Some of us newbies have the idea of forex being a get rich quick thing. So reality check time.
For an experienced trader who know’s what he’s doing, How long would it take to double the money in your account? What’s a reasonable length of time? A month? six months? a year?
The answer to that is highly dependent on ones trading style, skills and willingness to take risk. The answer therefore is “all of the above”. It is very possible to double an account in 1 or 2 good trades, just as it is to get wiped out in 1 or 2 bad trades.
It takes me about 5 to 6 weeks to double my account. I risk 1% to 2% per trade, scalping vsa (making 15% to 20% per week.) But this is after 5 years of trading, wasn’t always so easy.
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thanks for the response. and nice results petefader.
I saw a post on another forum recently where someone wanted to take a $50 account and turn it into a million in 2 months. LOL
I’m new but smart enough to know that’s a pipe dream! So I was just wanting to get an idea of what kind of returns to ‘really’ expect. I agree it depends on how much you are willing to risk. So how much should one risk in order to have your chances of increasing your account be greater than your chances of getting wiped out? is the 1 to 2 % a good rule of thumb?
obviously the greater the percent, the greater your odds of getting wiped out. Well I’m a newbie just trying to get a feel for what to expect. Thanks guys.
Petefeder, that’s impressive results. is that typical of an average experienced trader do you think? Do you use something mechanical like EAs or indicators? or just good judgement?
Personally, I think doubling an account in a year without adding funds is a very reasonable rate of return. If you start with 1K and double it each year, it will take about 7 years to be trading a 100K account (minus taxes).
The biggest pitfall I have seen in my own trading is taking too much risk (lack of patience). The key to long term survival is to learn to control risk.
This is a marathon, not a sprint. Take your time.
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Yes, as a general rule 1% to 2% is the most you should risk. I use very few indicators. Noobies, dont waste your time with EAs or blindly trading off indicators. You only need support resistance, like piviot points, a simple support resistance indicator, and fibbs. I also have a few emas and and RSX (similar to an RSI or stchocastics for over bought over sold, crossing 50).
The key to my trading is volume, or VSA (Volume Spread analysis). The volumes indicator for MT4 tells you the amount of “activity” for buyers and sellers. Like I said no EAs for me, I NEED TO KNOW WHAT IS GOING ON IN THE MARKET, including psycology of “smart money”…market movers.
My advice is learn the market, not indicators. I have some good resources for VSA if anyone is interested, just message me.
You will be a multi-billionaire in just a couple years at that rate.
That’s the plan 
I only became this consistant about 8 to 10 months ago, when I added VSA. Took me a long time to get to this point too, and I lost money at first…so everything has a price.
I congratulate you on your success! Volume plays a very significant role in identifying reversals in stock trading. Seems reasonable that it would apply to FX as well. I will check it out.
To determine a realistic answer, what size account are we talking about? The real key is increasing your margin. For example, regardless of the size of your account, I would recommend only risking 1.5 to 2% of your account on any one trade. If you have a 2k account, thats only $40, so your lotsize would be only 2 minis with a 20 pip stoploss including your spread. Yes, this limits your potential to grow your account quickly, but it also limits your exposure to the downside. Until you are trading at 80% or better successful trades for a sustained period of time, this might be your best effort. Atleast that’s my humble opinion.
Good luck and good trading,
Mike
I was thinking of starting with 1 or 2 hundred and trade micro .01 lots just for practice. If I loose 100 it’s not a big deal. Maybe I would learn more that way than trading a 50,000 demo acct.?
I’d like to hear more about that volume spread vsa sounds interesting.
Seems like it wouldn’t matter what size your account is as long as you size the lots you trade accordingly. like you said. 2 minis for a 2k account, how about 2 micros .01 for a $200 account?
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I’d like to hear more about that volume spread vsa sounds interesting.
contact me on skype… petefader. I have a bunch of material for learning VSA…it completely turned my trading around…I recommend everyone try.
If you guys are really interested in learning about VSA, read a book by tom williams - “Master the Markets”
I used to have a pdf version of it, but I can’t find it atm, but if i come across it i will post it.
I think for new traders, don’t start out with high expectations, just be realistic. I would say, try to not lose any money for the first few months and then go on from there.
It takes alot of study and practise to gain experience at this, so dont be expecting to just make some easy money, it might happen once or twice, but eventually reality will come knocking.
As Pete said, it took him five years of experience before he is making 15-20% per month. Once you develop something that really works, I don’t think returns of this nature are out of the ordinary.
Pete - what are you using for your volume signal? MT4? or another service?
Yes, that is a great book. Everyone should read it 5 times slowly.
I use mt4 volumes indicator, that’s it. I tried a few brokers, and saw a minor difference. I seemed to get the best read of the market with ODL MT4.
Paying for esignal or tradestation is a waste. I spent ALOT of screen time with volume, and developed an insight as to how the market works, and what the “smart money” is thinking, doing and not doing.
I trade with odl too, and been using thier signal as well.
cheers
Mwahaha
check this post in my thread: 301 Moved Permanently
I also have the pdf in case the link would stop working
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I downloaded that PDF, looks like a long read, but I have a long weekend coming up.
I don’t have skype, but will download it, install it tonight.
thanks!
T.D… aka Mike
3 weeks to 6 weeks. I have done it in 2 weeks. But about a month and a half is around the time it takes.
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That book is worth every minute, it will totally change your perspective of the market…
Just spent about 10 minutes chatting with Pete on Skype. Picked up a pdf file on [I]Master The Markets [/I]. The book is pretty dense, reads somewhat like a textbook, but I’m sure I’ll get a lot out of it. Definitely chat with Pete if you get a chance, real nice guy.