Hi everyone,
New to FX Trading. I have 20k to trade with. If I were to demo trade for 4-5 months what should I be earning monthly the first 1-2 yrs?
Thanks!!
radioglava,
[B]What you can earn depends on how good a trader you can become. [/B]
After your 4-5 months of practice, if you have become a [B]decent trader[/B], you might avoid losing money in a live account.
If, after 4-5 months of practice, you have become a [B]good trader[/B], then you will probably earn a few bucks, day after day, and week after week, as you build your live account.
And, if you become a [B]superb trader[/B] after only 4-5 months of learning and practice, then you might be able to achieve a 10% per month compound rate of growth in a live trading account. Ten percent per month, compounded, will triple your account balance in a year.
Here’s my suggestion:
Do your 4-5 months of learning and practice. Then get a new demo account with a starting balance of 20K, and demo trade for one more month (using the strategies and rules you intend to use when you start trading with real money).
If your sixth month of demo trading produces a net gain in your demo account, cut that figure in half to get an estimate of your first month’s live trading results.
If your sixth month of demo trading results in a net loss in your demo account, double that loss to get an estimate of how you will fare in your first month of live trading.
Until you know what kind of trader you will be in 4 or 5 or 6 months, you can’t possibly know how much money you will make.
Clint
Very good advise Clint!
I might also add a suggestion:
if you have 20 000$ to trade with, ask yourself: would it hurt you at all financially to lose it all?
If yes, when you go live, start with just a part of it, say maybe 5000$.
If 20 000$ is nothing to you, then by all means, trade with all of it.
Live trading is very different from demo, so even if demo goes well, be careful.
Put that $20K back in the bank and forget about investing it into Currency Trading for the next 6-9 months
Like Clint said, compounding (slowly) is the way to grow your account. I would break that $20K into smaller lots, depending on your demo track record after 6 months at the minimum being totally new to the game. Break it down to something like 2 x $10K, 4 x $5K, 10 x $2K, or even 20 x $1k. You don’t want to loose the whole $20K at once, even if it is money to burn
Go through the BabyPips School at the top of this page. Use other online sources to confirm thoughts and ideas. Investopedia is a good source for example. Bounce ideas off people in the threads. Find a trading method that works for you on the regular. Apply sound Money Management to your trading method. Research all about the different brokers available and choose the one that suits your needs
Basically, forget about making money for now, and focus on [B]how[/B] to make the money. This game has so much to learn before one can think about making real and regular money from it. But if you’re willing to put in the work, it will pay off very nicely. You could retire and click ‘buy’ and ‘sell’ a couple times a day or week and live comfortable
A realistic goal of 10% a month seems spot on for a superb trader.
If you are not familiar with trading at all you may want to start off with over-conservative money management.
Maybe only risk .25% - .5% per trade until you get a feel for the addictive rapid fluctuation of the red and green.