hi. how many pips per day or week is ideal. of course this is important, as one doesn’t want to be leveraging with several lot sizes, because bad trade with several lot can cost a fortune.
so a good balance is necessary i feel. i think this is the only business where you can make a living out of very small movements or ‘pips’ with decent leverage required.
of course those ppl targeting hundreds of pips weekly, thats just unrealistic. to do so means you need to pick tops and bottoms. and of course there will be loser trades cutting into your pippage.
so i was thinking, somewhere between 80-100 pips per week is the required amount and some sort of consistency between the weeks is important .eg. not winning 200 pip one week, and nothing for the next 2 weeks. thats just not that consistent. 100 pip one week, 50 pip next , 60 pip, thats what we want?
$5/pip thats $400/week. assume 45 trading weeks, thats about $18k income/annum. solid, very little tax on that. thats realistic imo, for first 6-12 months, then u can step it up after some experience. think of it like a university degree which is several years but costs u money. once something around this figure achieved, then step it up.
my style : scalping + short term day trading. only 1,5,15,30 min charts. forget the rest. occasional hold of position with use of trailing stop. below is one system i am planning to use which is decent i found
I think you should base how many pips is reasonable, on your risk % per trade, and how many trades your strategy usally averages a day or week. Since each strategy differs it depends.
Merchant is right it’s all about % capital . You could be making millions on just a few pips or pennies. It all depends on lotsize… Concentrate in a good trade strategy and taking good set ups and the money will come. Personally I had a 150 pip target each week, but I was only making 2-3% on my account due to lot size. But I could take a trade with a tiny SL and get the same return in 20 pips. That’s why I shy away from pip targets anymore. Just start with a reasonable goal and each time you hit it consistently raise the bar. Each time I hit my goal consistently 3 in a row I would raise the bar. It builds confidence and consistency the two key factors for successful trading. The take away: pips don’t matter % return/loss does.
Also I use 50:1 broker leverage but really only 1:1 or 2:1 true leverage. Take the largest leverage offered but don’t use it all. It’s just nice to have it there.
Picking tops and bottoms is unrealistic for 99.5% of traders. The remaining half of a percent are using unbelievable techniques that takes a lifetime to achieve. For example Paul Tudor Jones.
If you are making money, you are picking tops and bottoms of something.
Here is a test I ran, which is on my top end of pips for me. I think it was around 30,000 - 40,000 pips per month. It was automated of course. My Forex Stats: Test 1 - Tra1
I would suggest looking at pips as well as position size. Remember to consider pip value too. You can find a change in dropping 100 pips on a single lot investing the USD/JPY as opposed to investing EUR/GBP.
