So I calculated what a 3% per month profit would be over the course of 2 years on a $250.00 account and I have to say… that is absolutely awful.
I would be better off investing $5,000 or more.
So when I was told the other day “The money is not important”, I was confused. For me, if I am not going to make much money down the road with my minimal investment, then I need to do something else with my time.
At this point, I’m starting to feel that way.
If I can afford to invest $5,000 dollars, then maybe that will generate enough money down the road that it’s worth my time. On the same note, however, that money can easily disappear as well. So this isn’t looking like something I should be getting into.
I just want to know if anyone has any straight answers about the amounts we should invest if we want to actually make good money, and if it’s worth our time if we can only invest something like $1,000.00.
In terms of making money, starting with $250 is not worth it. However, it’s great for learning to trade & confirming that you can be consistently profitable.
Starting with $5,000 if you can’t afford it & then realising that you’re not profitable & losing money is the hard way to learn. If you can prove that you can make money & your profit projections are being met, after 3-months, add $1,000 to your initial $250. Then if you’re still making money after another 3-months, you could maybe add another $1,000-$2,000 and so on & so forth.
To make a decent income from FX, you need a substantial account so just add to it as & when you can but if you can’t foresee there being spare money to invest, you may not make money back on the amount of time that you’ve invested in learning & trading.
Hi, it sounds like you are in the same situation I was in just a few weeks ago, and what you want, as I did, is for someone to give you the answer.
I was full of uncertainty and of fear. Then, when I stopped to think about what was going on, I realised that all of my doubts came from ignorance. Ignorance of what it was I wanted to, but was to afraid to, get in to.
The [U]only[/U] solution is for you to answer your own question by becoming better informed, and you could do a whole lot worse than enrolling in the BabyPips school and learning what Forex is all about.
I am now feeling a lot more positive about trading forex, but I have also become more realistic about how long it takes to learn this stuff.
My advice is, while ever you have doubts, don’t do it. Get educated, then make an informed decision.
Good luck
Well, it depends what good money means for you (how much you are satisfied with). However, trading with anything lower than $25,000 cannot generate some significant profits.
It can certainly eventually be worthwhile [I]as the part of the learning-process that comes after extensive education, and testing methods/systems on demo accounts[/I].
It’s all part of a long process.
It certainly isn’t worth our time in the initial stages, or if planning to earn anything significant from that capital quickly.
You might, eventually (though most don’t, overall). But on the basis of what you’ve said, I can’t help wondering whether your expectations may be unrealistically high and fast; on balance, I think you’re probably right to be feeling that way.
Your objective is something that it’s possible for a minority of people do achieve slowly, but not for anyone to achieve by putting $1,000 (or even $5,000) into an account and aiming to produce steady income from it, right from the start. Apologies indeed for the dispiriting comment, but that [I]isn’t[/I] going to happen.
Not to [U]trade[/U], [I]per se[/I] (though you can, for example, [U]bet[/U] on price-movements instead of actually trading an underlying instrument).
It’s also possible to trade via an additional third party, doing transactions in which [I]their[/I] broker is used, but those are typically more expensive.
When i say the other day “The Money is not important”.
I meant to say that at your current level of skill in Forex trading, it is not wise to trade LIVE, because as a beginner, i am very sure that you will lose all of that $1000 which you intend to invest. It will be wiser to save it up for future live trading when you are READY. Your money is your ammunition. No bullets means you can’t fire!
As to whether you are going to make much money down the road in the future. It depends on your karma, flair and DILIGENCE. Karma meaning you need to have the good fortune to meet the right benefactor to guide you properly. Right benefactor meaning people who are really beating the game of Forex trading. Flair meaning your ability to learn and how much you can really conceive even under the right guidance. Finally, how much effort and time you are willing to sacrifice.
Before you even start DEMO trading, learning Forex trading is already very very risky. Why? because the learning curve for Forex trading is extremely steep and TIME consuming. You may not see the light at the end of the tunnel. Are you willing to take that risk?
" This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill – the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill – you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes." Morpheus
I don’t plan on making much money right off the bat. I understand that the learning curve is big enough that I am going to be mostly learning how to trade before I actually have any trading momentum for possibly several years. But that is precisely my point. If I am going to invest [I]years[/I] into this before I actually start making any money, I am wanting to know that this whole thing is something that is [I]worth it[/I].
