As I began reading the responses to poor Andrew's inquiry I was flabberghasted that no one was telling this well intentioned but severely misguided fellow to stop trading with real money until he found a method where he was routinely and consistently profitable! There is no acceptable reason to let someone go on like that without calling it to their attention as the first and most immediate order of business.
I take my hat off to Kiwi who was the first and only one to really tell it like it is and bring poor Andrew back to reality before he had to take a job at WalMart for a year or two just to replenish his initial trading capital.
Please, let your initial risk capital come in the form of your time, study and effort, not your hard earned money. Once you have found the method that works for you consistently, that is the time to start risking 1 or two contracts per trade (again just on high probability trades) until your confidence, success and working capital all grow to the degree that you feel comfortable moving up to greater size, which I suggest you do very slowly anyway.
It takes awhile, even at the smallest of size, to adjust to living with your trading emotions when you make the switch to trading real money. You will undoubtedly find that as you increase in size you may have to re-learn how to live with those emotions again and again until such time as you finally reach a size and/or risk level you do not feel comfortable going beyond.
Additionally, Kiwi mentioned patience as a key trait of a good trader. I am here to tell you that successful trading can often feel as boring as watching paint dry, so you better get comfortable with that. Otherwise you are likely to be jumping in willy nilly at the wrong times just to be actively trading and I can think of no more sure way to a rapid blow-out your account.
Andrew or any other inquisitive beginner should read Kiwi's advice over and over again until it sticks like glue and becomes your way to attack trading the markets.
Happy Trading To All
