Hi
I am just wondering what everyones average monthly percentage return is? Whether you trade professionally or just part time.
The reason I ask is that I’m not sure how well I’m doing compared to other traders. I realize with different account sizes peoples trading activities will differ, with some needing to trade more with a smaller account.
I am currently a part time trader making about 5% a month.
For those of you willing to share your results I look forward to seeing your answers.
The reason I say that is, because when this type of questions get asked, you will get a variety of different answers, most you cannot take at face value. Some will say you just can’t make more than 100% a year, some will say that 100% a month is easily achievable, but I think most will be in the range of 30% a month, so there we are I’ve saved us all the bother of tit tatting and flaming for the next 2 weeks.
5% a month as a part time trader is ample long term I expect, especially when you take the compounding effect into account, 3 or 4 years of that, and you’ll never have to worry about cash again I expect.
But the question you might want to ask yourself, is given the mistakes you do, and given a little more time and understanding, and given more trading time, what would you expect to make then?
Thanks for your reply, I know it’s a taboo question and I realize everyones answers will differ on their circumstances. I am surprised how many people have looked at the question but chose to avoid it.
With your answer alone gives me hope of fulfilling my goal of being a full time trader, I need 20% a month to replace my current occupation. And yes I am making mistakes, most being not letting my profits run to there potential. My entries in trades are very good but I tend to take profit too early.
It’s not a taboo as such, it just tends to lead to the same debate repeating with the same split views, so often won’t help you!
A figure that I hear bandied around a fair bit is that consistent, professional traders make 10-30% return a month. I have no idea how scientifically (or otherwise!) this figure was arrived at, but it feels right to me. My returns are in this bracket, I have had the odd step outside this year (to both sides) but 10-30% represents where I am overall.
Two thoughts on your needing 20% a month. Firstly, the market ebbs and flows, in my experience, it just won’t give the same in one month that it does in the next. So don’t make a plan based on near-identical returns. Secondly, if you had a bigger account, you would need less than 20%, if you had a smaller account you would need more. I would recommend finding a way to grow your account over time, even if just from the proceeds of your trading, and aim for a more conservative return on a larger account. If you should exceed the conservative target, then that’s great, but if you fail to hit the (ambitious, at first) 20% target your whole life finances can be thrown out, and that will just raise the pressure and lead to all sorts of stresses.
When I started out I targeted 5% pcm, when I hit that I changed the target to 10% pcm (both figures average). Now my average is a lot more than 10% but I still only ‘need’ 5%. I would strongly urge you to go forward, particularly initially, with figures that are comfortable, very comfortable. Overshooting a conservative target never caused anyone any problems, but missing an ambitious one can if you have organized your life finances around making it can be a problem…
Forex is great, liberating, lucrative, all of that - but don’t rush it would be my advice, for what it is worth.
Good advice from ST and PPF.
I just want to add that even if you feel you are ready to go full time, you actually might not be ie you need a proven track record of consistently making a minimum return per month. Also when forex becomes your sole income, your pyschology will change especially when you hit a rough patch.
No problem if somebody makes 20% a month consistently. Albeit this is not the average of even successful traders, I guess some can make it. If with luck or just by more skill I let the answer to the reader. The issue here is the word “need”. If you need 20% a month and are not trading yet I’d suggest to do anything else. To learn to be that successful takes imho years full time learning and the outcome is still a little unclear. As there are several doctors who went through the whole program at university, but not every doctor is a great one.
No one will tell you the truth about this.
Professional traders, who can use leverage accordingly to their trading plans, can make 100% a month without any problem with an average win/loss ratio of 70%.
Many traders started ONLY with 5000$ and became millionaire within 10 years - living off their futures/forex income -.
You have to study hard and make a trading plan. Then you stick to it. After that you are a professional.
[B]EDIT:[/B] Common sense doesn’t say always the truth.
ST is got some good points there. Me being part time I can say my monthly returns vary greatly. It is a different animal to be a part time trader. As Some months are great full of trades then other months I just dont get the setups. As a full time trader you can sit and wait for a setup to present itself and pull the trigger. You can most of the time see it coming. As a part time trader I know a setup is coming and I sit and wait only to come back later and see I missed the boat. It happen alot. So with that I have some months where returns are just not there. Then I have months like this month where I have already brought in about 50% of my account and thats mainly on 2 trades. So being part ime this can be hard to judge. It ranges anywhere from -5% on a bad month to like this month 50%. I but would say an average month is about 5-8%.
I would agree with simon to go full time you would have to be able to do it on 5% returns. That way if you over shoot it one month. It will cover you on a bad month. Also if you have a great month and you increase you account quite a bit. You know only have to make say 3% and still bring home the same. So as you progress your life just gets easier. Good luck
Did you only go on the one K2A course in order to start learning your craft. It may seem a little off topic, but I’m in a similar position to the OP, or at least will be when I start live trading. 5% I can live on, and very slowly grow my account. 10%+ would be life changing!
