How many pips/week is "Killing it" in FX?

Discussion in 'Forex' started by pipscooper, Oct 23, 2005.

How many pips of profit PER WEEK would you consider to be "killing it"?

  1. Anything over breakeven.

    22 vote(s)
    15.3%
  2. 50

    16 vote(s)
    11.1%
  3. 100

    21 vote(s)
    14.6%
  4. 150

    5 vote(s)
    3.5%
  5. 200

    19 vote(s)
    13.2%
  6. 300

    6 vote(s)
    4.2%
  7. 400

    5 vote(s)
    3.5%
  8. 500 pips +

    50 vote(s)
    34.7%
  1. lately

    lately

    See... he's got it!

    The people that are choosing 500 and not posting in this thread... Do you guys make that much? Are you making anything?

    Makes me wonder!
     
    #11     Oct 23, 2005
  2. Fifty pips per week will make you really rich in a fairly short period of time. I'd say 150 pips per week is "killing it." Of course that's for an average week; some weeks you should be happy to make far less and occasionally you should only be happy with making more.

    Cheers,

    TRADERguy
     
    #12     Oct 23, 2005
  3. At this point in time there are 13 votes for 500+; remember that it is very possible that all of the votes came from Coinzy aka FXsKaLpEr, etc.
     
    #13     Oct 23, 2005
  4. empee

    empee

    500 net pips a week is insane. you could also double your money in the stock market every week if you bought the right calls/puts (actually much more), but come on its just stupid, 500 pips a WEEK?
     
    #14     Oct 23, 2005
  5. think about it, if you could just earn $10.00 per hour trading FX. 1 pip.

    240 dollars a day X 5 days a week--1200.00 per week --62400.00 per year.


    surfer:D
     
    #15     Oct 23, 2005
  6. lately

    lately

    A lot of people are swing traders/trading on multiple pairs.

    Also, for SOME reason, there are a lot of people who multiply their true pip count by how many lots they were trading... which is ridiculous. Lol.
     
    #16     Oct 23, 2005
  7. Thanks for the replies guys. Some of the sharper cookies on this thread have pointed out that without certain common underlying assumptions, the poll doesn't mean too much. To clarify:

    Pips attained on a single pair (assuming only one pair is traded) or its equivalent*** on a per lot basis (net pips/units traded)

    ***If you trade a basket of 10 currencies you could add each currency's net profit/loss then divide that by total units traded to get about the same number.

    The poll was designed to skew toward unrealistic expectations. But then again this is ET! :D My own opinion is actually very similar to this one: (I would add that in the real world of trading it isn't possible to trade every day let alone every week and it isn't possible to lever up to infinity. Also, systems don't produce profits linearally. )

    While I agree with late_apex that with "only" 27 pips a week on decent leverage one can make a fantastic annual return. By my calculation on 5:1, at his 27 pip rate you make 70% uncompounded and 99% compounded annually. However I don't understand how he can derive a 10% drawdown from the 27 pip net unless he is just musing with regards to this percent to beat the big hitters? late_apex (and a few others in this thread) is right in that drawdown is a very important part of the picture. One other point is that returns are not linear on a weekly basis - the lower the drawdown the lower the relative roller coaster effect.

    I derive my maximum safe leverage amount from average max weekly drawdown. By average I mean the max weekly DD of the past 3-4 weeks, which for my system seems to be indicative of future weekly drawdowns. If I have a 120 pip average weekly drawdown on a EUR/USD system, and I wish to risk up to a 10% monetary drawdown in my account and I start with $20,000 then at most I can trade: (20,000 * .1)/.0120 = 166,666 units of EUR/USD. But I admit that as a result of Lon Eagle's approach to gearing and comments on capital risk, and in light of the Refco bombshell, I have taken to gearing up and keeping fewer funds at risk, at least in uninsured accounts.
     
    #17     Oct 24, 2005
  8. Looks like you must love statistics very much. :)
     
    #18     Oct 24, 2005

  9. They've also displayed their own brilliance in the fact that with using mathematical approaches to the market. You can succeed quite easily without ever killing yourself.
     
    #19     Oct 24, 2005
  10. Actually, I don't think any approaches have been discussed in this thread. To get back on topic, what weekly result would you consider "killing it"?
     
    #20     Oct 24, 2005