Money Management

This is the second more important point in Forex trading after to know when to take a trade

 We should never risk more than 2% of our account equity on a single trade .

That is easily calculable, I made a FX calculator, just fill the blue part and you are gone.

There are trading methods with 30% or more risk per trade but I can not agree with that , only if it is a special risk account.

What is a risk account?

I use one mini account (2k) that has about 10% of my total Forex inversion, I use it for special trades that have higher risks and in case that I loose, I can't use more than the amount I have deposited . 

An example:

I expect a weekend gap and want to trade it, I take the trade and in case that I got hit, because the broker executes my stop loss on the open price, no matter what is my SL. The max that I can loose is the equity of this account but not my total FX capital.

Another high risk is to trade the news, I use to take opposite trades in both directions with a 15 pip SL on both, if the rally starts it hits the SL of one direction and runs on the other, on the first sign of reversal I take the profit. Sometimes we have spikes to both directions and both SL gets hit !

My SL on scalping:

I use in violent markets 5 to 30 pips SL, depending on the currency pair. In quiet markets I don't use SL at all but I agree that this is dangerous. A new trader should always set up a SL!!!

 FX as the main income:

Lately I got a lot of PM's asking me:

Hi Cobra, I can't see the face of my boss anymore and want to make my living with Forex, how much capital I need to get start paying my bills?

My answer on that question is:

Before you quit your job, have 6 month with a at least 10% reward in row, your wife and kids need food and a secure roof to sleep well, don't risk that never.

Count with an average 10 to 20% reward over your account equity with a good MM.

If you need monthly 2000$ to pay your living, you need a minimum of 20.000 (twenty thousand USD) to start your own business.