I was thinking about setting my goal for a while.That is important part of trading system,right? I am still in the learning process and intent to open live micro account for couple months.
I can deposit 1000$ up to 3300$,but I would like to deposit the smaller amount at start,say 2000$ max.
I will be satisfy with 500-700$ a month for first six months.Is that goal realistic under given conditions?
NO! That is an absolutely unrealistic goal. Especially for a new trader.
$700 per month on a $2000 account is 35% per month. That’s not going to happen. 
It all depends on your money management and how you trade, so I can’t really say what a reasonable goal for you would be, but it won’t be 35%. 
I agree with Phil. But I won’t say it can’t be done.
You could achieve 35% per month, but that would be down to pure luck. My guess would be that IF you could achieve this for the next 2-3 months, you would no sooner end up with a somewhat depleted account.
As a realistic return, I would aim for approx. $50-100 per month for a $1,000 account.
Of course this is my opinion. Increase risk and you could make more, tread more carefully and earn less. It’s a case of finding a happy-medium that you are comfortable with.
AJ
Has a newbie who put sum amount around what you said.Have you demo traded to get use to your platform.Whatever method you are using to you know its limits longest losing trades in a row biggest. percentage drawdown on your account.I went live and ran into a losing streak and drawdown which in demo trading i never had about 18 percent,i stopped went back to demo the ship seems to be righted on demo.Good luck on your forex endeavor!
Setting goals without first having a method of trading in place that you know has X return/risk per trade, and x win/loss ratio, is absolutely pointless.
Not until you have that, can you set goals. And it would be on % of return not money. As you lose or win you should be compounding, decompounding by your risk tolerance.
You have to find a consistent method that has a win/loss ratio of at least 50% (IMO)…or better.
AND, find a method where the risk/reward is 1:1 or better.
For example: If 50% of your trades win & you risk 1 to gain 2…and the method is consistent, repeatable and you don’t f it up, it’s can be a winner. Because, one winning trade cancels out two losers. (if you didn’t act like dope and overleverage after a couple of winnners)
The less the reward you have, the more winners you have to have. You can have an ultra high win rate as say a scalper, but if one or two losses cancels out your wins you’ve just wasted a whole lot of time.
So, high win/loss rate + high risk/reward ratio + consistently trading the method = as close to the grail anyone every gets.
O, and when you express the risk, it should be percentage of your account. Not in pips. Trying to say, “my method always have a 60 pip SL and a 120 pip TP,” is trying to force what you want on what is actually happening.
First you find the appropriate SL, and then find if the reward can possibly be 1:1 or greater. The divide your risk % amoung the SL. So, from trade to trade your SL may and could change, but you can still just risk 1% of your account per trade.
Thank you for your opinions and pushing me in the right direction.I didn’t go in depth myself to calculate and conclude that is difficult for a new trader to gain 35% per month on 2000$ account.
I am trying out some demos,but mainly on a demo account starting deposit is 50000$.It would be fine if I can start demo with desired amount of money.Is there a possibility one can choose starting capital on a demo account so I can have better insight what is really happening in given conditions?
Yes,my goal is partially driven by my needs,but it doesn’t matter.I will reevaluate and depreciate my goal.Say 10-15% will be fine at start.
Do you set your goals up?And how do you do it exactly?I mean specific goal of the next month expected earning or for a long drive.
I’ll keep that in my mind.I just wanted to know how far my expectations can go at the beginning of this journey.
As a trader it’s always better to think of risk first and reward not until you have fully defined the risk and accepted it.
Personally I risk from 1-2.5 percent of my account per any one trade. I look for trades with at least a 1:1 risk/reward ratio. If I think it’s probably I can achieve the reward I go for it. If I find one that I think a 1:2 or even 1:4 reward is achievable then I get excited, because the trade has the possibility of increasing my account by 5-10% in one trade. (since I’m risking 2.5 percent)
It’s hard to set an exact goal because the trades will come when they come, you can’t force it to happen. I’ve had 8 valid entries come up on the 10 pairs I watch within the space of an hour, and I’ve also not seen an entry or been around to catch it for a couple of days. I trade on hourly charts, so some of my trades can take many hours to reach their TP or SL.
You can’t say that you always get x amount of trades per month and how your winnners and losers will line up within that month. So a monthly goal, IMO is pointless and will just make you jump into trades badly trying to reach that goal.
