Zero_Sum and Serendipper Discuss Currency Trading.

Here in this thread we’re discussing currency trading both from a theoretical standpoint as well as trading in real time within the international markets. Even though this discussion primarily is between myself and Serendipper all are welcomed to this discussion. I’ve recently opened a practice DEMO account on Forex.com which is a lot like trading fake non-real money as a way of acclimating oneself to their trading platform which is 100% risk free. Being that I’m a newbie concerning investing or trading Serendipper is going to school me here having experience in currency trading.

So Serendipper, what’s the minimal amount of money again that one has to invest on Forex?

forex.com/en-us/support/faqs/popular-faqs/

The minimum initial deposit required is at least 50 of your selected base currency. However, we recommend you deposit at least 2,500 to allow you more flexibility and better risk management when trading your account.

This might be of interest to you.

investopedia.com/stock-anal … r0307.aspx

So far on my DEMO account I have done this. You’re allowed on DEMO $50,000.00 of fake money to begin with.

EUR/USD bought $1000.00

USD/CAD bought $1000.00

USD/ CNH bought $1000.00

AUD/USD bought $1000.00

I am having a hard time understanding the idiosyncrasies here, why is it EUR/ USD instead of USD/ EUR?

Tried buying USD/RUB for $1000.00 but it wouldn’t let me. Russian markets not open?

I am probably going to do a minimal of $100.00 at a time if I do it at all.

Thanks for that but I seem to recall hearing those kinds of online programs are pay to play, yes?

It looks like you’re long and short the USD. EURUSD means you’re buying the euro and selling the usd. It is “dollars per euro”, but I don’t know why they have that convention. Right now a euro costs $1.238 and it appears to be falling (usd getting stronger).

Then you won’t be able to place the china trade.

More questions I have, when you place an order how long are they active for? Is it indefinitely until it completely depreciate in value? Is it 24hours, week, month, or year?

Entry orders are indefinite on FXCM but appear to expire after a month or so on forex.com (pisses me off).

Active positions are indefinite as long as you don’t get a margin call.

So if it was USDEUR it would be the complete opposite where I’m long and shorting the EUR?

Yeah, my entire strategy is holding long positions and selling right at the moment it goes up in value however I am still unsure how long in real time one can hold a position before a bid is closed. Why not the China trade?

So on FOREX you have a month until your bid is over, good to know.

Explain margin call to me.

Also, why wouldn’t it let me do the USD/RUB trade?

research.tdameritrade.com/grid/ … onfree.asp

DYB is on there. And you can trade it for free along with 100s of others.

So you’re basically saying $200.00 on the Forex wouldn’t last a day? :-k Just out of curiosity how many times do you check your Forex accounts daily? When the stock market closes for the day so does your FOREX account stop until it reopens or is there buying and selling after hours?

Thanks, I will have to check that out.

At the end of the day, you should take this time to study how these kinds of things work, and write down the picks you’d make if you had the cash, and the date, and the price on that date and keep track of yourself.

Get an app for your phone called “seeking alpha” and follow ticker symbols that interest you. Private prisons? Evil oil companies? Frackers? Walmart? Read the news about them every day and like anything else, it’ll all make a lot more sense. In the meantime, throw 50 or 100 bucks into that ameritrade account, or buy and hold shares on computershare without paying any fees, and then once you got enough cash to get in the game you can start flipping some shit.

It’s like this. If I got 100 bucks and you got 1000, and we both buy the same stock on the same day and it goes up 10 percent…I’d pay 14 bucks for the buy then the sell, and 1.50 in capital gains tax. So I’d have 110-15.50 which would leave 94.50. So even though it went up 10 percent I’d be at a loss because of the fees and my small initial investment. My gains wouldn’t cover the fees. But, if you had 1000, then you’d have 1100-14 in fees - 15 bucks in capital gains tax which would leave you with 71 bucks in actual profit after fees and taxes.

So it’s super important to get up some cash so you can utilize the information in your head to make money. So go to computershare and start drafting monthly for shares of some old school dividend stocks, or if you’re more risk averse, then just open the ameritrade account, add cash services and checking, and since the checking there is money market checking you’ll get paid interest that’s more than you would on a basic savings account, and since it’s attached to your individual brokerage account you’ll be able to make instant trades and transfers and all that from an app on your phone.

Are there TD Bank branches where you live? If not, then you’ll need a local bank to deposit in and then transfer into the new account.

No I’m not saying that. You could expect, idk, $10 change per day. So if you had $200 deposited, you’d either have $190 or $210 in equity. More or less. The next day might be back at $200 or down to $180. Everyday it’s probably going to bob around $5-$10.

The biggest mover is the 1st friday of every month when NFP nonfarm payrolls are announced. You could double your money or get a margin call in an instant.

All the time. I occupy my time on here.

It’s 24hrs and closes friday at 5pm NY time and opens 5pm on sunday. I hate that it’s closed saturday.

Can somebody give me then run down on what has to be reported on taxes yearly in all of this? I thought I heard currency trading is reported differently than stocks, bonds, and the like when it concerns filing taxes.

Yeah, I am nowhere near having $1000.00 in real money to spend. :laughing:

I have a little bit of chump change and some pocket lint, that’s about it. :laughing: I bank through Wells Fargo.

Alright so the poor gadfly like me with my meager $200.00 can still get some action on the For ex. What’s the largest spike increase you’ve seen in currency trading? Ever see $200.00 become $300.00 instantly?

Explain margin call to me, is that when a heavy drop in the market wipes out my $200.00 in one single full swoop?

What did you mean earlier that I wouldn’t have enough money for the China trade?