How much money should I deposit for my first deposit for stock trading?

Taking your first steps in stock trading always raises a huge number of questions, many of which are important for a beginning trader.

One such question is the size of the first deposit that will be made into the account in your personal account.

After all, this, one might say, purely technical point concerns not only the size of potential profit, but also the very possibility of opening transactions.

Since there is a certain minimum amount of collateral that is required to open an order for a particular asset, it should also be taken into account when planning to replenish the account.

What points should you consider when planning your first deposit?

Risk of losses – you shouldn't start trading with a large deposit of several thousand dollars right away; the risk of losing money is enormous for a beginner. Almost no traders have ever saved their first deposit.

Therefore, when replenishing, you should limit yourself to an amount of no more than several hundred US dollars.

Broker restrictions – depending on the account type, each broker has its own minimum deposit requirements:

Typically, for cent accounts they are $0, but for ECN or VIP accounts the minimum deposit amount can range from $300 to $10,000.

The deposit amount and the amount in the trading account are also quite an interesting point; it is not at all necessary to use the entire deposit amount in trading.

It's more practical to top up your trader account with a larger amount than you plan to use, and then transfer some of the money to a reserve account within your account. This will allow you to immediately start trading if you need to increase your trade volume.

Minimum deposit – usually, trading on the exchange requires a minimum deposit of $20-30, although the broker's specifications state that trading starts from $0:

Therefore, even if you deposit $10-15, you simply won't be able to physically open a trade, receiving the message "Insufficient funds." The amount of collateral also directly depends on the leverage and the asset being traded.

In order to determine the optimal deposit amount for you, you should take into account all the above aspects.

Personally, I would recommend topping up with $100, and using $50 for trading on a cent account.

If your broker doesn't offer cent accounts or you don't want to use them, you'll need to base your deposit on the minimum amount required to open a trade. For example, a minimum volume of 0.01 lots or 1,000 euros with a leverage of 1:100 means your initial deposit should be at least $100-$150.