Ghana — How long the first deposit has to last

The opening amount is a decision about time — how many trading sessions the account has to stay open before it has told you anything.

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100+ instruments · Founded 2008

A minimum is a threshold, not a plan. It marks which account types an amount is allowed to open, and it says nothing about how long the account will stay open. The opening amount is easier to get right backwards: fix how many trading sessions the account has to survive before the plan has shown anything, work out what those sessions can cost at the size that will actually be traded, fund that, and only then look at which account types the result reaches. Read the other way round, an account tends to run out of room before it has answered the question it was opened for.

Working the amount out from the time it has to cover

Standard and Standard Cent accounts carry no minimum initial deposit, so nothing outside the plan decides the opening amount.
Pro, Raw Spread and Zero accounts require a $200 minimum deposit, which sets the shortest horizon those account types allow.
The base currency is fixed when the account is opened, so the horizon is counted in that currency from the first day.
Exness charges no deposit fee, though the payment provider may apply its own — what lands on the account is what the horizon has to be built from.
Most deposits are credited automatically, so the clock on the horizon starts on the day of funding rather than at the start of the following week.

Minimum deposit applicable; may vary based on payment method or geographic location.

Same account, two ways of arriving at the amount

What is decided first	What follows from it	What the account ends up telling you
The amount	How long it lasts is whatever it turns out to be	Usually only that it ran out
The number of sessions to stay open for	The amount that covers them	Whether the plan holds over that many sessions
The threshold of an account type	The account type, and the amount with it	Which conditions were in use, not how the plan behaved

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Why a threshold answers a different question

A threshold belongs to the account type, not to the person opening it. It marks the point below which that type cannot be opened, which makes it a fact about the conditions rather than about the plan. Two accounts funded with the same amount can have completely different lifespans, because lifespan is set by the size traded and by how often positions are opened, not by the figure that went in.

That is why the threshold is a poor place to start. Starting there produces an amount that is correct for the account type and arbitrary for everything else, and what runs out first is room rather than interest.

What a horizon is actually made of

A horizon has three parts and none of them is the deposit: how many sessions the account has to stay open, what one session can cost at the size being traded, and what is set aside so that an ordinary run of losing trades does not end the plan early. Multiply the first two, add the third, and the opening amount is what comes out.

Carrying a position past the close adds an overnight charge to the same arithmetic, so a plan built on positions held for days needs a longer runway than one that closes the same day at the same size. Those rates are republished as conditions change, so the line to budget for is the fact of the charge rather than a figure copied off a page.

What the account is supposed to have shown by the end of it

A horizon is only worth funding if something is being read over it: whether the size chosen is one that can be held through an ordinary drawdown, whether the plan survives the sessions it is actually traded in, and whether opening, sizing and closing can be repeated the same way twice without improvising. None of that can be read off a handful of trades, which is why the number of sessions is the first figure to fix and the deposit is the last.

Arriving at the first amount

Fix the number of trading sessions the account has to stay open — that is the horizon, and it is the only figure chosen freely.
Fix the size that will actually be traded, not the size that would be traded on a larger account.
Work out what one session can cost at that size, counting the trades that go nowhere as well as the ones that lose.
Add the reserve that lets an ordinary run of losing trades pass without ending the horizon early.
Only now compare the result with the account thresholds and take the type the amount reaches, instead of taking a type first and funding it to its threshold.

Charges on the way in belong to the transfer, not to the horizon: what the plan gets is the amount that lands on the account.

Which figure is chosen and which one follows

Figure	Chosen or derived	What it depends on
Number of sessions to stay open	Chosen	What the plan has to demonstrate
Size traded	Chosen	What can be held through an ordinary losing run
Cost of one session	Derived	The size traded and how often positions are opened
Reserve	Derived	How long an ordinary losing run can be
Opening amount	Derived	Everything above it
Account type	Derived last	Which thresholds the opening amount reaches

Only the first two lines are decisions; the rest follow from them. The usual mistake is to decide the last line first.

Frequently asked questions

Does no minimum mean any amount will do?

It means nothing outside the plan sets the floor. The floor that matters is the one that keeps the account open for as long as the plan needs, and it comes from the size traded rather than from the account type.

Why start from time instead of from money?

Because time is the part being bought. An amount on its own means nothing until it is divided by what a session costs, and that division is the horizon.

What makes an account run out early?

Trading a size the balance cannot carry through an ordinary run of losing trades. A horizon shortens with size far faster than it lengthens with deposits.

Where does the account type come into it?

At the end. The amount that came out of the horizon decides which thresholds it reaches, not the other way round.

Does topping up later work as well as funding once?

It keeps the account open, but it moves the horizon instead of testing it: the plan is being rescued rather than measured. A horizon funded once and left alone answers the question it was set.

Should the reserve sit on the account or outside it?

On the account, if it is part of the horizon. Money that has to be moved in under pressure is not a reserve — it is a decision taken at the worst possible moment.