Realistic Profit Target

[smartspeculator]

Hi,

Can we share our monthly profit target? Is 5% monthly of my capital a realistic target if I trade full time?

Thank you!

[Pip Wolf]

That's a really hard question to answer. It depends on your strategy, how much risk you're willing to take, and most importantly whether you can consistently make (and keep!) pips.

I'd focus on making consistently profitable trades whilst minimising your losers. My biggest problem starting out was that I had dollar signs in my eyes, and I set myself weekly and monthly profit targets. As a result, if I'd had a bad week, I'd try really hard to make up for it the next week which in turn made me take stupid risks and trade far too often.

These days I spend maybe an hour a day assessing the markets in general with a focus on the news pertinent to the ONE currency pair I trade (GBP/JPY). The most important lesson I have learned is patience. I wait for an entry signal based on my system (it produces usually one to five entry signals a week), check that the signal is supported by the fundamentals, check that there's no major news coming up that may affect the pair in a way that's unexpected and only then do I trade. I can't trade all day because I have a full time job, and to be honest I'm more successful when I set up a trade and then leave it alone.

Even then, I use typical BabyPips risk management (i.e. never risking more than 1% of my account on a single trade - and since I only trade one currency pair, that means I only ever have one trade open at a time).

I have been far more successful in this manner - just focusing on making good trades - than I ever was by trying to make a certain number of pips in a given time. Make good trades with smart risk management and the pips will come.

[smartspeculator]

I start trading fx for 4 days, and get 2.7% ROI, have win trade as well as lost trade, may be it is just a coincident, so that I want to know other traders average return or return target.

[cadarkitek]

Hi,

Can we share our monthly profit target? Is 5% monthly of my capital a realistic target if I trade full time?

Thank you!

Its more than realistic but don't count on it you might be disappointed, once you net positive gains at the end of each month is a plus whether it be 2 or 10%. Take what the market gives, nothing is promised.

[PipCounterz]

anything positive is a step in the right direction.

preservation of capital....

[Pip Wolf]

I start trading fx for 4 days, and get 2.7% ROI, have win trade as well as lost trade, may be it is just a coincident, so that I want to know other traders average return or return target.

You really can't get an accurate picture of how successful you are as an FX trader from four days of trading. It's good that you're positive at least.

Are you trading with a demo account? If not, have you in the past? I know it's tempting to jump in with both feet and start trading with real money right away, but chances are you'll make mistakes and wipe your account out. Most new traders do. I did when I started.

You should really be trading with a demo account until you have your strategy working and you are consistently making good trades. I'd say at least three to six months of demo trading before you use real money, and even then you won't be as experienced as you think you are.

It took me almost two years to find a strategy that fit my personality and allowed me to place consistently good trades. I really wish I'd listened to the advice here on BabyPips and traded with a demo account first because I'd have had a lot more cash to trade with when I finally became successful.

[akeakamai]

Like others have said I wouldn't recommend setting any kind of periodic profit targets, it does bizarre things to your psychology. It gets you thinking like a gambler and not a trader. You should be obsessing about controlling risk while leaving opportunities open, not following the dollar signs around.

It's good practice to track your returns, yes, but keep it a separate thing from your trading, say after hours or on the weekends. Once you start worrying about making that last 2% to reach your target, you aren't going to be looking for what the market offers, but what you can FORCE out of the market. And needless to say you can't force a dime out of the market because you will be at the mercy of all the traders who have loads of time to make that 2%.

So do yourself a favour and eliminate profit expectations, and focus on trading the price movement.

[smartspeculator]

I am new to forex and new to babypips too, I feel warm and happy that so much peoples give me useful advice here, Thank you...