The person that introduced me to Forex trading and was my mentor for about a year (this was almost 3 years ago that I moved away from the city he lives in) now owns 2 houses - 1 fully paid off, 3 vehicles - all fully paid off, and four bank accounts which he uses to trade Forex. Allegedly the extra house he owns and the three vehicles are all thanks to his success as a trader.
That was inspiring to me because it only took him about 10 years to get to that point.
10 years isn’t that bad, and that’s why I got interested.
However, what has been discouraging me lately is the actual percentage that people all over these forums have been repeatedly saying to expect as a professional and “good” trader… it’s absolutely awful. So in the long run, it didn’t matter if I was a good trader, it only mattered if I could afford to start with an account of about $10,000+ which I [I]cannot[/I] do.
Bottom line, if the only investment I can afford to place into this is going to take me longer than ten years to get me anywhere, then yes, I need to find a different venue - i.e. go to college for Computer Technology and work a normal job.
That’s a neat way to put that
Money is my ammunition! xD
So yeah, that makes sense now what you were trying to say. I apologize for misrepresenting what you said. I didn’t understand at first.
I’m not sure. I am a more objective observer. I really need to see that it’s something that can really potentially change my life before I get into it.
I understand that my first investment is as good as gone if I am starting out with minimal knowledge or without being as prepared as I can be at the given time. So I plan to only start with something like $250.00 or something that I am willing to throw away. That way, once I see after about a year or so of trading on that (granted I don’t lose it all at once) and seeing that I can make at least a little profit consistently, then I will start to gradually increase my capital as I go along.
But I really don’t think I will be able to grow it to $10,000 any time soon. Not with a child I have to take care of and being the only person in the apartment that has a job… If you know what I mean.
I like that you applied a quote from my all time favorite movie into a Forex situation.
Nice!
I hereby retract my suspicion that you were perhaps expecting it to work too quickly. :8:
Very reasonable, of course. I understand.
The reality is that it is (and very much so), [U]for some people[/U].
Personally, I wouldn’t dream of doing it “instead” of going to college. (I did it “as well as …”, myself.) But that’s just my perspective, and some people here may disagree with it. I don’t see “college” as something primarily work-related or income-related, myself, and those weren’t the reasons I wanted to do it: I never had any aspiration other than self-employment - I just wanted the education for its own sake. For me, education isn’t about “the stuff you learn”: it’s about “the stuff that stays with you for ever, after you’ve forgotten all the stuff you learned”. Again, I recognise that not everyone shares this perspective, and that it’s not what you wanted to discuss when you started the thread. :8:
I understand. There are such people, of course. I haven’t done so badly myself (but I started learning this when I was still at high school and had played with demo accounts for 4 years before opening my first real one when I was 18).
I hear you.
Bear in mind that this particular forum (and absolutely no disrespect to it at all!) is primarily a beginners’ forum, as is implicit, I think, in the name; and that many of its members are trying to learn to trade by developing and using multi-indicator systems (which in my opinion, and in the opinions of many professional traders, stacks the statistical deck [I]very[/I] firmly against them). But even so, there are some successful traders here, also.
The percentage that might discourage me, I think, in your situation (but knowing what I do now), [U]isn’t[/U] so much the percentage of income that people are telling you to expect (about which I think they’re, broadly speaking, right): it’s the small percentage of people who “get there”, which - it must be said, and this isn’t just “my perspective” - is very much on the low side.
I’ve paid off my own mortgage, bought the sports car, etc. etc., but I have no way of knowing if you’ll do the same. That’s the reality, I’m afraid.
I’m tempted to ask what it’s going to cost you to go through college, but that’s a bit personal.
If you can trade successfully and safely and reliably (on demo and/or for tiny stakes), coming up with $10,000 trading capital will [B]not[/B] be your problem. This isn’t the place to start listing and discussing them, but there are [I]many[/I] ways for almost anyone (without criminal convictions etc.) to raise trading capital through various different arrangements. Just [U]one[/U] example: some time, when you have [I]several[/I] hours with absolutely nothing else to do, read and digest every word of this site. It really will take that long. They’re honest, ethical, straightforward, well-established people, not hiding behind aliases or accommodation addresses; their founder is a member of the “Merc” in Chicago, they have funded [I]large numbers[/I] of self-employed traders who were able to demonstrate (often briefly!) that they can trade [I]safely and reliably[/I], and very many of those people have videos on Youtube explaining and discussing the process). “Coming up with $10,000 (or even $100,000) to use as trading capital” [U]isn’t[/U] the problem: becoming one of the minority of people who can trade [I]safely and reliably[/I] is the problem. I’m not saying that’s good, or bad: that’s simply [I]how it is[/I].
