I agree 100%, how can I put this - I agree, I think your spot on, now let me think, what can I say, I think you’re absolutely right.
Ok . so 10% is great then
My profits have ranged from 49.x% to 16.x% a month, trading 1-2 pairs, and not over trading what so ever. Im talking about maybe 4 trades per pair MAX per week. And yes, I do understand compounding. Now take 1000$ and compound it with 5% interest each month. Takes nearly 5 years for it to be worth anything. Retail traders are different from professionals. I know of no retail trader with billions to invest. I know of no retail trader with even 100k to invest. Therefore, I see no point in bothering with 5% per month unless you have an account worth over 100k.
Many people are trying to grow their account to a point to where they can live off of their earnings. When you have billions, even 1% is quite a lot of money. For us retail traders, 1% of 1000 is easier to find by looking for spare change. Any profit per month is good, its sure better than a loss, but unless you have a large account, I wouldnt bother aiming for 5% a month, not unless you have years and years to wait.
By the way, demo trading I had my first 1000+ pip week (approx. 1090 pips). For me, since I use a set 30 pip stop, every 10 pips = 1% gain. Do the math :).
Also, I might add, the further you grow your account say using 2-3% exposure, you should start reducing your risk. Maybe go from 2 to 1%, then from 1% to .5 then to .25. As your account grows you will need less % gains to produce good earnings, this making it much much harder to lose your account while still producing a good income (with minimal % gains per month)
Do not be foolish enough to think you can tell me what is possible, when you have yet to see the realization for yourself. Possibilities are infinite. Realizations however are not.
Actually, they get paid from 200-400k. Still better than most jobs but, no where near the 5-50mil. Off of commission maybe. Salary wise the elite get paid 400-500k per year, the new hires earn 100-200k. If you want to make 100m per year, even 5 million per year, you better have an account in the billions. 1 Billion $ account at 1%/mo gives you 10 million per month, 120m per year. Either they have an even larger account, are making much more than 1% a month, or both. Either way forget about the 3-4 people coming close to 50m per year, major company CEOs such and J&J are making 22m per year. Be happy growing your account to 100k eventually and being able to at least live off of that. Very few become the best of the best.
About the 2% a week part. Yes once again, consistency is key, so is having a large account if you’re only aiming for 2% a week. Will you be recognized by other traders and banks, possibly, unless of course theres someone better, which there probably is. Part of being consistent is having little drawdowns, if you are experiencing large drawdowns then your not really consistent. I do not know what is considered a “bad” amount of drawdown, my last months drawdown was .42% so I’d say try to not have any drawdown greater than 10% (5 losing trades in a row). As for no drawdowns that would mean your account never decreases in value, ever. If you can do this then welcome to the billionaire club lol, just try to minimize them, you will lose at least one trade at somepoint, its part of the game.
Dont let these posts discourage you, if your consistent and have a decent amount of time to wait, you will become wealthy at some point. With a smaller account, which your likely to have as a retail trader, you’d like to have larger gains while not overtrading. If you take every VALID signal your system offers you are not over trading, you are trading according to plan. If you start stepping outside of your trading plan in attempt to gain more, you are over trading. Over trading is not simply, I’ve traded 100 times this month, I must be over trading now. For me my system gives no more than 2 trades daily, 4 days a week, so a max of 32 trades per month. Yours may give you one every hour.
20% is easily achievable. That’s one good day per month for me, which are quite likely to occur. Maybe you personally have never had a monthly return greater than 5%, maybe all your aiming for is 2%, but others can earn more, it is possible and it is happening.
Hellogoodbye, I see your point. I’m just saying there’s more than one way to get rich. The easiest and surest way might be to do it with other peoples money. Then you only have to show a consistent track record of 2% per week with no draw downs. Now think about it. For $50-$100 million a year, you could do that, couldn’t you? Establish that track record and I’ll introduce you to a currency trading manager who will hire you on the spot. You need no certifications and need to take no tests. All you need is the patience to establish that track record. Think it over. Not such a bad deal really. There is a catch. There is always a catch. The 2% per week part is easy. The no draw down part is much more difficult than it seems.
Hint: I trade 2 accounts. One is for my personal account. I make a very good living off it, but I take relatively large risks. Drawdowns of up to 10% are not uncommon.
The other account is to establish that track record of 2% a week with NO draw downs. That one is the one I’ll show the hiring manager and ask for a sweet salary plus hire-in bonus, say $5 million. So far, so good. So like I said, just think about it.
Happy Trading
Risk management should not differ if you have 10,000 or 10,000,000 in your account. if at this point, you haven’t met a retail trader with an account of over 100k, then you are hanging out with the wrong crowd.
Don’t allow demo earnings to illustrate anything. It only shows that you know how to trade, does not show you how profitable you will trade. You lack the psychology behind trading when the money is a figment of one’s imagination.
You appear as if you are attempting to get wealth fast with Forex. Even if it took you 20 years to develop wealth, would that not beat out whatever employment you currently have?
I never stated it was not possible. Nor have I stated what my results are.
I stated however, that such performance on a consistant basis is virtually nonexistant.
