risk management table:
Conclusion
As you see, you need at least $5 to start trading. The rest is up to you! How much money would you like to earn? How often will you trade? The bigger the deposit, the bigger position sizes, the more you will earn from one trade. All of that should be weighed against the background of risks.
Trading offers great opportunities to profit, but it’s risky and losses are possible.