Bossplaya I agree with Rick trade a demo account while you learn the ropes. If you feel you need to put money on the line then perhaps a $5,000 account max trading 1% = $50/trade. Hard to destroy that it would take 100 losing trades which takes some effort to be that bad.
The thing is, while you're learning, why risk your money, all you're doing is increasing the cost of your learning.
I didn't start with a demo account I started with a $10,000 account but stuck to the 1% rule (maximum per trade - often it was a lot less) and in my first 12 months I only lost just under $1,000 or 10% overall. Not too expensive given how much I learned from all the trades I did during that time but had I traded larger amounts obviously the cost would have been much higher.
I now have a standard process for my trading. I trade mechanical models (and working towards fully automated models) and for development I have a small account where I can do test trades at very small amounts (like the one I posted yesterday). But when I have a model I am ready to start running I run it in demo for 3 months and then if that's successful I apply it to a $10,000 account for 3 months and then may increase it further to a $20,000 account or more (I haven't gone past $20,000 with any model yet). This is a process I learned from a prop trading firm based on how they do things. Originally my plan was to run one or two models on larger accounts, but now I have learned that I am better off developing more models and having more smaller accounts for the diversification - so maybe 5-8 models each running a $10,000-$20,000 account is my current objective - takes more work to develop that many good models but worth it in terms of return vs risk mitigation.
These are things you learn while you are a newbie (maybe you are not a newbie, like cooder, so apologies if you know all this). The thing is to survive with your capital intact while learning the ropes. Once you are good at it then its worth applying more money...
