What is realistic profit acheivable?

Thanks, thats very promising but yes not everyone successful everywhere.

Being a Chartered Accountant, I agree with you about the time and money I spent to became one, I have no plan to withdraw any funds for next few years and want to grow my account.

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@humility777trader

So true. If beginners stopped thinking of the money, the money would find its way to them much quicker.

Of course that seems nonsensical - but it’s a fact - and one only profitable traders know.

If someone wants to make 5-10 pips a day (and I suggest aiming a bit higher than that) they should quit thinking like a beginner thinks and start putting together a profile of how a professional thinks - theyll get there much quicker.

Asking how many pips you can make a day is the wrong question.

@Chullbulla

I notice you have an accounting background - nothing at all wrong with that.

But…you may be seeing the markets as an accountant would see them.

Structured, logical and making sense, with strict rules.

Trading doesn’t work like that. There is a whole psychological side of trading that can get in the way of ‘basic accounting principles’

Just something to think about as you begin your journey.

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“Thanks, thats very promising but yes not everyone successful everywhere.”

Explain, why do you think this?

What makes them “losers?”

Agree with you.

We all want “the prefect system” but that’s not a reality.

Yes, we need rules, but rules for ourselves, not for the system we trade.

For example, once you entered the market, you have zero control, hence, you must have rules on what you should be doing; if this, then, if that then.

Many failing traders never follow their own plan. Even then, some don’t even write down their plans.

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A realistic return for Forex trades is usually considered to be somewhere around 1-5% on a monthly basis. However, it needs to be outlined that this number is a combination of hundreds or even thousands of traders that each trader makes, meaning that there is always something that could potentially go wrong.

generally when making a trading target particularly profit ratio , we the traders got emotional and greedy , at the end of the day we make unrealistic plan which not achievable. so we have to be more practical.

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A 5k account is decent size for a new trader and it should give you the opportunity to learn some valuable trading lessons. I would try to focus on trading well rather than the monthly profit you could earn. Obviously the more you risk the more up/downside % you will experience. There is no set % that is correct for everyone so you will need to find out what you can stomach or have the means to lose. Some professional traders do put on big risk when they feel it’s appropriate or if they exceed their profit target for the month.
The great thing about trading is anything is possible, so don’t be discouraged by the math behind it.

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Thanks, so after reading forums and watching videos, I decided that my strategy will be based on scalping trading, I will restrict to two trades a day since I will do it part-time, will not risk more than 1% of capital with each trade, my aim will be to stop loss at 20pips and take profit at 40pips, I will not try to recover previous day losses next day and will stick to it.
However, I am struggling with how to execute this strategy? I am struggling with indicators, I have not gone through BP training yet which I will, what are the best indicators for scalping trading? and is my strategy realistic? also, I heard about backtesting and I am not sure how to do it? I will use demo for a couple of month and I cannot see many indicators there.

You can’t estimate your returns unless you have a profitable strategy. After you’ve refined and polished the strategy as far it can physically go, you can only increase your % return by increasing the % risk per trade; you can only increase your £ return by increasing the amount of £ in your account.

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It seems like your putting the cart before the horse if your making rules without a strategy. Just from experience I can tell you you’re likely to be stopped out of most of your trades. On paper risking 100 bucks to make 200 sounds great, but in the real world it often doesn’t work this way. I’m not trying to bring you down just I would recommend you do a bit more research before trying this with real money.

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Thank you for your reply, I am doing BP course, listening to the audiobooks I mentioned in another post, and will do some demo before live, what else do you recommend?

A 40 pip profit target isn’t really scalping, in my view. If you’re looking to effect a quick in and out then you often won’t get room for a 40 pip profit in one hit. But really, as has already been said on here, I would not think about setting your profit and SL levels until you have established what sort of trader you are, which Pair or Pairs you want to trade, what time of day you will trade, and what your overall strategy is. I think that you’re starting with the wrong bit, sorry.

ST

You are right that was the wrong approach, after a bit of research and analyzing my situation due to 9-5 Job, I believe day trading will best suit my situation as I don’t have much time to go through charts during the day.

Sounds sensible. Much of my trading is EOD, entered via orders placed in the evening, which then either trigger overnight or don’t. Much calmer way of trading, suits my situation!

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Yes, I am now wondering how to create a strategy which enables me to review charts after 9 GMT and place orders.

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I aim for profit $20-$30 a day. Sometimes, I guess I was lucky I let profit run, could hit $50-100 and this could make up the days I don’t trade when I don’t see opportunity.

Why $20 a day? Because it is sufficient to cover basic necessity for the day. I believe in starting, simple and worry free.

Compared to the naive days when I started on my demo account, I had ambitious goals of making $500 a day - that was a very wide dream. .

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Sounds like your on the right track and getting some pretty good advice from other members. If your working 9 to 5 you will need to find a way to do some research or plan the execution in advance. I prefer to do it in real time as market conditions can change quickly and might invalidate the trade idea. If you have a bit of freedom at work you can sneak in a trade here and there, but probably not scalp. I did this for many years so know the feeling of trying to juggle both :slight_smile:

Thanks, I can use my one hour of a break on the computer or can do like 7 GMT which will be around 3 or 4 in US time, I am still confused about how can one research in advance on the weekend as I heard some members for next week.

It’s best to do your planning just before you actually trade, but you can have an idea in your head prior to that. I’ll send you a msg and we can discuss it further.