Returns

Ive bought a couple of books covering fundamental and technical analysis, expecting to learn some, and at the end of the year being able to trade profitably. I dont want to get naive here, so what annual returns are profitable forex traders capable of earning on a consisten basis? Are we talking about 8-60% or is it spread more widely like 8-150%?

To be profitable, is it necessary to have profound knowledge of booth fundamental and tecnical analysis, vast experience, and an array of complicated trading tools, and a lot of time to put aside?

Expect returns of between 0 and -100% in the first few years.

as you suggest, its spread over a much wider return percentage, including negative. anything from -100% upward, depending largely on how good you are and how well capitalized. You should consider anything above -100% consistently for a few years to be a good start if you're new to this.

Arbitrageur said:

as you suggest, its spread over a much wider return percentage, including negative. anything from -100% upward, depending largely on how good you are and how well capitalized. You should consider anything above -100% consistently for a few years to be a good start if you're new to this.

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So anything above 100% consistently for a couple of years, if you are new, is just a good start? Sounds a little bit too much. Seeing that the best funds perform about 50% annually.

But i guess such returns are viable due to the high leverage,but consistently and not perceived as jaw dropping performance by the professional traders? Im however not the one to judge....

Actually Arbitrageur said anything above negative 100% over the first few years would be good. That is to say if you don't loose ALL your trading capital at least once then you are ahead of most of the field who try.

Cheers,
PKFFW

epic767 said:

So anything above 100% consistently for a couple of years, if you are new, is just a good start? Sounds a little bit too much.

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i think you might have missed the minus sign in front of that -100% :cheesy:

epic767 said:

Ive bought a couple of books covering fundamental and technical analysis, expecting to learn some, and at the end of the year being able to trade profitably. I dont want to get naive here, so what annual returns are profitable forex traders capable of earning on a consisten basis? Are we talking about 8-60% or is it spread more widely like 8-150%?

To be profitable, is it necessary to have profound knowledge of booth fundamental and tecnical analysis, vast experience, and an array of complicated trading tools, and a lot of time to put aside?

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Which do you reckon's more accurate - the top or bottom curve? ;-)

xy% on the long term (.GT. 5y) as an investment

short term x%
intraday -xy%

well, minus signs are so tiny...

Blackcab: well, did I ask what professoinal traders get? But, yes, if you take all forex traders into account, the curve most likely would look like the bottom one, since a large portion of that population most likely just trade with their gut feeling.

But i still havnt got any of my questions answered..

epic767 said:

well, minus signs are so tiny...

Blackcab: well, did I ask what professoinal traders get? But, yes, if you take all forex traders into account, the curve most likely would look like the bottom one, since a large portion of that population most likely just trade with their gut feeling.

But i still havnt got any of my questions answered..

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To be blunt, I don't think you'll get any of your questions answered by a concrete number.

Those that are extremely profitable, probably aren't spending their time on forums and those who aren't profitable can't give you a good estimate but only know what "could be" achieved or what "might be" possible based on what they heard from other people...

Also, daytrading futures for instance is a whole different game than investing in bonds. Or compare swing trading to a buy-and-hold strategy...

I'll leave you with one final thought: there are ample opportunities to make serious money in the market, but there are even more ways to lose money... Once you've found something of a strategy or system that seems to work, you'll soon discover that trading can be very rewarding financially. But it all depends on how much time and work you're willing to put into it...