Once you have entered the world of Forex trading you will immediately find this field is not just about entering trades into your brokers trading station, but mainly about becoming profitable, as often as possible, with those many trades you enter and think will be the good ones.

The only way you can reach your goal of becoming a profitable currency trader is by finding the best sources to learn forex trading and with practice. Lots and lots of practice will make you an expert on the currency markets and a highly profitable trader. You can start practicing with a paper trading account, which is highly recommended, and this will give you the feeling of what a real trading account is as you gain the knowledge and skills you need and without the constant fear of losing your money in a bad move you may make.

Once you have been profitable with a paper trading account the next natural step would be to open a mini forex trading account, this time with real money. But even considering you are risking real money this time, it would be just a few dollars on the table that will be at risk; and of course, on the positive side, you will have the chance of gaining real money from your trading skills, which at the end is the ultimate goal of all traders.

The following are the main characteristics a mini Forex account would have:

- Minimum required account deposit (it can vary from broker to broker) = $300
- Recommended required account deposit = $2,000
- Traded in 10,000-unit currency lots
- Default Margin: set at 0.5% ($50 per mini-lot)
- Leverage up to = 200:1

Contrary to what you may be tempted to think, there is no downside to trading a Forex mini account compared to a regular account. Apart from the lot sizes, you will be enjoying all the benefits that full-size forex account holders enjoy; including, same state-of-the art trading software from your broker, charts, resources, and tools. This mini accounts are ideal for a new Forex trader to develop a disciplined, rational forex trading strategy and technique without excessively focusing on the fear naturally arising from thinking too much about how much you can lose in a bad trade.

One more great new for the starting trader is that there is no maximum trade volume when you use a mini forex trading account. Although the standard trade size is 10,000 units, you are not limited to trading one lot. For instance, you can trade 10,000 units or even 200,000 units. This way as you become more seasoned and build up your confidence you can slowly increase the size of your positions to maximize profits. This ability to customize the size of the trade will allow you to have a better risk management of your money as you build the skills the will make you think about opening a full-size regular trading account.