When you are just starting out, be a small trader. Even if you have a lot of risk capital you should start out with a mini account. At this time you need to learn the industry and it's terminology, the way your brokers does things, the way the platform works, how to use some indicators, how to control your emotions, how to manage your money, how to handle losses, how to handle winning trades, etc. If you need help starting out with a good strategy, I would highly recommend the free online forex trading course called "JumpStart", which can help you consistently make 25-30 pips a day.
If you open an account with $250 or $2500 or more then you should only trade no more than 10% of your account at any one time. On a $250 account you should not trade any more than10% of your account at any time or $25. That equals out to 0.5 lots. Yes that is only about 50 cents per pip but you will be around to trade another day while you are learning. You could do 0.2, 0.2, 0.1 lots on three different trades for your 0.5 lots.
Look at it this way: 0.2 lots on 20 pips is about $4.00, if you do that for 20 days your account is up to $330, up by $80. This is a about a 32% increase for the month. If you do the 0.5 lots making 20 pips a day then you are up by $200 for a total amount of $450. This is about a 80% return for one month. I am not saying you will be able to do this in the beginning. I am saying you need to start out small while your are learning the forex market. The money is there if you are around long enough to get it. It is not a sprint, it is more like a marathon. You must think long-term.
You can be in a mini account for a long time and still make money. Use this time to analyze your good and bad trades. Many times you will learn more from your bad trades.