I hear you on all you have said and shared with us and I appreciate your candor about it.
First of all, many people get into forex because they think it is easy money, but very few remain after a given time. Of those that remain, they do so not because its the glamorous thing to do, but it is because they have seen through the hype and realized for themselves, that if they put in the time, once mastery comes around, it is theirs to keep.
No one gets into forex because they have an easy situation, many of us face hard times, such as yourself, and we choose this path because we can see the end goal. The end goal not just being unlimited wealth, but rather a mastery of one’s own mind. No matter what you set out to do to earn money, the same factors you face in trading will be there: gain and loss.
Yes, you need immediate income to put food on the table, by all means, deal with the immediate situation the best way you can. However, you can do that for the rest of your life and keep living on a knife’s edge, not knowing how or where the next pay check will come. Things change from day to day and one day your income source might disappear. Either that, or the body’s health will falter and you will have to become dependant on someone else’s charity.
The only certainty in trading forex, or any kind of trading, work, or life, of that matter, is not how much you can make or gain, rather it is the surety that, regardless of any liquid and changing situation, you have the skills to deal with it and come out sane and profitable in spirit (first and foremost) and wealth.
To me, trading forex is not just about making money, it is a noble, if not spiritual pursuit, because I have to come face to face with my ideas, conditions and notions about wealth, prosperity, money and how I see myself. The market, as they say, is neutral, it is only what each individual brings to the table that affects how the trade will go. This certainly is not for everyone, but those who dare venture upon this path will gain more than just money, but a much deeper understanding of Self and a skill to keep for a lifetime. Invest in that and the rest will follow.
I hope this strikes a chord with you as your posting did with me.
$250 in some countries is a quite a reasonable amount. So if a person from such country starts with this amount and if he doubles it in 6 months or so, then he can withdraw some amount to make use of it and trade on the rest with compounding to keep his capital growth.
It is very low risk when your target is only 3% monthly profit because it’s only lower than 1% weekly profit in trading. Lets say 1% weekly profit so it is only 0.2% daily profit then it is not hard thing to achieve but you must consider again because it is safe enough for trading but the amount of profit is so low with only 0.2% daily profit. Averagely with $250 as capital so it is only $0.5 daily profit. Do you think that it is enough amount for you?
In fact, since I’ve been gone from this thread, I’ve been monitoring someone who has been making an average of 21% capital profit per month for the last three years.
I think this 3% per month profit per month business was dishonest. I see people making far more than that…
That’s really up to you, but consider that the best professional traders may earn an average of 20% year (less than 1% may actually do so). 3% per month is rather challenging especially on a consistent base which opens up another area of issues. You know how much you want/need to earn per year so just do the math and you will get an answer.
I would drop Forex right now and actually go to College and make LOADS more money on something like Computer Technology if the only profit I could expect was 3% profit per month.
Has anyone here done the math at how f*cking little the profit is at 3% per month? Granted, we’re talking about someone who only has $1,000.00 to spare on something like this…
So if we’re taking into account Compounding Interest and I keep the profit in the account and don’t touch it - at the end of one entire year at 3% consistent profit per month, I would make a whopping $425.77…
Fck… that.
I have better things to do in an entire fcking year.
So, to clarify, this is precisely what my question eluded to. If I am going to be spending the amount of time and energy that it takes to make a measly 3% profit per month down the road somewhere with Forex, I had better have a good reason for doing so. That’s time and energy I am spending on making a little more than the homeless guy down the road instead of with my wife and son. The POINT is to make enough money to change my financial situation. If I only have $1,000 to invest and I can only expect 3% profit per month, think about how many years down the road I will have to keep at this before any of us see any reason why I started this in the first place. Too many… that’s the answer.
So no, I don’t accept 3% as the answer right now when I am seeing so many other people making way more than 3% a month.
This includes the person that I know in person that introduced me to Forex in the first place.
He has been doing this for over 10 years and makes 20-30% profit per month. Of course, he has months where he makes 3% or less or even months when he loses. But over the course of an entire year is able to double and sometimes triple his account size.
He owns two houses now and 3 brand new vehicles.
I don’t know if I am getting conflicting information because this site has been conditioned to teach people about 3% per month profit or if that is an actual figure I should expect. So far, I am certainly not convinced on the 3% deal, but I’m still going to do some research until I have a more concrete answer.
