How much capital does one need to trade forex for a living?

cbyp

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If i want to bring home £1500 a month trading forex, how much would i need to have in the pot initially? £10k? £5k?

I'm going to be using w%R, fib, RSI, EMA, MACD indicators and the sure-fire forex method.
 
I reckon, £100,000 should last you a year, then you might need to remortgage.

JonnyT
 
First you need to know you can be profitable consistantly each or most weeks. Try paper trading.

If you can average 100 pips per month x 15 pounds per pip = 1500 pounds.

Lets say you risk 15 pips per trade = 225 pounds

1% risk of capital per trade would mean you would need 22500.00 pounds

Above example without compounding.
 
It all depends on you. There are people with 5K that bring home 10k+ (2% ) but there are people with much more that bring 0(50%+).

Try your method and indicators on a demo. It shouldn’t be difficult to find out how much you can get with your 5k. Don’t invest real money until you are sure that you can bring something back with the same method and indicators.
 
cbyp
I am assuming you are new to trading here so really you have two options if your looking to make £1500pm

Option 1: start with £100k then lose 90 to 95k over the next year/ year and a half, by this time you will have learnt about risk/reward and will be able to trade with your 5/10k pot which over the next 5 years will grow to around 30/40k with this you will be able to achieve your goal.

Option 2: start with £5k lose £4k and go on holiday with the rest when you return get a job in a bank or post office bureau de change
 
It depends on your trading style really.

But I reckon you need about 36K to make 18K a year (and probably a bit more to cover taxes), anything less and you will need to take big risks.
 
Really depends on the trader.

The media tries to make trading seem this hollywood style industry where we can all get rich if we have a good system. The reality is very different, its a long hard graft and there is no one system that will make you money, the markets "mood" changes everyday and therefore so must your approach, the potential rewards are hollywood but very few traders achieve them.

A VERY good trader could probably average a return £1500 off of 10-12K.

But if you have never traded before, the more money you put in the faster you will go broke.

I would open an account with 1-5K, if after 6 months you are in profit think about stepping your account size up a little.

Dont mean to sound blunt but its safer for your bank balance in the long run if enter trading very very slowly and build up. Some people say you arent a trader untill you've blow a least two accounts, i think thats a little over the top but chances are if this is your first account you will not make a penny for quite some time. Then when you do start making profit you will spend the same time over again getting back to break even. Then on your third attempt you will start building some profits and if you're good the sky is the limit, thats the course nearly every trader will follow.
 
cbyp said:
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If i want to bring home £1500 a month trading forex, how much would i need to have in the pot initially? £10k? £5k?

I'm going to be using w%R, fib, RSI, EMA, MACD indicators and the sure-fire forex method.

If one were to assume that there are 20 trading days in a month, you are looking for a profit of £75 per day. Based on the general theory (not my view) that one should only risk 1% of available capital on any trade and you have a risk/reward ratio 1:1.5; you require capital of -
£75/1.5 x 100 = £5000.
 
A VERY good trader could probably average a return £1500 off of 10-12K

Man starts trading with £10k. Gets 15% return per month. Doesn't spend any, doesn't have to pay taxes. At the end of year 10 he is worth £55,000,000,000.

In my world (planet earth) I don't think this is possible.
 
Personally I recommend not looking as trading as a route to instant riches. Remember the majority of top funds score little more than 35% year-on-year, on average. We are talking about the best and brightest in the field of investment, not just fx.

Recommend basing your targets on a realistic outlook. Aim high, but with constraints. Yes, you can score a lot more from a low capital base, but more often than not you will be taking on a lot more risk as well. I think this is a big reason why so many beginners get burned. Its the lottery ticket approach to investing.
 
I agree with DC and Pip

if you cannot answer the question yourself from your own trading experience then you dont have enough trading experience to even contemplate what it might take.

and dont forget if you trade futures, you pay tax.
 
cbyp said:
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If i want to bring home £1500 a month trading forex, how much would i need to have in the pot initially? £10k? £5k?

I'm going to be using w%R, fib, RSI, EMA, MACD indicators and the sure-fire forex method.

I hope you still keep your current job. Go for demo, and look at the result of your demo account, i guess you will find the answer.
 
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