I have this experienced forex trader whom I am taking his course and he says that you should not put more than $2000 in your forex account -- because forex is still unregulated. With $2000 you can control two lots -100 to 1 leverage = $200,000. He says with two lots you can make 5 to ten pips a day on average for most days excepts weekends. $50 to $100 per day on a $2000 account seems unrealistic to me. Any opinions from expereinced forex traders appreciated.
With great rewards come great risks. Yes you might be able to pull out 10% a day or get lucky with a nice move and pull out 50%.... or a bad move that takes your cap from 2,000 down to 1,000 and just a few blinks of the eye. If that doesn't bother you and sounds good, then go for it, if it scares the hell out of you, then try something different.
I am a moderator here, and it is not my job to judge the content of the posts or their validity other than to moderate what ET's terms of use say and to look for spam. I happen to be a trader also and I find myself holding my tongue in this thread as a trader.... not a moderator. There are so many things wrong here, I am studdering. ohhh..nevermind..I am going to the gym. Michael B.
Maybe you should ditch that low-producer guy ASAP and look for someone who is not afraid of leverage and doesn't slack off on weekends. Seriously? Manage to produce 0.5-1% average daily net P&L over time -- say, 200-400 pips monthly at 5:1 leverage, or 214%-792% a year, with monthly compounding -- and you'll easily be in the top 1% of all traders, forex or otherwise. $50 to $100 a day on $2,000 is about 50% to 100% a month, uncompounded. Good to see that trader still makes the time to give something back and teach.
0.5% per day has been my goal for sometime as well. I'm currently at 0.3619% per day and continue to try and improve. But honestly even at this rate I find myself doing rather well for myself.
IB offers intraday margins on CAD contract equivalent to about 150:1 -- probably one of THE best ways if not the best market to blow out with. That is the point of this thread, right?
pbw, like Electric kinda says, where does a trader start to answer this question? I'm not going to touch upon the $2k account and regulation part because there's a BIG issue here and it's trading for a real profit with safety. If I made 20 pips a day per lot I'd be pissed off with that level of performance. 5-10 pips for 2 lots, ie 2.5-5 pips/day is pretty much breakeven trading. What I mean is you have virtually no margin for error. If that's your goal I'd expect a wipeout pretty soon - you need to raise your game. As for what's realistic? That depends on your skill level so your P&L will answer that. Realsitic for you I'd guess is wipeout. To avert disaster, from what you have mentioned so far, I'd suggest you get a better guide to trading Forex.