Would you have done anything different to get to where you are now?
Thanks
AJD
Edit: ST just saw the other thread you had posted on about K2A.
Hope you’re well. As a few people have said on here over the time that I have been trading, there are many bold claims out there about trading returns, some might be true and others might be nonsense, but I completely agree with you - 5% is a good return, 10% is fantastic, when considered over the length of a career. I make a decent return, these days, but hand on heart if I could sign something now that 100% guaranteed me a 5% return monthly I’d bite their arm off. At that point it just becomes a question of raising capital. As you say, 10% mounts up to serious numbers - £50,000 at 10% a month with some allowance made for compounding is pretty compelling stuff.
Anyway, to answer your question (eventually!) yes, I just attended the free seminar, then sat the basic, two day course, and then all I did on top was sign up for further coaching sessions. The coaching gave access to a weekly webinar, and sight of a cross section of trades placed live by the K2A coaches (you get those two with the basic course, too, signing up for coaching simply extended the life of the subscription to match the duration of the coaching), these two elements brought my trading up immeasurably.
Would I have done anything differently? Just one thing, I would have waited longer before increasing the size of my initial trading account. My confidence came on stream before my results were as consistent as I believed that they were about to be, so I increased my account size while still being too low down the learning curve. My performance was patchy for the first few months, so at 1% risk per trade those initial losses ended up costing me £100 a pop when they could have been £20, £50 a pop, whatever for literally the same lesson learned. Ouch. It all evened out, though - that error probably taught me a few valuable psychology lessons. Initially I made a few rookie mistakes (despite being told about them in advance by my coach, sigh) - I overtraded, chased trades, moved Stops, all the usual suspects. I think my worst month was an 11% loss. Had my £10,000 account been a £2000 account that would not have hurt as much. I increased the account size as a few of the trades require a larger Stop that I could not cover with a £2000 account. With hindsight, I should have waited. Personally, I think that a £5000 starting account hits the right balance between risk and covering the trades, but that all depends on the individual, obviously. (I trade with ETX Capital, which is minimum 50p a pip risk, so a 100 pip Stop requires a £5k account).
Incidentally, it must be the time of year for K2A courses lol, I have had a separate K2A exchange on a separate thread just today - you might be interested in some of the content, or in chatting with the guy I was discussing with, as he has been to the seminar but not yet on the course, so could be worth you guys comparing notes. I’m rubbish at posting links to threads, but the thread is an old one called ‘A review of trading training course’, that has recently been resurrected on the Newbie Island section, Dev was the poster asking the questions, he’d probably enjoy comparing notes with you.
I was not refering to you. But I wanted to outline that many of the most profitable traders are making more than 5-10% per month. Why I’m saying that? Have you ever seen Tmoneybags’s thread? There are many other traders that are profiting in the forex market and I do not know why they are untruthful because they want to preserve their privacy.
11% is my average for 2011 and is a proper answer to the original question.
10 -30% is not an average it is a range, if you want to know your average just put your account up at myfxbook or get it
professionally audited or just do the math yourself.
5% AMR is great. -As long as your risk is good too you should be able to live on it no problem, try to live on half of your gains though, I only pulled out 50% of my gains per month and left the other half to compound, if I had a good month sometimes I could afford not to pull any out any $$$ for a couple months and get some nice compounding action. As a part time trader you should be in compound mode until your account is double your minimum size to live on (at least that’s how I did it.) Once you quit your job make sure you take a hobby
Now I trade other peoples money so it’s a different ball game.
5%/month is great buddy. Especially if you’re doing it part time. You should be proud of your results.
Personally, my monthly range is 5-10% PAMM. It’s not the percentage of the initial balance, it’s the percentage of previous months gain minus withdrawal.
Im a parttime trader and find on a good month that i make 5%, although i usually make about 25-30% per year, so its not always 5%,
I saw a post about 30% per month, i would love to make that much. my system does trigger infrequently, so maybe thats the problem. anyone know a good system that they’re willing to share?
One thing I can tell you is that there is nothing impossible if you work hard at it… The only thing separating you from your goal is time…As for me I do trade on live and I easily make 5% monthly…however some good months fetch me up to 8%…I am currently working on making 10%…
Come to think of it if you have a very good capital to start with, even when you make 5%, its a good KILL…Moreover you will be under lesser pressure to over trade…Anyways, safe trading
Some of us trade part time while others prefer to do it full time. Rule of the thumb, try for anything between 5%-10% and hey, even if you end up getting just a measly 2%, that’s still damn good. As a beginner, it will take some time and effort before you can show some serious profit…but in time, you should be able to net good returns provided you have a strategy that works…
