A good quantity or an average of earning pips daily?

Hi, i just want to know, how many pips is a good quantity to earn
if you are an intraday trader?? and a swing trader?
If A good forex trader win like the 2 % percent of his initial investment monthly, so, how much is this quantity earned in pips??.
Thank you.
:smiley:

hey Jemm.

First, it all depends on your system’s style - is it a single lot? double? and what about the ratio? and how many trades a day? all of those variables affect your income and your goals…

second, while there is no “standard” for a decent pip-gain quantity, many traders will agree that 100 or more pips a week (15-20 a day) would be considered good.
others, however, might say that maintaining a positive balance (meaning 1 pip a week…) is enough for them. and some, would brag claiming they’re happy with their 600 pips per week.
we all have our different personalities and our goals change accordingly.

what they all (should) have in common is trying to achive not profits, but process. no matter how many pips you make, your main goal should always be learning and educating yourself, better than making another pip or two. the money is just a welcome side-effect. if you know exactly how and why the market reacts one way or an other, what yesterday used to be a good pip goal, would now become too humble, and you’d aim for more.

remember, though, that even the experts have their weak days in which they lose. thus, you might want to aim for a monthly goal better than a daily one.

to sum it all, I’d just say that a pip goal is indvidual, and is bonded with the skills, experience and education you have, thus it varies from one person to another. if you’re new, aim for education first. the cash would come along.

and for your second question - it obviously depends on his\her account (standard/mini/micro), his\her system (how many lots per trade), his\her capital and the currencies envolved (a eurusd pip is not equale to a eurchf pip, for example).

hope this helps.
goodluck!

Regards.

I agree with Parsush. In fact I will take it even a step further.

When thinking of a pip goal, you really have to think long term. Thinking in terms of daily pip gains can potentially hurt you. If you think that you must get 10 pips a day in order to be successful, you might end up overtrading and end up losing even bigger.

The best way to measure your success is through a percentage return on your account per year. I say a year because each month could have wide swings and you won’t get an accurate picture of your trading performance until you’ve competed a full year. And you should measure your performance through percentages rather than pips because it keeps it in reference to your account size. For example 900 pips off of 1 lot on a $1 million dollar account is a horrible return but 900 pips off of 1 lot on a $1000 account is an awesome return.

Hope that helps. Happy trading!

-BP

<When thinking of a pip goal, you really have to think long term. Thinking in terms of daily pip gains can potentially hurt you. If you think that you must get 10 pips a day in order to be successful, you might end up overtrading and end up losing even bigger.

I agree w/ you BigPippin but as a total beginner I would like to see where I am at on a month by month basis at least. It’s difficult to continue when you don’t have some sort of measuring stick and if you have to wait one year to evaluate yourself that is a long time to wait.

I agree w/ parush also in that it is the technique, not the $$ that makes a good trader. The money will come if the system is sound.

ddave

Hello

Even i’m newbie to forex i wish to metion few words about .Most of people think about pips goals per day, per week, per month but not so many think about risk.Ok let we take a system that gives you monthly average 8 % income and 3 % worst case drawdown. And another one that gives you 12 % incomes and 9 % worst case drawdown.Which one will be more profitable ?Answer is 8/3 cause if you use a margin 50 % you will get 12 % income and only 5 % risk.So won’t be bad idea to look incomes only after consider verry carefull max % drawdown.

Best Reguards

Vladimir.

I can definitely understand where you are coming from Ddave, but you must realize that most people take at least a couple of years before they become consistent. In the grand scheme of things 1 year is nothing to evaluate yourself. But trading is one big paradox and it is what makes it so psychologically difficult. Believe me, if it feels right or too easy, then chances are that’s the quick way to the poor house. The harder it feels, or the “less right” it feels, then chances are that is what has to be done. It sounds vague and weird, but that’s the truth

More specifically, however, your measuring stick must begin with back testing a set of rules. Test it over 1 year, 2years or 3 years, whatever you feel it takes to get a good feel of your system. Depending on how it did you will decide if it is worthwhile to trade. With this data you can really get a good feel as far as a statistical distribution of wins to losses, drawdown potential, how long losing or winning streaks typically last, etc…

This MUST be your yardstick before you start trading. If you see that the system yields some uncomfortable statistics, then you know where you stand with it before you put a dime on the table.

What i’m trying to say is that when the time comes to trade it live, you should already have an excellent idea of how long it will take to grow your equity curve. If based on your testing you have no statistical reason to expect 10 losses in a row and you experience it, then you know that you have to evaluate something right away. But these things should all be known in advance

Hope this helps