How much is a realistic profit to aim for

[davidh1819]

Hello

I am planning on starting up a spread betting account with £1000 i am wondering what is a realisting profit to aim for in one year i plan to never risk more than 2% of my account per trade. i understand that i might not even make a profit in one year. my plan is to compound my profits into my account so if i start with £1000 and risk £20 per trade then in one years time i have £2000 i can then risk £40 per trade and if i have £10,000 in several years i risk £200 per trade.

so with a £1000 spreadbetting account trading mainly indices and commodities what is a realistic reaturn 30% per year 60% per year 150% per year? ect ect

any advice and past experiance i would much appriciate

 

[Rhody Trader]

Being break-even after a year as a new trader is not a bad objective. Your focus should be on making good trades, not on performance as you develop. The performance will come as you get better and more experienced.

 

[pboyles]

Hello

I am planning on starting up a spread betting account with £1000 i am wondering what is a realisting profit to aim for in one year i plan to never risk more than 2% of my account per trade. i understand that i might not even make a profit in one year. my plan is to compound my profits into my account so if i start with £1000 and risk £20 per trade then in one years time i have £2000 i can then risk £40 per trade and if i have £10,000 in several years i risk £200 per trade.

so with a £1000 spreadbetting account trading mainly indices and commodities what is a realistic reaturn 30% per year 60% per year 150% per year? ect ect

any advice and past experiance i would much appriciate

The most likely outcome is that you will lose a large percentage of your account and then give up. Most people who try to trade fail, some would have you believe 90 or 95 percent fail.

 

[davidh1819]

The most likely outcome is that you will lose a large percentage of your account and then give up. Most people who try to trade fail, some would have you believe 90 or 95 percent fail.

yes i understand 90% of traders fails that is why i plan to take my first trading years in very conservative manner and be sensible. put it this way i started a spreadbetting demo account with £2500 i one week i was down £2000 when the account shut down i started reading many books on trading most of which were about trading phycology and also a few audio books all of these books explained what loosers do and what winners do and looking back on my first demo account i did everything a looser does and hence i losed £2000 in one week.

After reading many trading books over and over and using the methods the books taught me i have been trading another demo account with a £1000 account i now have £996 in my account after about 15 or so trades and over a period of 2 month big improvment i would say from loosing 2000 pounds in one week to loosing 4 pounds in 2 month.

I belive most new traders fail because they have unrealistic expecations of trading they believe they will be millionairs in a years time which i did belive at first i must admit.. they risk to much loose to much and cant deal with the pain. i understand i wont be a millionair in a year or so from trading its totaly unrealistic.

But i do belive after gathering all the information from my trading books and paper trading. I could be a winner i know it wont be easy and i know it will take a very long time.

 

[bangkoker]

If papertrading, you are not making a profit but hardly losing, why do you want to start trding money. Surely if you have the discipline to papertrade like it was a real account, then you can keep demotrading, until you are happily making gentle gains without many drawdowns and then switch over.. Why not?

In fact after a period of drawdown myself I am thinking of demotrading again for a bit. My account is 5 times its modest starting amount but I have lost a big chunk over the last few weeks, so I count myself lucky.

Therefore I will concentrate on returning a consistent gain and then I will go live again.

In answering your thread I have put myself back on the straight and narrow, so thanks. and good luck:clover:

 

[LazyManForex]

kudos!

-The laziest man at LazyManForex-

 

[LazyManForex]

The kudos was for bangkoker. Couldn't edit post : - )

-The laziest man at LazyManForex-

 

[forker]

yes i understand 90% of traders fails that is why i plan to take my first trading years in very conservative manner and be sensible. put it this way i started a spreadbetting demo account with £2500 i one week i was down £2000 when the account shut down i started reading many books on trading most of which were about trading phycology and also a few audio books all of these books explained what loosers do and what winners do and looking back on my first demo account i did everything a looser does and hence i losed £2000 in one week.

After reading many trading books over and over and using the methods the books taught me i have been trading another demo account with a £1000 account i now have £996 in my account after about 15 or so trades and over a period of 2 month big improvment i would say from loosing 2000 pounds in one week to loosing 4 pounds in 2 month.

I belive most new traders fail because they have unrealistic expecations of trading they believe they will be millionairs in a years time which i did belive at first i must admit.. they risk to much loose to much and cant deal with the pain. i understand i wont be a millionair in a year or so from trading its totaly unrealistic.

