Oh the sweet Lady Discipline. She is the mistress, confidant and caregiver of all successful traders. I
Don't know about consistent 10 pips a day, but equivalent of 200 pips a month is pretty doable and even not above average I'd say for a seasoned trader (especially daytrader). Of course most FX brokers are scam, but there are good ones also (I have positive experience with IB's IDEALPRO). Plus there is always an option of trading FX futures on GLOBEX.
All evidence to the contrary, there seem to be several people in this thread doing quite well trading forex. I suspect it might not be the choice of market and/or broker which are the problem most of the time.
10 pips a day isn't too tough. What's important is your MM. If you know how to utilize it, you can have days where you finish -30 pips but with a profit of $450.
$5000 account with IB. 1 CAD Future contract. 200 pips a month = $2000. $24,000 per year generated from a $5000 account. Add more contracts as margin allows and the return on that $5000 gets even more outrageous. This sort of return is not "pretty doable and even not above average", it is extraordinary and is not sustainable.
When I opened this thread I didn't expect 21 pages in three days, but THANK YOU to the posters that offered germane responses. I would like to ask several of you more specific questions: ============================================================== BATHROBE: Your selection above/below pivots & S/R lines looks like a overbought/oversold strategy with extra breathing room against the whipsaw problem that can be quite ugly in my experience. How many pips outside of S/R do you go outside and what is your percentage hit rate pan out to be for getting filled? In your statement "let profits run", what time frame do you mean? Intraday, overnight, days, weeks, months? ================================================================ Icarus5: Your comment on the gent that only traded forex monthly hits home with me because I put on Aussie/Loonie forex positions in 2007Q1 and they far exceeded my short term futures trading (possibly due to my poor short term trading ability/inexperience). Possibly the longer term horizon extends beyond the algo/scalper trading price noise and all that is left are the true underlying drivers from the currency. What is the shortest trading time frame that you think is still 'longer' than the time frame of interest to the 'noise' traders? ================================================================== Cabletrader: I found your post of trades quite impressive. Can you explain your philosophy of short term trading and what triggers you to go into and out of the market? Your scaling process is also impressive. Would you comment on your philosophy? Your winning percentage is very high. What do you attribute this to? Are you an individual trader? If not, what kind of operation are you in? ==================================================================== Bobblong: Your comments ring quite true to my experience. The cheetah vid elegantly conveys your concept of "stalking the charts". You mention you "trade short term" and are not a "scalper". Can you tell us about your trade time frame and what method triggers you moving from 'stalking' mode to 'attack' mode? ==================================================================== Giles117: Thanks for the detail on your trade timing. Your approach has the smart stalking flavor also. What moves you from 'stalking' to 'attack' mode? When you go overnight, do you have an alarm to jog you out of bed on a reversal or do you go with hard stops? ====================================================================== RWK: I loved your statement about how trading can be "exciting and boring, sometimes both at once, but I am not looking for either." I am near your age bracket, but far from matching your automated trading experience. Can you tell us about your automation plan and how you get around the issues of computer/network/broker failures, trading around news releases, etc? ======================================================================= Thanks to ALL! and a Happy and Valuable New Year! T200K
i know people who manage to make a lot more than 10 pips a day on forex. Renshi from autralia in particular, this guy is insane. if you cant make 10 pips a day on forex, might as well get a job but on the other end i know at least 100 people who failed miserably trading so its doable, but you gotta be good.