Is it possible to grow a small account into a big one?

Beginner Questions
1

Hello,

Is it possible to grow a small account into a big one in four years and then use that account to trade for a living?

For example, an article online suggests that if a trader starts with $10,000 and assuming he/she is a good trader and only trade 4 trades per month selecting them after doing all the research and analysis, risking 3% per trade, and average 3 wins and 1 loss for every 4 trades with 1/1 risk reward per trade and making 6% per month, with the power of compounding and not touching the account it will grow to $160,000, is this possible? Can it be achieved?

Obviously some months may have more losses than normal and others much bigger profits.

What are your thoughts and opinions about this plan? your replies are highly appreciated.

1 Like
2

Very good question, and one that’s “under-discussed” here, I think.

And by the way, welcome to the forum.

It is possible, I know, because it’s what I did.

But I’d had an initial four years on demo only, and learning, and reading textbooks, and getting screen-experience, before I ever had a real-money account. After those four years, I opened an account with about £2,000 and built it up very gradually and persistently without ever making a withdrawal from it. But I was actually making what most people would call a “decent living” and monthly withdrawals from it, within about three years after that.

So, I think my answer to your question is that I know it’s possible, if you’re excluding the “education/practice-time” from your four years. But if you’re starting off that four years from “knowing almost nothing and having no experience” and meaning that you get your education/experience as you go along, I think it’s going to be very difficult. Maybe close-to-impossible. Perhaps depending on one’s situation and circumstances (but mine were about as favourable as they come). I think that way is what many people try to do, find that they have no prospect of making a living within four years, that way, and eventually give up.

My view is that people usually hugely overestimate what they can achieve quickly, and (more importantly?) hugely underestimate what they could achieve slowly, with patience and discipline and by not being in a hurry.

It really [B][U]is[/U][/B] possible to build a £2,000/$3,000 account into a full-time living within 3-4 years, [I][U]if you know what you’re doing to start with and [B]already[/B] have plenty of education in statistics/probability and plenty of screen-experience[/U][/I]. But in reality that’s a very big “if”, for many people!

Just my perspective …

3

I think possible to making small money growth to bigger money, but of course need to having prpfitable system and having more winning trades, with taking small risk and making more winning trades it will increasing money I think but need patience

4

Yes, definitively, an average 6% per month with 3% risk is very possible.

5

Sorry, just realised I didn’t answer your second, more specific question at all … :8:

I don’t know: that specific plan is so far removed from what I was advised to try to do, myself, and so far removed from what I’d advise anyone else to try, that I can’t tell.

But I suspect that although it’s theoretically possible, and I’m not suggesting the arithmetic itself is mistaken, in practice it would be a way of stacking the deck against yourself. It [U]definitely[/U] isn’t how I’d want a friend or relative to try to achieve the desired outcome.

To inject a note of reality, let’s not lose sight of the facts that most people (to put it mildly) never get there at all, that long-term, successful trading has many, many different components and that you have to get [B][U]all[/U][/B] of them right, even to have a look-in.

Sorry … probably not what you wanted to hear. :8:

(Other respondents may disagree, of course! ;)).

True, but so what? How does that answer the OP’s question, Mom?

6

If we want to reduce the amount of risks in our trades it can be done easily. We should always remember that if the risks are more then we can get losses into our accounts at any time.

7

umm, directly? The OP maybe just wants some reassurance that you can make a living from the forex even without huge initial capital and I’m just giving it.

And, Lexys, those 6% just shows you don’t need to double or triple your account every month, to make a lot in a long term. I understand trying to achieve a certain percentage per month could lead to taking poor trades and I don’t suggest it either.

8

lexys, bearish, YourMother, John Sanders thank you all for your replies, appreciate it.

So Lexy, what you are saying is in order to start the plan i mentioned above, i need to practice in a demo account for 3 or 4 years and learn and gain knowledge and experience, then i would start with a small capital and try to grow it into a big one, big enough to trade for a living, and even if i reached that point, achieving 6% per month, would be very difficult or nearly impossible?

The truth is, my Forex knowledge is basic, and the idea is to learn and practice for a year or two untill im confident i could go live with my small account (if i have a winning system on demo).
9

When I first read the title of your post “small account into big one” I expected to read of someone thinking they could turn a 50 dollar account into a million. It is refreshing to see 10,000 referred to as small account. I also like the idea of only 4 trades a month, that tells me you are not looking at one minute charts, again refreshing.

