I have recently taken it upon myself to experience an experiment of sorts. I began a couple weeks back with an insignificant amount I don't mind losing ($200) and have been scalping with an ultra-high risk/ultra-high leverage approach. I am trading using 500:1 leverage - any less and this won't be possible - where every 1 pip move represents 2 percent of my account balance. I have been targeting involving 2-3 pips, which after commissions (I exchange on ECN) nets about 3.5% per trade. Somewhere between 18-20 trades doubles your account. One losing exchange of 40-50 pips (based on margin requirements) will wipe out the account.
I will state the obvious currently... Trading this approach indefinitely WILL at some point create a reduction of the entire balance (hence the thread title).
I know that is not anything new, and I am sure traders have completed this here with varying degrees of success. I started this thread since I am at the very first landmark of 20 winning trades, and having doubled the account I am somewhat at odds of the way to move. Here are the 3 options:
1) Withdraw my first starting amount of $200. The positive here is your reassurance that you are henceforth trading with home money, as you'll break even in the worst. The drawback is that you will be starting the cycle completely over.
Two ) Withdraw a predetermined percent, somewhere in the range of 20-50%, and then go for a different cycle. Example: $200 $400 subsequently draw $80, $320 $640 subsequently draw $128, $512 $1,024 subsequently draw $205, $819 $1,638 then draw $328, $1,311 $2,621 then draw $524 (at this point which will be 100 trades in a row which is extremely improbable )
3) Continue going as I have and try for a different cycle ($400 $800)
My trade explorer under has been filtered to demone the way the experimentation has gone so far. I have included a survey in this thread... how would you move?