Tips to reduce the day trading losses
by Trader345 on Sep.04, 2009, under Forex trading
One must never risk more than 2% of his or her float in forex trading. In fact a lot of day traders find even 2% as a high amount. As per them only 1% or half or a quarter of a percent should be risked in forex trade or any trade for that matter. This is done so that you are not impacted much in case you end up in loss.
Various traders don’t value this rule. It is a fact that by just altering the sum of capital you peril in the day trading you can change a system from recurring 10% to recurring 100% per annum. It is true that by giving a rise to the risk and putting in more in a trade, you are also likely to boost your possibility for reward. However, the probability of loss also tends to increase.
As mentioned above most experienced forex traders and brokers recommend that you must never surpass a 2% risk. This logic behind this 2% risk is simple but still it is sometimes difficult to understand this. Investing small amount in day trading is always beneficial.
Following is an example of this 2% rule.
If a trader has a day trading float of $20,000, by means of the 2% rule he would set highest loss to be $400 on any trade. Keeping in mind the highest or maximum loss, a trader can afford to have 50 losses in a row. Now in nearly all trading systems the possibility of getting 50 losses in a string is extremely low. The probability of going bankrupt is even lesser. This is because when you apply the 2% rule properly, the computation is based on the existing float size. This means originally $400 is the 2% of $20,000. Now if you lose in the first trade, the amount left would be $19600; then the calculation is done on the 2% of $ 19600 which would be $ 392. Therefore, every time there is a loss, value of the highest loss on the subsequent trade will automatically reduce. And if you gain profit then of course the risk involved would move up.
Managing the risk becomes very important in the day trading. Since the amount risked is very less therefore, the losses incurred can be recovered easily. However, if the amount risked is high then it becomes very difficult for a trader to recover his loses.
It is often seen that the novice traders often risk a greater amount of money. They are of the opinion that investing a greater amount of money would mean high amount of profit but they forget the fact that it also involves high levels of risk. A trader must use good money management rules in order to succeed.