The honest part

The safety rules that protect beginners

These rules decide how long your money lasts. None of them need talent — they are habits, and you can learn them all before risking anything.

Trade only money you can afford to lose entirely. Practice on a demo first. Set a stop-loss on every trade, and never risk more than about 1% of your account on one. Keep leverage small, and never trade to "win back" a loss. The rest of this page explains how.

The rules, short version

Many people lose money when they start trading — usually because they rush, skip practice, and risk too much too early. Trading is a skill with real risk, not a shortcut to income. Three rules protect beginners better than anything else:

Never trade money you need for living. Rent, food, savings for your family — keep that money away from trading.
Practice on a demo first. If a plan doesn't work with virtual money, it won't work with real money.
Set a stop-loss on every trade. Decide the exit before you enter, not after.

Rule 1: Only trade money you can afford to lose entirely

"Afford to lose" sounds vague, so here is the concrete version. Trading money is never:

rent or mortgage money;
food, bills, or anything your household runs on;
savings your family is counting on — school, health, emergencies;
borrowed money, ever.

Trading money is a separate, fixed amount with one test: if it went to zero tomorrow, your life would not change. You would be annoyed — and that is all. A better question than "how much should I invest?" is: "How much can I afford to lose entirely?" Start with that amount or less, and decide the number before you open any real account.

The reason is practical: when the amount is genuinely losable you can think clearly, but when it is secretly next month's rent, every small price move feels like an emergency — and scared decisions are bad decisions.

Rule 2: Set a stop-loss on every trade

A stop-loss is an instruction attached to your trade: "if the price reaches this level, close the trade automatically." It turns an open-ended loss into a fixed, known one. You decide the exit before you enter, while you are calm — not later, while watching money disappear.

How do you choose the level?

Place it at a price where your trade idea would clearly be wrong — not so close that normal small wiggles knock you out, not so far that hitting it really hurts. On day one you won't know where that is; that is exactly what the demo account is for.

A worked example

Suppose you buy EUR/USD — the price of the euro measured in US dollars — at 1.1000, with the smallest trade size, 0.01 lots. A pip is the small price step from 1.1000 to 1.1001, and at this trade size one pip is worth about 10 cents. You place a stop-loss 20 pips below, at 1.0980. The most this trade can now lose is 20 × $0.10 = about $2 — the platform shows the exact figure before you confirm. Without the stop, there is no "most": the loss is whatever the market does while you hesitate.

One reassuring detail: the stop-loss is stored on the trading server, not on your phone. If your battery dies or your internet drops, the stop still works — the server closes the trade for you. Placing one is a couple of taps; the first trade guide shows exactly where.

Rule 3: Risk no more than 1% on one trade

The stop-loss caps the loss on one trade. The 1% rule decides how big that cap should be: one trade should never be able to lose more than about 1% of your trading money. With $100, that means no trade should be able to lose more than $1. Notice that the worked example above — about $2 of risk — is already too much for a $100 account. The fix is not a tighter stop; it is a smaller trade. One catch: 0.01 lots is already the smallest size on a Standard account. That is exactly what the Standard Cent account is for — the same trades in units about 100 times smaller, so the example above would risk about two cents instead of about two dollars (more in the account types guide). And on the demo account, the floor does not matter at all — practice the maths there first.

Why 1%? Because losing streaks happen to everyone, especially at the start. At 1% per trade, ten losses in a row cost about 10% of your money — unpleasant, but you are still standing. At 10% per trade, the same ordinary streak wipes out most of the account.

The arithmetic connecting deposit, stop-loss distance, and trade size is simple but easy to get wrong in your head. The practice calculator does it for you: type in your numbers and it shows a trade size that fits the 1% rule.

Two more shields: small leverage, steady head

Keep leverage small

Leverage lets you control a trade much larger than the money you put in. It is often advertised as a benefit — so here is the honest version: leverage multiplies losses exactly as much as it multiplies gains. High leverage is why some accounts are emptied in an afternoon. While you are learning, choose a low leverage setting in your account — nothing about learning requires a high one.

One backstop is built in

Negative Balance Protection means clients never lose more than they've deposited. If the market moves sharply against you, your Exness account cannot go below zero.

CFDs are complex products. Trading is risky and may not be suitable for everyone.

Watch your emotions after a loss

The single biggest account-killer has a name: revenge trading — losing a trade, feeling stung, and immediately opening a bigger one to "win it back." The second trade is placed by frustration, not by a plan, so it is usually worse than the first. One loss becomes three.

The defence is a rule set in advance: after a losing trade, stop. Close the app, come back tomorrow, and ask which rule the trade broke. Losses reviewed calmly are lessons; losses chased are how deposits disappear. More traps like this are in the beginner mistakes guide.

Two honest questions

Can I trade without a stop-loss?

Yes — the platform allows it, and some experienced traders manage exits by hand. Beginners without a stop usually hold on, hope the price "comes back," and watch a small loss become a big one. Until closing losers calmly is a habit, let the server do it — set a stop on every trade, including demo trades.

I already lost some money — what now?

First: stop trading real money today. Move back to the demo account and review the losing trades honestly: was there a stop-loss? How much did each trade risk? Which rule was broken? Treat the lost amount as tuition already paid, and return to real money only when the rules are habits.

Keep going

Practice calculator

Turn the 1% rule into a trade size: enter your deposit, risk percent, and stop-loss distance.

Try the calculator

Beginner mistakes

The most common ways new traders lose money — and the habit that prevents each one.

Read the mistakes guide

Demo account

Where all of these rules become practice: virtual money, mistakes that cost nothing, no time limit.

Read the demo guide

Rules become habits through repetition.

Practice every rule here with virtual money first: set stops, size trades to 1%, let mistakes cost nothing. The button opens the official exness.com sign-up through a partner link — the demo is free either way.

Open a free demo at Exness