I have always found it hard to put profit expectations into a monthly % targets, sure you can have goals, but markets are always changing and what earned you 10% a month for the last 6 months , might lose money the next 6 months. If you have a sound trading plan then trade it and see what the market will give you. Just don’t make any future financial commitments. ( like buying a car) Based on the expectations of future market profits

Good luck

10

good luck,

11

Cyberq8.
Lexys has walked the road you, I and many others wish to. She has turned a small account into her full time occupation.
If, as you say, you are able to devote a year or two to studying forex then you will stand a better chance than most new traders in following in her footsteps.
Certainly, in my opinion, you would struggle to find anyone better placed to advise you than lexy.
Good luck on your journey, keep us posted

12

That’s a big risk. $10k for newbie to start off with.
3% win per month, that is 72% per year not taking on he compounding interest.
3 out of 4 win per month, that 75% win, not taking consideration that he/she hasn’t tested the emotional part of the trading.
In 4 years, $160k out of $10k investment sound great, superb indeed but I can’t think of any logic behind these numbers.
The best option is to test your emotional part with trading small account that you are prepare to lose it all, after mastering your demo. Then decide from there on.

13

I think it is very much possible to achieve that. You’ll need a good trading plan, a good strategy and a lot of patience, but as long as you are disciplined and you keep educating yourself you should get there eventually.

14

You might need less - but that was what I needed. (I was doing other things at the same time: I was at high school when I started).

Well, you were talking about $10,000? That’s more than three times what I started with, so that might make it a little quicker?

No; I said I thought it would be very difficult [B]without[/B] that or some similar or equivalent process, not [U]after[/U] that or some similar or equivalent process. Having done it myself, I’m certainly not in the “too difficult - forget it” school of advice-offering! But I don’t think the objective of taking about 4 trades per month, as you mentioned, would be the right kind of approach. “Experience” is to some extent measured in “numbers of trades”, and statistical analysis of results is certainly built up, that way. So although that kind of idea might otherwise be valid and valuable (which I don’t know about anyway), it would surely make the learning/experience-acquiring process take almost for ever? That was my thinking, anyway. I may be wrong, of course.

15

Dennis3450, MoneyNVRSleeps, eddieb, siangmimi, victoriajensen and Lexys, thank you all for your replies, they were of a tremendous help for me.

What i will do is to study currency trading and Macroeconomics, research and analyze the markets and their behavior,  work on demo account and practice until i have a wining system or strategy and a good plan to follow.
16

Just remember this much. Price Moves for a reason, and its not because of you or I. Price moves a certain distance, and knows where its going to go, before it even moves. Forex is NOT what it seems.

You either follow a strong system with boundaries, and stick to it, redundantly, or You Realllly dig into why the markets move. Both are intellectually demanding, but both are so far apart.

YOU MUST understand what they do, meaning the Broker, always looking for better footing to JAM IT UP YOUR, Foot.

lol.

17

I ever reading statement from certain trader which he can increasing small bonus no deposit to huge money, so will possible and all trader having opportunity to making money with forex although start with small capital but yes skill is required because might will hard to making profit if first trades already loss

18

if i would take the statement in to a general zone, is it possible? the answer is yes? can i grow a 15 dollar account to 200 in one day? yes thats possible, easy? no. there are simply too many factors involved in the equation, but with forex trading in general the possibilities are limitless, finding your comfort zone in terms of strategy, trading style and investment can be difficult, and one thing i have personally learned is, just push through with it, and learn from it, there is no perfection, and i am way too far from being good but i just simply push throug and i got to say it does work.

19

well thers two ways dto do it you can do it like a horse race in which you want a strike rate

Or you can compound it if you were going to compound it if you had 10,000 you certainly would only stake 1000 dollars and compound it.

or you could combine both strike rate x compounding

but the answer to your question yes you can grow small to big

but its no good if you can’t pick the movment.

Odds Table

take this odds table for example

if you can pick 50 percent you have to do that 5 times out of ten to make a profit

50.00 - 1/1 - 2.00

the 50 means how many times out of ten so 5 and so on

and yes like lexy suggested highly suggest a demo account money only, but i’ll add one more you must be dedicated and be very good at maths

20

It is all about numbers Compounding with 6% per month can grow 10000 easily to a big account. The real question is about this 6% Is that realistic? Is it achievable? I am practising for 2 to 3 years and I am not making that. Sometimes I have 10% a month and loosing all in the next month or with an other system +20% in 3 days and down to -10% at the and of the week.

With 4 trades a month 1:1? Lexys you make more trades in a day. Money makes more trades in an hour. BTW how are you doing? Ones I believed that I needed some kind of target and only 1 trader told me that he was happy to make 10% a month after somebody was showing of with 20% a week.

What are you making? 6% 2% 10% more or less??? The rest is numbers

10000*(1.06 ^ 12) is 20122 after 1 year (6% a month)
20122*(1.06 ^ 12) is 40489 2th year
10000*(1.06 ^ 48) is 163939 after 4 years

Compounding is simple math but what is a realistic number to use?