basics thread - ask your beginner questions here

[derekwhite]

for beginners and anyone fuzzy on the mechanics. orders, leverage, margin, lot sizes, sessions, risk. ask here instead of cluttering the broker threads.

one thing before you ask anything else: risk per trade. if you take away ONE thing from this whole forum let it be "dont risk more than 1-2% of your account on a single trade". more people die from sizing than from bad entries. ok go, no dumb questions here (well, some, but ask anyway)

[neonpilot]

1-2% rule is the single most important sentence on this forum. you can have a mediocre strategy and survive with good sizing, or a great strategy and blow up with bad sizing. sizing first, everything else later

[simpleguy]

1-2% of what tho, the deposit or the current balance? does it change as i win/lose

[charliebrown]

current balance, recalculated each trade. so as you grow you risk more in dollars but same %, as you lose you risk less in dollars. it auto-shrinks your size during a losing streak which is exactly what saves you

[midnightzone]

1-2%? where is the fun in that. (this is sarcasm please listen to them)