Forex Money Management 101: 4x Trading Made Simple
Gambling with 4x trading, God complexes of chasing losses, emotional investing - all the hallmarks of forex losers. The fact is that 4x trading is neither easy or hard. It is simply different to what we find in other parts of life. Most novices and experienced players came from share trading. This has barely any resemblance to 4x trading at all. So, to bring clarity to this different market, rule number 1 of 4x trading is:
Forex Money Management 101. Do not look for a holy grail of trading. Just don't lose money!
The 4x market turns over more cash in 1 week than the whole USA economy does in 1 year. But add to that concept, how much does every up and down tick in the market all add up to? How many pips movement in a day do we miss? Forget about it. There is no such thing as Albert Einstein and the theory of everything with 4x trading. No super computer can help you. 4x robot software is useful but clumsy at the micro level. Missing opportunities is a big part of forex trading. The real heart of the matter is not losing money. Profit is about making profitable trades only.
2% of your 4x account is more than you should be risking on a trade if you have proper and effective forex money management.
The first rule of Forex Money Management is to be used, not abused. Let me run you through a typical day for me in a volatile forex trading market. I have my $10,000 4x trading account. I am only allowed 4 pips for my stop losses because I am going to be trading with 5 lots. 5 lots is $50 per pip, and with only being allowed to risk $200, I must not lose more than 4 pips.
So far, I am sure you are thinking that only the rule of 2% maximum risk makes sense - that none of my plans for 5 lot trades seem reasonable at all. Well, lets look at a real trading day. Stop reading this now, and open up your metatrader charts or whatever platform you use and look at the H1 (hourly) EURUSD for 19th August, 2009. You will then see that the USD crashed after some bad and sad economic data came in. The Euro shot from 1.4111 to 1.4265 in 3 hours - 154 pips.
Now as it happened, I was already long on the Euro that day having entered at 1.4080 a few hours earlier because my trading signals were telling me that it was time for a bounce in the Euro. But with only 4 pips breathing space, was I just lucky? Not at all!
When I entered my buy limit trade at 1.4080 I did it as a pending order. Actually, when I placed that pending order, I was going shopping with my girlfriend and wasn't going to be back home for hours. SO, at the same time I placed a 5 lot sell stop order at the same price as my 5 lot pending buy order. IF the market dipped to pick up my buy order, it would also hit my sell stop. The market can then do what ever it likes after that. Each trade 100% cancels the other out. It's called hedging. I had hedged my position with opposite orders.
As it turned out, the market did dip down to 1.4069 and I was in for both buy and sell orders cancelling themselves out. When I got home the sell stop order was in profit, and my buy was at a loss. But the net effect to my account was only the 0.9 pips spread. I waited for an hour, the Euro rebounded, I closed my sell trade at break even and let the buy trade continue. Joy oh joy it then went seriously into the money a few hours later on the USA's bad news.
After an exciting few hours at the screen I watched that long position go crazy into profits, and so I switched it to a 20 pips trailing stop, which it did do at 1.4245. That was a tidy, ultra low risk, $8,250 profit on the day. 82.5% profit on a $10,000 trading account while I went shopping. The first rule about forex money management was never broken. I was never at risk of losing 2% of my account.
First rule of Forex money Management: Don't Lose Money. Never risk more than 2% of your capital. Hedging. - 23159
Forex Money Management 101. Do not look for a holy grail of trading. Just don't lose money!
The 4x market turns over more cash in 1 week than the whole USA economy does in 1 year. But add to that concept, how much does every up and down tick in the market all add up to? How many pips movement in a day do we miss? Forget about it. There is no such thing as Albert Einstein and the theory of everything with 4x trading. No super computer can help you. 4x robot software is useful but clumsy at the micro level. Missing opportunities is a big part of forex trading. The real heart of the matter is not losing money. Profit is about making profitable trades only.
2% of your 4x account is more than you should be risking on a trade if you have proper and effective forex money management.
The first rule of Forex Money Management is to be used, not abused. Let me run you through a typical day for me in a volatile forex trading market. I have my $10,000 4x trading account. I am only allowed 4 pips for my stop losses because I am going to be trading with 5 lots. 5 lots is $50 per pip, and with only being allowed to risk $200, I must not lose more than 4 pips.
So far, I am sure you are thinking that only the rule of 2% maximum risk makes sense - that none of my plans for 5 lot trades seem reasonable at all. Well, lets look at a real trading day. Stop reading this now, and open up your metatrader charts or whatever platform you use and look at the H1 (hourly) EURUSD for 19th August, 2009. You will then see that the USD crashed after some bad and sad economic data came in. The Euro shot from 1.4111 to 1.4265 in 3 hours - 154 pips.
Now as it happened, I was already long on the Euro that day having entered at 1.4080 a few hours earlier because my trading signals were telling me that it was time for a bounce in the Euro. But with only 4 pips breathing space, was I just lucky? Not at all!
When I entered my buy limit trade at 1.4080 I did it as a pending order. Actually, when I placed that pending order, I was going shopping with my girlfriend and wasn't going to be back home for hours. SO, at the same time I placed a 5 lot sell stop order at the same price as my 5 lot pending buy order. IF the market dipped to pick up my buy order, it would also hit my sell stop. The market can then do what ever it likes after that. Each trade 100% cancels the other out. It's called hedging. I had hedged my position with opposite orders.
As it turned out, the market did dip down to 1.4069 and I was in for both buy and sell orders cancelling themselves out. When I got home the sell stop order was in profit, and my buy was at a loss. But the net effect to my account was only the 0.9 pips spread. I waited for an hour, the Euro rebounded, I closed my sell trade at break even and let the buy trade continue. Joy oh joy it then went seriously into the money a few hours later on the USA's bad news.
After an exciting few hours at the screen I watched that long position go crazy into profits, and so I switched it to a 20 pips trailing stop, which it did do at 1.4245. That was a tidy, ultra low risk, $8,250 profit on the day. 82.5% profit on a $10,000 trading account while I went shopping. The first rule about forex money management was never broken. I was never at risk of losing 2% of my account.
First rule of Forex money Management: Don't Lose Money. Never risk more than 2% of your capital. Hedging. - 23159
About the Author:
Phil Jarvie is a professional forex trader expert in fx trading, fx sofware and using fx hedging for forex money management and may wish to visit his website to consider his reviews on trade forex currency
posted by X - Men @ 4:07 AM
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