A very interesting topic that is found from another site: Realistic (with reasonable MaxDD) annual return (individually; positive or negative) from currency trading in long term, based on your past experience?
The similar thread in another site is a quite popular one there. The first responded post there was +30%pa, without mentioning leverage or MaxDD!
I have yet to meet anyone who actually made it and I haven't made it myself. But, I read in (I think it was in David Nassar's book: Market Evaluation and Analysis for Swing Trading) that day traders can make 400% to 500% per year while swing traders can make 300% to 400% per year. I have no ways to back up that statement at all. I just read it. I found some comments in that book pretty interesting though. Like he said some analysts are not good traders and some good traders are not good analysts. And the fact he said a human being should be able to beat a system. Anyway, it was an interesting although difficult to understand read. But not as difficult to understand as "The Master Swing Trader" by Alan Farley. I'll be trading for a while before I start to understand a bigger chunk of that book. It's odd though that those two books are the only ones that really bother to explain things like Bollinger Bands and the DMI (Directional Movement Indicator). OK, I'm way off topic here...