But i do belive after gathering all the information from my trading books and paper trading. I could be a winner i know it wont be easy and i know it will take a very long time.

you should continue to demo trade until you showing gains over 6 months (straight or stepped). going live now is just a waste of your money and you be better off saving it for when you can prove your skills. questions like how much risk\how much profit should be a natural part of your process and not something you learn on a live account

 

[LazyManForex]

Ditto!

 

[pjchalmers]

Hi davidh1819
I think you have been given some good advice hear and heed it. It is true that 85% of people who trade loose money but those figures include the pros aswell. This figure mind is pretty much the same for most risk related ares like horse racing, sports betting etc. Betfair find about 10% make reasonable winnings and only 5% make lots. So pretty consistent with trading. Learn as much as you can and dont risk good money till you are more confident and have a method that you have applied and is giving consistent results. Remember there is no holy grail no matter what you read. Dont listen to people or websites when they say they have got a 90% winning system it doesnt happen. I even saw a website yesterday which said no loosing trades in 2 yrs. What a load of rubbish. I am doing really well every month but only have a win rate of average 50% month on month but my wins ratio is on average 3 to 4 times my losses with minimal draw down. So thats reality and thats the sort of figure you need to get to. Hope this helps

 

[belekas]

The market offers endless supplies of pips so you better focus on your trading methodology and proper execution. Just make sure you win more then you loose. In this case just keep going and the fruit will come.

 

[xl145]

Few people can continue win money in one year's practice.Good luck!

 

[PeterPenrose]

Being break-even after a year as a new trader is not a bad objective. Your focus should be on making good trades, not on performance as you develop. The performance will come as you get better and more experienced.

Good reply Rhody,

My view on "How much is a realistic profit to aim for" is to see what the market is offering, you can't really say how much you would like to earn or aim for. I am a trend trader so I need trends to make money.

Peter

 

[Wino]

I would say start with a market you know well, plan each trade with a profit target and an acceptable loss, set tight but not too tight stops and limits, don't EVER think 'it can't go any lower' and I agree that a demo account is a good start.

I started trading bank shares about 18 months ago in S&S ISAs, and once I got to know them well started supplementing my trades with spread bets. I made a few ****-ups on the SB'ing at first, however I am delighted to say I am well back in the green now.

 

[Ambrose Ackroyd]

Do not focus on profits.

Focus on losses .......... how to control and limit them.

That way your capital will be better preserved and you might even stay in the game.

 

[Savana Jhones]

The market offers endless supplies of pips so you better focus on your trading methodology and proper execution. Just make sure you win more then you loose. In this case just keep going and the fruit will come.

Yes, you are right and here, in trading one has to focus more on getting better instead of loosing. There are many things that can be instantaneous. picking up right move will be worth.

 

[jiggly]

get off the demo.

with the solutions and minimum amounts to start trading with, available today you can start trading with such little money on a micro account/flexible lot sizes. There is a gap, still, that you need to bridge between paper trading and trading with real money to progress your skills.

this 'gap' is the psychological aspects of trading, which you will not develop until you make the step from the demo to live. the game changes drastically when your money is on the line, albiet, miniscule amounts.

demo trading any further than familiarising yourself with the platform you intend to use, in my opinion is the biggest waste of time.

open a micro account with a couple hundred dollars.

P.s it is actually very likely that you will blow several accounts before you stand a chance of making it in the long run, blow several, few hundred dollar accounts instead of several 'thousand dollar' accounts.

 

[God Of Pips]

A friend once told me u are ready to trade a live account if you could make 20 trades on twenty different days and not have a single loss. I guess another way to put it is not to rush into things. Playing with real money brings in a range of emotions and basic psychological responses that brings out the worst in us and prompts us to make so many mistakes. This is especially true when your trade is going against you.

I think all traders who are successful today would have blown their first account. Me included.

 

[Jbat001]

A friend once told me u are ready to trade a live account if you could make 20 trades on twenty different days and not have a single loss. I guess another way to put it is not to rush into things. Playing with real money brings in a range of emotions and basic psychological responses that brings out the worst in us and prompts us to make so many mistakes. This is especially true when your trade is going against you.

I think all traders who are successful today would have blown their first account. Me included.

Eh? Nobody (and I mean nobody apart from God himself) can engineer a run of 20 consecutive trades and lose none of them. That's not even close to being realistic. If you win 12 out of 20 trades you can consider it a good period. They key lies in limiting your losses on the losing trades and letting the winners run. Do that, and you could lose 15 trades out of 20 and still be profitable.

I've blown up my account over 30 times, incidentally, over the course of 6 years, so respect the process - it does take time!