I currently have a 9-5 job and i have a friend that wanted me to do forex by referrel through iml which helps forex traders with technical analysis and advice. But after doing some research, it looks like it’s a scam from what I hear. I’ve been doing alot of research on becoming a forex trader and I couldn’t find much on successful swing traders, only full time traders.
I wanted to know, are there any swing traders that have made a good $400-$500 a week and are these top of the line swing traders or is this doable for the average successful swing trader? I ask because this is my goal in the long term if I do persue forex as a long term swing trader. It seems that swing traders are in the minor since it requires alot of time for full time forex traders to make a steady income.
There’s one friend whose “advice” you’ll know to disregard, going forward? Good to learn, anyway.
I’m not sure about this differentiation between “swing traders” and “full time traders”?
It seems to me that swing traders, just like non swing traders, can be either full time or part time?
I think it’s fair to say that no trader whose income averages out at $400 or $500 per week is anywhere near the top of the line. (The top traders make 7 figures.)
It’s important to be realistic.
Few retail forex traders make a profit at all.
Among the minority who do, very few make $400 or $500 per week steadily.
If you call that about $2,000 per month, averaged out, and make 5% monthly return averaged out on your capital (which very few do), you’d want capital of at least $40,000 to have a decent shot at it, after several years of learning and experience.
Thank you, that helps alot.
Why trade forex if a steady income is very hard to achieve for even the average “successful” trader? Is it because the gains are big in the long term. Like you said, the bigger my capital, the better chance that a steady income is attainable to the highly experience.
It seems like the stock market is just as rewarding but a higher success rate? Would I be wrong in saying that?
Edit:
Realistically, I would spend 2-3 hours a day after my 9-5 to forex.
So my ultimate question, is forex for a part-time person like me?
Are there people who succeed as a part time forex with 2-3 hours a day looking at news and charts?
The advantages of trading are forex are that the markets can be traded any time of day or night, continuous markets mean gaps past stop-losses are rare, brokers generally offer high leverage, and prices are not so frequently subject to big changes due to news events/announcements.
Of course, all these things have their obstacles and down-side too. For example higher leverage is only useful if you’re profitable already: if you’re just learning, its really a quick way to get wiped out.
I hear most traders say that long-term traders usually make more money than day-traders, but this might be just because they generally don’t go broke. Most new day-traders cannot make a consistent profit and get quickly wiped out.
How much you make will depend on the size of your account and what strategy you use, nobody can tell you what you will earn. But profit is not in relation to number of trades opened/closed.
The learning is too long for someone with a full-time job.
It’s possible you might do very well, of course, but statistically must be enormously against the odds?
Again, I’m not certain.
Possibly a very, very few.
And forex forums are full of thousands of people who know they’re not in that group but are so desperately hoping and praying that there is such a group that saying “no” is going to make anyone terribly unpopular, because it’s shattering people’s illusions.
Instinctively, I’m doubtful.
I think “investing” might suit you a lot better than “trading” and be much more realistic.