How many pips a day?

Beginner Questions
1

Let’s say I have $100 account and I’m using 0.02 micro lot.

If we’ll base it on profit, base on your experience, what’s the “realistic” average profit I can get everyday?

I know this question is subjective but as an experienced trader I want to know your opinion.

I think I need someone to give me a dose of reality check that forex trading isn’t a get rich quick job. I think I’m getting very greedy.

Let me know guys so I will lower my expectation and I know when to stop. Again this is subjective, but let’s base it on your “own” experience. Kindly use profit not pip.

2

I think experience will giving you more understanding about forex trading, if actually on daily trading basis is difficult to determine how many pips we can get from trades, sometime we also facing loss on trading due trend market against our entry, sometime you felt easy to loss and hard to profit, but with good mindset and experience, might will minimize mistake on trading so profit will more easy

3

Let’s assume an average stop loss of 30 pips. You haven’t talked about timeframes, so we cannot know what size this should actually be. I’ll base my reasoning on you trading the daily chart, as it is the most commonly used.

Let’s also assume you are using a bare bones risk management plan that consists in risking 2% of your capital on a single trade. That equals to 2 dollars when you open the account.

Let’s also assume the average value of a micro lot is going to be 10 cents. Again, you haven’t talked about which pairs you are going to be trading, so I have no idea how much a pip is actually going to be worth to you. 10 cents a pip per 1000 units seems to be reasoneable for major pairs.

For starters, you cannot properly trade like this. Using one micro lot and 30 pips stop loss, the minimum position size you can risk is 3 dollars, which is 3% of your account. I know “just one percent is not much” is something you might think, but look at it this way: you are not risking one more percent; you are risking 50% more than what you planned. That is huge.

Even more huge when you slap two micro lots on. Your minimum position size becomes 6 dollars, which equals to 6% of your account and an absurd 300% increase in your planned risk.

So, the first conclusion is that, if you are willing to trade a single micro lot, you can expect to make roughly 6 dollars on a single good trade. A trade can last anything between a few hours to a couple of days, so we’ll just say you’ll make about 2 dollars per day, on average, on a single good trade.

However, you are going to have bad trades. Many good traders still lose 3 times out of 10. Assuming you make 100 trades, with an exceptional winrate of 70% - that you are not going to get as a beginner -, and assuming proper risk to reward ratio of at least 1:1.5, you are going to lose 90 dollars and gain 315 dollars, for a net profit of 225 dollars.

Assuming a more realistic winrate of 50%, you are going to lose 150 dollars and gain 225 dollars, for a net profit of 75 dollars.

My suggestion is to not do that.

Stick to a demo account, and then move to a live account on a broker that allows nano lots. I won’t suggest one, as you might thing I have commercial interests, but a quick search will give you what you want.

2 Likes
4

Great reply from Giovanni.

I would add, if you really want to know what your realistic expectations should be, then you should expect to blow your account.

Most of us blow our first account, its not unusual, but because yours is only $100 you have to risk a bigger percentage as Giovanni explains, so have less wiggle room if you get an early run of losing trades.

If you’re comfortable with that, fine, you’ll feel some of the emotions trading a live account that you don’t get with demo.
If you’re not comfortable, then open a demo account but lower the amount you will trade with to a realistic figure, say $1, 000

5

You should open a zero-spread account. I know that many brokers offer this kind of account and no, it’s not a scam. Check out XM and Tickmill, for example. They’re reputable brokers.

With a small account, you’re not going to earn that much but it’s possible to be profitable. If you open a position and leave it like that for a couple of days (because it keeps going in the direction) then you can profit a significant amount of money with that 0.02 lot. It’s not big money but compared to a small account it is.

Let’s say I was in a NZDUSD trade last week. My balance was around $250. I opened a 0.02 lot sell position and after holding it for a couple of days to reach a major support line, I could profit $30. Which isn’t that bad on a small account. And I didn’t risk anything, only 3%, which is perfect.

Once you become confident and profitable, you can deposit more and earn a little more. I don’t know your trading style 'tho. I like to use the daily and 4H charts, and leave a position open for as many days as it takes to reach an important line.

6

Can anyone suggest how many pips is more appropriate in a day for a scalpers ?

7

The direct answer on this thread is: exactly the amount you are making now on demo or your initial live.

1 Like
8

it depends on your trading skill and trading spreads , if you have most lowest trading spreads , then there is a possibility to earn good pips by means of scalping.

9

Frankly, there is no fixed answer! It depends on your real trading skill; you should select your targets according to your performance.

10

There is no such standard. It varies from person to person. Modify your question. The question how much skilled you are. Be happy according to your skills not what others are making per day. Suppose you make 100 pips per day. But my knowledge and skills doesn’t permit me more than 30 pips. What I should do? I can focus on developing skills not making 100 pips. Know your strength and weakness and work accordingly. You can’t set your standard by looking others.

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11

@Matzhee, Forex like many endeavours is a numbers game where consistently profitable trading matters while eliminating the human emotions part of trading.

So depending on one skill lever, trading system and the like lets put the numbers in proper perspective. If you earn from 1/2% to 1% of your account total every day and roll the profits back into the same account you will become rich in short order while maintaining your sanity and health. I know the percent doesn’t sound like much. So let’s say you consistently earn 1% of the growing account size every day. There are approximately 200 trading days per year. What is the rate of your annualized return??