In FX it is possible to make 100% monthly or more. The hard part is to keep up that kind of performance on a consistent basis while keeping the risk relatively low. It is almost impossible but it can be done. More realistic target would be 5-10% monthly return on average. It also depends how much a trader is willing to risk, bigger risk bigger reward.
In any case, the most important thing is to be consistently profitable. Anyone can make 10-15% one month or maybe even few months in a row but the question is if you can do it each month without suffering large DD.
Far not anyone, I think:)
The only realistic expectation is to expect to lose in year 1.
If you can break even or make a small profit, well done, you’ve bucked the trend
Better small, but steady. 5% sounds good to me, if invested amount is not a 100 bucks, of course :15:
I agree that about 10% - 20% realistic profit can be got.
if you start with £100 and increase position size as your balance goes up, a profit of 10% per month will make you a millionaire in about 8-9 years, has anyone ever done this? I would say no
1%-3% seems realistic to me.
It also depends on how much you are willing to lose.
Yup, if you trade with full account there is no reason not to have a minimum of 10%
Making 10% on little amount like $100 to even $2000 is relatively easy than to achieve a 10% profit monthly on a million or more amount of account. So for this reason very less had achieved such success.
It seems easier on a small account but if you are regularly making over 10% in a month chances are you are risking too big a percentage of your capital and a run of bad luck will eventually wipe the account. I know this because I’ve done it 
The problem is the forex game is actually divided into two seperate games. That is BEFORE you hit 5 standard lots per trade and after.
Before you hit 5 standard lots per trade all you really need to decent money management and a working edge. With just these two things you can make 0-30% a month. Some months you won’t make anything, some months youl’l make quite a bit.
After 5 standard lots per trade the enemy isn’t strategy or money management (although you do need those things)… The big enemy is liquidity. You’re large enough to move the market from this point onwards (ever so slightly at 5 lots). You need to start looking at different strategies. It’s at this point that 20-30% a month becomes truly unreasonable.
This is why there’s never any retail forex ‘millionaires’. After a certain amount of capital forex just isn’t easy or worth it anymore without being truly dedicated. (dedicated enough to buy intra-bank order lists, and set up your own firm investing hundreds of thousands).
Expecting real gains from the forex market is the most toughest task for all the traders and thus we should always determine our trading caliber, prepare a plan and work towards making it real. Only then we can understand our potential. Certainly the forex market movement has come down compared to previous years but there is still scope for earning.
For me it’s about beating my bank deposit. Anything above that is a win. Of course there is the added dimension of wasting time on trading which can be used otherwise, but I don’t see it only as an activity that consumes my time - it’s something that makes me more aware of the world and how things work.
Sorry, but this really is pure fiction: you’re out by a factor of at least several hundred! :o
If 15-20 retail traders all wanted to trade about 200 lots each at the same time, in the same direction, they might possibly, just about, move some of the most sensitive forex markets a tiny fraction.
Anything less than that, not so much. Not on this planet, anyway. :rolleyes:
There will be very few people who will be able to leverage up a position of the value of
[B]$10 billion[/B]…
It’s possible to make big return in a month but not every month consistently.
A 20% monthly return is already out of this world if someone trade with big, big money. It seems easier for those with smaller account size to make bigger return per month compared to those with bigger account. But of course, there are exceptions to this.
Hi sunzbck realistic monthly returns is anywhere between 5 and 10 % and i agree with that too. Couple those returns with a growing account size , at some point the account will be at a point that you can safely make a living from it, if you wish. Remember , after any crash whether is forex or equities there will always be a come back. The traders that are weak and don’t have the stomach to deal with it , they are the ones that loose money because they don’t learn from it. A good trader will learn from it and become a better trader , as a result down they road they will become successful. In anything you do in life there is the element of risk, think about it, every day we get up from bed we are taking a risk. Happy trading.
The initial question was “What is a Realistic monthly return for a Forex Trader”. The problem with that question, is that there isn’t one correct answer. Don’t listen to the people that say 5 - 10 percent. Why? Because they’re not you. You could very easily make 10 pips a day. Say you only trade Mon-Fri. That’s 200 pips a month! How much is 200 pips a month? It depends on how much you personally have to trade with, the amount of leverage you’re using, and how much you’re willing to risk. For simple math, say you’re trading account balance is $1,000. Say you are using 50:1 Leverage. You now have the spending power of $50,000.
If used the entire $50,000 Each Pip would earn $5 $5.00 Per Pip X 200 Pips = $1,000 100% Return
If you used $25,000 Each Pip would earn $2.50 $2.50 Per Pip X 200 Pips = $500 50% Return
If you used $10,000 Each Pip would earn $1 $1.00 Per Pip X 200 Pips = $200 20% Return
If you used $5,000 Each Pip would earn $0.5 $0.50 Per Pip X 200 Pips = $100 10% Return
If you used $1,000 Each Pip would earn $0.1 $0.10 Per Pip X 200 Pips = $20 02% Return
“The Math Does Not Lie”
It is Definitely possible for you to become substantially wealthy trading Forex.
It is Definitely possible for to to make a 100% return in a month.
Will you? That’s entirely up to you. Forex and the Stock Market are just other forms of gambling… But Forex and Stocks give you a better advantage and win percentage if you actually know what you’re doing and not just blindly trading.
I understand the reasoning behind setting for yourself a quota for each month… But that’ll just get you in trouble.
If you set for yourself a 20% quota each month. And the month is almost over but you only got a 5% return that month. That 20% quota is just gonna force you into taking trades that you shouldn’t be making.
Develop a trading strategy. Develop rules for you’re strategy. Rules that suits you and your personality. Determine how big off a loss you’re willing to take on each trade. The more successful your trading strategy is, the bigger your returns will be for the month.
It’s fine to learn how other people trade and the signs that they look for. But don’t let these other traders determine how much you’re allowed to make each month.
Reading posts from folks who haven’t made a single dollar and then debate about the millions being possible.
*** sigh ***
Have erased two different replies to this thread, it just gets so discouraging about having to speak the obvious. It is such a scary thought that people will trade money with absolutely no clue as to how that market works and what they are doing.
If you think anyone in this forum can move the market then you are quite delusional.
Some round numbers; the forex market per day is around 5.2 Trillion, of that 1 Trillion is corporate and banking for shipping goods world wide, 4 Trillion is institutional traders and 200 Billion is the retail trade. Go ahead, move the market.
Forget about your outcome over the next 20 years, you haven’t got a clue if you can even make a profit at all and statistically speaking you can’t. So go learn, think, test, and trade to make 1 dollar. Review, adjust, repeat.