For me I think I will be able to contribute more to my initial equity in time from what ever savings I have from my salary. This will allow the compounding “speed” to be faster.
i think doubling your account per year is a great return.
5% a month is very good. like u said, the hard part is doing is CONSISTENTLY.
Everyone is interested in becoming a millionaire. Don’t be so absurd.
haha I was exactly like that
I wanna be a millionaire at one point in my life before I die though 
What about others? Or is it just all about you and that’s it?
But before I move further along with this, allow me to ask you a question.
What is it that you expect out of Forex?
Everyone who thinks around 1% per month is the only realistic target should have a look at purplepatchforex’s cat and mouse thread, I believe his system is currently weighing in at around 1000% per year.
http://forums.babypips.com/free-forex-trading-systems/33326-complete-cat-mouse-system-money-management.html
As this was obviously geared towards me…
At one point did I ever say it was the only realistic target one should have?
It wasnt geared specifically towards you MG it was just a general response to the discussion I’m sorry if it appeared that way I wasnt intending to single anyone out, I believe several people said large returns were not possible to make consistantly
Who said 1% is the only realistic target?? I know I said 1% per month is better than leaving your money in a bank. When you consider 95% of traders fail, you can bet that 95% of the traders out there would be happy with a meager return like that.
There are many systems / strategies that work spectacularly well, provided you have the discipline to stick to them, trouble is most retail traders do not, cause they are looking for instant gratification.
15% is definitely a good return, especially if it’s hands-free…
Many here are mentioning that you need to have realistic expectations from trading, and I agree that the surest way to fail is to set unrealistic goals for yourself.
On the other end, I think its important to think big. For example, a 25% consistent monthly return is definitely thinking big, especially for a guy who is net down in the markets to date. But why not set yourself a benchmark that you hope to achieve some day? You just have to be willing to work for it, and give it the necessary time. If you say its impossible, you simply will program yourself to believe that way and you’ll never get there. By the same token, people who have no realism will never get to realize a big dream, because they are not willing to pay the price for its realization.
So I think there needs to be a balance between realism on one end, and thinking big on the other. You just need to draw a schematic:
Drawdown --> Breakeven --> Up --> Up by 5% a month on average --> 10% —> 25% --> keep going…
This guy & his statistics. You’re risk vs reward on the loss side has the high chance of wiping your account to [B]ZERO[/B] on your way to that million.
depends how he makes his pips, if he plans to make those targets on a small amount of high profit trades with large lot sizes he probably will blow it but if he is working on a large amount of small low risk trades he probably has a better chance.
Small low risk will not provide results like that. High risk is the only way to achieve high rewards like that in such a small amount of time.
I think I posted this example before. Take 100 people and split them into two groups of 50 each and have them flip coins against each other one on one. By the time you get down to the last two, are they really good coin flippers? Most of those trading contests are just advertising gimmicks. They open multiple accounts and don’t show you the 20 that blow out.
A good return is the one you make effortlessly while putting all your effort into protecting your capital. As a benchmark, the best traders in the world make about 100% per year with no monthly drawdowns (Source: Market Wizards). If you can do that, you can make 10 or 20 million dollars per year in base and commission at any major trading house. Just my two cents worth.
Yes, seems like it should be easy, and that’s the hard part. What would you set your loss limit at per day if you had a bad day? Or do you plan on having no bad days?
Forex is easy when you’re just making up the numbers. Enough with example and hypotheticals. Anyone can turn pennies into millions on paper.
It’s the actual results that counts.
Even though I don’t agree with taking $5000 into $1 million in 2 years, are you asking for my statement?
Returns like that are possible, but not right away. Learning how to be consitent takes time and practise. It really depends on you and your learning curve.
I have been trading almost for 5 years now, and it took me just over 2 years to finally become profitable, and the last 2 or so I have been consitent month-in month out.
Maybe I am a slow learner, I don’t know but I do know that in the first year I lost ~$8k, the second year I lost ~$2k. So I spent ~$10k learning how to trade.
So while its great to theorise about good / great returns, the reality seems to be they are possible, but you have to put the work in to get them.
And if you are new to trading, I would advise you to expect to lose some money first…