IC Markets
Most of what goes wrong for a new trader in Asia has nothing to do with the broker. The account is with a licensed firm, the deposit cleared, the platform works. Then a single over-sized position on USD/JPY around a Bank of Japan meeting takes 40 per cent of the balance in one evening, and the trader concludes the market is rigged. It was not rigged. It was a position-sizing mistake, made worse by trading through a scheduled event, on a pair that moves hardest during Asian hours.
This section is the trading half of what we cover for the region. The broker guide handles legality, funding, tax and which firm to open with. Here we work through what happens after that: how much to risk on each trade with the exact maths, which central-bank meeting is about to move your pair, why gold catches beginners out, and what the real trading logs of people in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Manila actually look like month to month.
What decides whether an account survives
Three numbers do most of the work. The first is risk per trade: the share of the account you are willing to lose if a single trade hits its stop. For almost everyone that number should be one to two per cent, and on a small starter account it is the difference between a losing streak being a setback and being the end. The second is the size of the move you are trading against, measured in pips or dollars, because that plus your risk figure is what sets the position size. The third is whether a scheduled event is due before your trade would close.
Get those three right and an ordinary strategy with a 45 to 50 per cent win rate can grind out a positive month. Get position size wrong and it does not matter how good the entries are, because one bad run clears the account before the edge has time to show.
| Account | 1% risk | Stop distance | Position size (EUR/USD) |
|---|---|---|---|
| $500 | $5 | 25 pips | 0.02 lots |
| $1,000 | $10 | 25 pips | 0.04 lots |
| $5,000 | $50 | 25 pips | 0.20 lots |
| $10,000 | $100 | 25 pips | 0.40 lots |
The position sizing guide shows how each of those figures is worked out, and the 2% rule guide does the same for a small account.
The news that actually moves Asian pairs
If you trade USD/JPY, AUD/JPY or USD/CNH, the events that turn a quiet range into a fast move are mostly Asian: Bank of Japan meetings and the comments around them, Chinese GDP and the daily yuan fixing, Reserve Bank of Australia decisions, and the recurring question of whether Japan's Ministry of Finance will intervene to slow the yen. Add gold to the mix and you also get the seasonal demand spikes around Diwali and Chinese New Year, and the central-bank buying that has run at record levels through 2026.
You do not need to trade any of these. You do need to know when they are scheduled, because being in a position through one without meaning to be is how the 40 per cent losing sessions happen. The Bank of Japan guide and the carry trade explainer are the two most useful starting points for the yen.
Why the case studies are here
Numbers on a page do not change behaviour. Watching a specific account go from $2,000 to $8,000 on gold with the stop placement written out, or a $5,000 USD/JPY position get closed at a $2,000 loss because there was no stop at all, tends to land harder. The case studies in this section are built from real and composite trades with the entry, the size, the stop and the outcome all shown, so you can see the difference between a win that was repeatable and a win that was luck.
People ask us for the best strategy. The honest answer is that the strategy matters far less than the position size and whether you traded through an event you should have sat out. We have seen the same setup make money on a $500 account and blow up a $5,000 one, purely because the second trader scaled the risk up with the balance instead of keeping it at one per cent.
Every piece here is built to the same standard as the broker guides: real figures, named examples, and a clear note wherever something is a general principle rather than advice for your specific situation. Trading forex and gold on margin carries a high risk of loss, and most retail accounts lose money.
Frequently asked
How is this section different from the Asian broker guide?
The broker guide covers everything up to and including opening an account: whether forex is legal where you live, how to fund it in your own currency, tax, and which firm to choose. This section covers the trading itself: position sizing, risk management, the central-bank and gold news that moves Asian pairs, market structure, and real trading case studies.
Do I need a large account to use any of this?
No. Most of the case studies and risk guides are built around accounts of $500 to $10,000, which is the normal range for retail traders across the region. The position-sizing maths scales to any balance.
Which pairs does it focus on?
The ones that move during Asian hours and matter to traders in the region: USD/JPY, AUD/JPY, AUD/USD, USD/CNH, USD/SGD, USD/INR, USD/IDR, USD/THB, plus gold (XAU/USD), which is where a large share of new traders in Asia start.
Are the case studies real?
They are built from real and composite trades. Where a study is a composite it is assembled from patterns we see repeatedly, with realistic figures for entry, position size, stop and outcome. The lesson in each one is the point, not the identity of the trader.
Is any of this financial advice?
No. It is educational. It explains how position sizing, leverage and central-bank events work, using real numbers, so you can make better-informed decisions. It does not tell you what to trade, and trading on margin carries a high risk of loss.
The full index
Every one of the 54 pieces in this section, grouped by what you are working on. 54 are published; the rest are being written.