IG is impossible to control risk for beginners

[keebs01]

Apologies if this has come up again but I posted without an account yesterday and can't see it so I thought I would post again.

It's disappointing to see IG change their minimum points per trade on the spread bet account. As a new trader who is looking to open a small account (£2k) its now impossible to manage my risk on the majority of potential trades.

As it stands I can't graduate from a demo account on IG and this will stop other people like myself from opening an account if we can't manage risk properly.

It's really disappointing to see IG go this way and not look after the little guy.

Any thoughts, tips or any recommendations for other decent platforms would be greatly appreciated (if that's within the rules of this forum)

Thanks

[DavyJones]

On 17/07/2020 at 21:25, keebs01 said:

It's disappointing to see IG change their minimum points per trade on the spread bet account. As a new trader who is looking to open a small account (£2k) its now impossible to manage my risk on the majority of potential trades.

just use  stops as tight as you can , 

FTSE 0.5pt min, stop 4 point = £2 quid. 

Lloyds: £1 a point, min stop 0.2 = 20p

how low do you want it ? 🙂 You can always exit the trade anytime

[AaronDow]

Stops at twice the VIX works for me, and a TP of 3.5 times gives a great Risk reward, you can start with £2k and can earn £100 per day with good risk.

I only trade Wall street, so not individual stocks, so that works for me.

[keebs01]

10 hours ago, DavyJones said:

just use  stops as tight as you can , 

FTSE 0.5pt min, stop 4 point = £2 quid. 

Lloyds: £1 a point, min stop 0.2 = 20p

how low do you want it ? 🙂 You can always exit the trade anytime

Thanks for the reply 🙂

That's all good and well but if you are PDT on US markets for example and trying to put a stop under/over a bar or pivot then there lies the issue, even for relatively cheaper ones. 

The pts away system on FTSE and some UK stocks also reduces the amount of management you can have on your SL and therefore risk/reward. I can't always watch a trade every second and run the risk of losing a lot more than a solid stop would afford me.

This is not for all US or UK stocks but greatly reduces the amount a small account/beginner can sensibly trade with sensible risk/reward management.

I will definitely try more UK stocks as Lloyds was manageable for a small account for sure, so thanks. 

[DavyJones]

8 hours ago, keebs01 said:

The pts away system on FTSE and some UK stocks also reduces the amount of management you can have on your SL and therefore risk/reward. I can't always watch a trade every second and run the risk of losing a lot more than a solid stop would afford me.

 

Yeah I get that there are minimum distances for stops, thus it impacts your Risk / Reward ratio but realistically the major stumbling block are the large spreads, not the stops.

In any case there are loads of stocks, FX, commodities  to choose from that will keep your risk to less that a few quid, 0.5% account is £10 for case. Its just a suggestions so feel free to ignore it but  I think you're focusing on the wrong aspect of trading, Sure your stop may be further away than your like but if there is a high probability of hitting it then the trade shouldn't have been put on in the first place. I see many of these scalping style trades, or trading right off the open use very tight stops , Under the IG platform this doesn't seems like a non starter but again unless you have s high confidence of the trade moving fast in your direction (to cover spreads), it's probably a trade to pass up on. Also in my view  there a lot of good other strategies on lower priced liquid stocks,  to test where stops really are not a issue at all even for small accounts 

If fact I found that for things like silver you need a fairly wide stop to avoid that sudden spike that knocks you out while the trend continues in your favour, perhaps its trading bots that are targeting these things, dunno