Yes, you can start demo with your desired starting amount. At IBFX their mini accounts start you larger, all you have to do is erase out that number and type in the number you want when you set up the demo.
Have you ever messed around with a compounding chart in excel? Compounding of course doesn’t account for loss, so don’t get too excited.
Start with your account balance, then assume a win of lets say 1% per trade. Every time you win add the 1% to your balance. Then the next win is 1% of the new balance.
If you combine compounding with a good win/loss AND risk/reward ratio with the ability to execute your method consistently, then the skies the limit.
The main problem is most new traders don’t think like this. They treat it like a slot machine and risk it all for a one big pay out, or lose some then revenge trade trying to get it back.
The worst thing that can happen to a new trader is to have a string of successful trades in row when they start. Why? They win a bunch of money, think that it’s easy and that they don’t have to know anything, overleverage or put a lot of money into their account, then loose it all and have no clue why.
There is a reason anyone that’s been trading for a while and is serious about it, will tell you money managment and risk control is the most important thing to figure out.
Having said that, many are of the impression if you only ever risk 1-3% that makes you a good trader and you are trading a good method. That’s full on BS, you need all the things together that I mentioned. Risking 1-3% of your account will only loose your account slowly if you don’t have a method in place with a good win/loss - risk/reward scenario.
[B]ThePhoenix[/B]
For how long have you been trading…?
My guess is [B]less[/B] than 2 years and [B]without[/B] the experience of a working strategy that all of a sudden [B]does not[/B] work anymore.
If you rely on a “strategy”, it will fail over time… the market is always changing and as such your trading technique should match that. always changing and adapting
The key to trading in my opinion is understanding the ebb and flow of price action…
I think FX Solutions let you demo trade with a custom starting amount of virtual cash… 250, 500, 2500, 5000, 10000, 50000.
That’s price chasing and trying to guess range, which will get you in trouble fast. A good, “strategy,” is designed around taking these things into consideration and acting appropriately.
I’m almost at the two year mark now or somewhere beyond it. I don’t remember my exact live date start just right now. On the second part, sorry you’re wrong, I already have a couple of long term, low risk, low return strategies that work quite nicely. Hate to put a damper on your phoenix hatefest.
I’m working on an intraday one, as without the benefit of a very large account the above will take a quite long time to make me the kind of money I would like to.
The intra day one needs tweaking, but I’ts coming together quite nicely thank you.
any goal is achievable as long as you believe in it, no matter what anyone else tells - especially people on a board like this!
That said you have to be good enough and dedicated enough to achieve it. I am presuming you have already easily achieving your goal many time over in demo…
as for Cdawg - trading with the understanding of the ebbs and flows of price action is exactly a ‘strategy’ - which is a whole lot better than a ‘system’ imo
so your still system jumping - i thought you pronounced your love to NickB a couple of months ago - thanking him for showing you the light!
NickB’s method went south in June because of the ranging markets. I’m arguably the most loyal NickBer on Babypips and even I stopped trading it.
Also, in Phoenix’s defense, an experienced trader looking for new ways to trade is not “system jumping,” it’s exploring new options and being smart.
System jumping is when a trader is moving from system to system (having no idea how or why these systems work) every few days/weeks looking for the holy grail.
Gee…little edgy, are we…? Looks like I hit a soft spot, did I…?
Nothing to worry about…I got the picture. 
What’s the picture? That you posted a loaded question designed to really be a not so subtle backhanded insult?
I still thank him for showing how simple trading can be. However the all over system isn’t for me. Trading just one pair and waiting a whole week for one trade that may not even happen isn’t for me. Also, I didn’t like the fact that the S&R lines were based on price, But two people using the same method could have tottally different S&R lines they thought were valid, because they drew them.
The intraday one I’m tweaking now is working nicely so far and the charts draw the S&R for you based on price. I’m working, “Ichimoku-Kinko-Hyo,” in and it’s proven to be the best chart set up I’ve found. It has many ways you can trade it, weak, stong & neutral signals. So, it leaves it’self open to creativity and testing.
I’m not a system jumper. I’m an enthusiatic trader, very interested in the whole thing even when I’m not trading. It isn’t just about making money for me. I find different methods very interesting and often educational.
I will never just find one method that works well for me and then close my mind and eyes to learning other things. Though of course I’d keep trading my best methods.