So I’m an average 20 year old college student and I’ve been reading up on investing lately (everything from stocks to mutual funds and now forex). And, I have to say that forex looks promising, yet it can be very dangerous if you don’t know what you are doing.
Now I’m not looking for anything to make me a millionaire in two years. I’m looking at a more long term investing, especially with stocks and mutual funds to make money. Forex, on the other hand, seems for ‘flexible’ than stocks.
Basically the first question is, with forex trading, is it possible to make $50 to $100 daily or maybe $300 to $400 weekly (it doesn’t have to be exactly this though)? Mind you I’m not looking for a get rich quick thing, just something to get some extra income that I can place in a Roth IRA or just to save up.
I want to have some sort of goal before I start trading.
My other questions are which currency(ies) do you guys follow and which broker is ‘good’?
In the coming up weeks I should have about $500 to $1000 for trading, although I’m wanting to practice on a demo account. I’ve tried the fxcm demo account, but I dislike their program.
Sorry if I sound like a newb, I just want to know what is and isn’t possible with forex before I go losing money.
If you’re starting with $1000 then there’s no way you can make $300-$400 weekly on a continuous basis. You may hear stories of people doing this for a few weeks, but then they lose it all. $20 per week would be a more realistic number that you can sustain for the long-term.
The power of forex is in the compounding. You start off averaging $20 per week, but next month it’s $22 per week, then next year it’s $50 per week, and then in the next decade it’s thousands per week and you’re rich.
As for which currencies to follow and which broker is “good,” it all comes down to personal preference. Personally I mostly follow GBP/JPY, EUR/JPY. and GBP/USD, and I would recommend Oanda or IBFX as brokers.
Lol, yea I was shooting a little high with those numbers, although I will still be putting money in to the trading account over the next few months I do want to start off with $500-1000.
And, I may be jumping ahead of myself again, but if I was to with GBP/USD what is a good amount of pips I should be getting daily/weekly?
That’s completely dependent on your trading system and timeframe, so I can’t really give a good answer. On a Daily chart you would usually be getting at least a couple hundred pips per trade, but if you’re trading 15 minute charts you might be getting 20 pips per trade.
Do keep in mind that pips don’t equal dollars. Someone trading 1 hour charts might make more money on a 50 pip trade than you do making 300 on a daily chart. Be sure you’re not comparing apples to oranges when you compare the results of various systems.
actually phil i would have to very respectfully disagree with you on this one. i think a 2% a week target is extremely conservative , it is to my understanding that 2% is your typical risk tolerance on any 1 trade and if you are using a risk : reward ratio of 1:2 or higher then 1 successful trade would be a 4% or more return? i can only guess that these figures relate to your higher time frame trading on the dailies but if someone was to trade with similar figures on a lower timeframe such as the 1H he would be seeing considerably higher gains and 10-20% is totally within reason.
i have only been trading full time a little over 9 months now so i do not have as much experience or market knowledge as yourself but during those 9 months i have quite regularly made gains of 10%+ a week whilst only risking 2% on most trades, i have made over a 2700% gain overall
I agree with you. If someones trades lower timeframes, and does it well, then 10% or more per week is within reach. However, NewShinyCD’s figure of $300-400 per week on a $1000 account is a lot more than 10%, or even 20%. I think 2% per week (or less) is the perfect goal for a new trader.
Newbies taking more trades on lower timeframes is a recipe for disaster. It can be done, but 99% of new traders fail at it.
It’s much more realistic and probable that a new trader will be successful if he trades higher TFs (4H or above), and only takes a couples of trades per week. As we’ve seen on these forums hundreds of times, asking a new traders to go for more than that is a bad idea!
My advice to new traders is to start out on 4H charts of above. Trading slower charts is a LOT easier for new traders. Once they master that they can move down to faster charts.
i agree with you 100% phil that all new trades should start with the higher timeframes and it is better to start with a very conservative goal to ensure you last long enough in this market to see the big returns.
i was just trying to make the point that spectacular gains are entirely possible and if managed correctly can also be sustainable which i believe is the key to success in this business
i started with a very small account of only �400 which is now �11k+ 9 months down the line, the first few months i saw only small gains of several hundred a month but by staying consistant and determined i am of recently seeing returns of �1k+ a week which to me is astounding
so to answer your question newshinyCD’s you can expect to make a serious income even with a very modest account but as phil recomended please start with the higher timeframes, shoot for very conservative targets to begin with and increase this over time along with your level of skill and market knowledge, stay consistant and persistant
also phil i am pleased to see you agree with me as i hold you in very high regard as a trader ( you and tymen1 are the price action gurus )
