Realistic Expectations?

Hi,

I would appreciate it if you could share your views with me on what is a realistic return a trader can get out of trading forex full time. It is my dream to trade full time but before i make the massive leap from trading around work to trading full time i would like to open the discussion on what a realistic return should be. I have heard so many different opinions on this so i thought it would be best to ask actual traders how they fair?
I have heard views ranging from if you even turned a profit you are doing very well, to other people that claim to be making in excess of 200 pips a week scalping. Its obvious that some people are going to be a lot more successful than others but id like to get an understanding of what i am likely to achieve based on your experiences.

Thanks for your time

P.S if you make in excess 200 pips a week feel free to share your system here ;-)

Hi tommog, interesting question..

If you don't mind me asking, how are you getting on doing this on a part-time basis, and for how long? Are you trying to trade part time around work at the moment. I would guess to a great extent that how well you would do full time, would have at least some relation to how you are doing part time.

Partly I ask as I am in a similar situation myself (and I don't mind telling you that I am about breaking even at the moment, part time) and am interested in you response.

So I guess I haven't answered your question, but perhaps my question to you will shed a little light on the possible starting point to your answer.

Regards,

if you even turned a profit you are doing very well, to other people that claim to be making in excess of 200 pips a week scalping

Click to expand...

In FX "all" you need is to be consistently profitable. After that, it is down to margin and balls as size really isn't a problem. Not like for us frozen shrimp futures traders.

Dear BroadSword,

Thanks for your reply, you are correct i am currently trading part time and i have done for about a year and a half, (although every free minute i have i am trading) and i am just about breaking even. To be honest i am pretty erratic, some days netting a 40-50 pip profit, to getting whipsawed to pieces when the market doesnt want to "play by the rules". I agree with "twalker" that once you can consistently turn a profit you are only limited to how much leverage you have available. However i can't call myself a profitable trader at the moment and believe that this is mainly due to the fact i am not clear on what targets i am likely to achieve, i.e being too greedy and letting profits turn into losses,

Regards

Trade 100 lots: 100 x $10/pip = $1000 x 100 pips profit per month = $100,000 profit per month.

Would that amount be a realistic return for you Tommog ?

The Daily eur/usd chart displays prices from April/04 to April/05, horizontal lines are 100 pip divisions, vertical lines divide calendar months. The channels roughly indicate Day-to-Days 'Buy and Hold' trades. For 'systems' and 'how-to' read the 'Swing & Position Trading' forum posts.