Again you make statement like, “quite likely”, but not what has been accomplished. You also boasted of demo profits, though it would be interesting to see the drawdowns on that same demo account.
Can earn and have earned are two entirely different things.
Once you get over your lofty aspirations of obtaining wealth fast, then you will truly set yourself on the proper path of financial success trading Forex.
Didnt know you meant that, of course that is a good way to make money. A friend nearby manages an account worth ~50m, she takes 10% and earns ~730k/mo. Personally Im just trying to build up a good track record so I can always get a job too, and keep trading personally for me.
I always demo what I am trading before I trade it live, the 49.x% to 16.x% is LIVE results, the 109% gain was demo, though I wish that was live lol.
As for a retail trader who is able to open an account with 100k, hell no. If they have enough spare cash to put 100k into forex they probably have plenty to live off of for the rest of their lives.
Minimizing risk is very important, as your account grows you should always aim to minimize risk. You will need less % gain to produce previous gains and if you were to lose a trade it would mean nothing to you, unless of course you have that 1billion $ account, LOL. Tell me who burns through an account first, the 2% risk or the .25% risk guy?
Im not saying it is easy, but it is possible, If you were to avg my LIVE returns it would be ~26%/mo. Just to prove my point, check out Inner Circle Traders blog and the 30 pips a day thread. I believe in the first post he talks about making something like 20% a month. You say im obtaining wealth too fast, I say your obtaining wealth too slow, its all a matter of perspective. Ill let you be with your gains, and you can let me be with mine 
Yep, first post of the 30 pips a day thread proves my point, now check for the posts where he shows his gains
You are speaking of base salary. Typically that is a small percent of a good traders compensation. As I said, if you can make 2% a week with NO drawdowns, you would not just be good, you would be among the best in the world.
Compensation is variable. With the track record I’m speaking of, it’s not hard to negotiate for one and ten compensation. That’s 1% of trading capital and 10% of profit. Trading a modest (for these guys) account of $50 million a year and making 2% profit a week isn’t that bad a start. As track record builds, trading capital allowed increases rapidly. With the track record I’m dreaming of, it’s not unusual to get $500 million or more to trade fairly quickly. It’s all about the track record. Really, it’s all about the no drawdowns part. I think we probably agree that the 2% a week part is easy.
OK, enough of my dreaming. I have a trade setup to work. Cheers.
You claim to average 26% a month, but over how long a period of time? You realize that it takes a good 24-36 months before one can state with confidence what their monthly return is, and 5-10 years before they can boast their annual return?
I am not stating that you are obtaining wealth too fast. On the contrary, I do not believe such ambitions put directly into your trading will create wealth at all. You’ll eventually come to realize that if you decide to continue trading Forex when that day comes.
And again, find yourself a new crowd if you aren’t able to find those that have sizable accounts.
How can you think you’ll ever be able to achieve any good amount of information if you’re pitted in the same field of guys trading the same 500 dollar reloaded micro accounts and other guys boasting 1000 pip returns on a demo account of all things.
You’ll get there. You have ambition which I appreciate. And I understand that this is still just part of the learning curve for you into the financial world. I suppose my patience needs to be stretched more sometimes to allow those to develop themselves into a truly profitable trader.
Oh, when I spoke of a goal of No drawdowns, I meant on a weekly basis. Of course we are going to lose a few trades now and then, but it might be barely possible to have every week end in a gain. I know people who claim they have done it for years, but they won’t let me see their statements, so I’m suspicious. Still, I’m trying in my “special” live account. For now, I’m not focusing on profit percent in that account, just No drawdowns at each weeks totals. Try it. It’s haaaaaaard.
Happy Trading
My goal is no monthly drawdown. No daily drawdown has to be impossible, a little easier with weekly simply because you’d have more time to regain your losses. I believe monthly is a good timeframe, not too short, and not too long. Imagine having a goal of no yearly drawdown lol…
No weekly drawdown for me this year, this is the second priority with my strategy, the first is no daily drawdown, I think that’s 1 day this year, last week as it happens!
No weekly drawdown for me live or demo so far this year too knocks on wood. I only trade 1 pair at most twice per day so I’ve had a couple losing days, but nothing I havnt made back that same week. By the way I’m pretty sure at somepoint every trader is gonna have some negative months, even professionals have a couple throughout their career. No negative years is my ultimate goal lol, some profit is better than none.
I´ve been making 15% monthly, for the last 7 months, and this last month i made 25%, but that was an exception. The thing is that you have to understand that you will have some losing strikes so in my opinion some number between 10% and 20% would be fine.
I think for the first time I’ve seen a thread where some kind of consensus has been reached, with one major exception.
In which case I shall conclude that 20% a month is a sensible return and is in line with my strategy so I’m not losing out and my performance is in line with other successful traders.
How many trades do you take per month Gasanvill?
Now you guys are making me feel bad. I’m killing myself here trying to run an account with no losing weeks and you’re making it sound easy. Oh well, it’s a great goal. It probably should be the first goal of every new trader. It definately will make a much better trader out of anyone. “Scratching my head trying to figure how you can make 20% a month with no losing weeks”. You guys must be psycho.