good trades have a high sharp ratio and usually return a small monthly ROI anyone claiming 1000% returns in either BS or trading paper.
I am trying to post a picture of an actual LIVE account report from someone that started with $700 a year ago, dropped to $424.30 by March 1st 2008, closed $5298.10 profit for this month and still has open Profit of $4044(+-) at the time of this posting. Starting with $424 and closing $5300 gives a monthly return of 1250% not counting open P & L. Involves using tight stops (as you can tell from the slow decline from 700 to 424) careful entries, pyramiding positions, and risking profits instead of original capital on subsequent entries. Careful and prudent use of leverage is also a must. It is possible. Patience and persistence are key.
IMO, those heroic paper returns use positive expectancy strats with insane position sizing. Wouldn't be surprised to see position sizes at 5% to 10% of total capital. Certainly doable. But sizing up that big on a real account? Don't think so. Well, maybe
It is a real account with real money. And yes to put on a 10k position takes somewhere between $50 and $75 for the margin requirements. So that is certainly over 10% of account at the beginning of March. Even the pip spread of 3-4 pips is 1% of the account. And most rules of thumb say only risk 2% per trade. I assure you 2% risk is not happening here. However, that total is not the amount risked, only the amount needed to place the trade. The stop is much tighter most of the time. Obviously with an account that size the risk of blowing up is huge if margin and stops are not carefully used. It's kind of a "take a trade to test the waters and see what happens" approach. As far as scaling up, this is being done on a REAL MONEY account. To do it of any "REAL SIZE" depends on how big the trader's "stones" are, if you know what I mean. That's where individual psychology comes in. Some think it is easier to watch 5k of profits on a 1k account disappear than to watch 500k evaporate on a 100k account. Even though they are the same %, the latter would have a greater real world effect on most people's lives. But which is "better trading?" Again, after a trade is profitable, some of that profit is risked on the next trades. Playing with the "house's money", if you will.
Take a look at this: How I Turned 1k To 100k In A Wk!!! http://www.forexfactory.com/showthread.php?t=56670
Hi Achilles28. It's not a contest link. I was trying to post a screen shot of the March '08 equity report of the account I was telling you about just to show that it is indeed possible to post 1000%+ returns in a month with real money and somewhat prudently. But 1k to 100k in a week, as another poster stated, really puts the numbers I gave to shame.
if you want to attempt to copy them just dont trade forex like a sucker at a retail chop house like fxcm
Only fools believe in Paper-trading contests, remember CNBC? Lets talk about real money contests, anyone?
crgarcia Only fools believe in Paper-trading contests, remember CNBC? Lets talk about real money contests, anyone? Real -money(where capital riskied ) contest*s https://secure.ibfx.com/Contest/ContestResults.aspx 250 $ minimum account ,Dissadvantage -Mt4 platform http://www.learncurrencytrading.com/fxforum/forumdisplay.php?f=156 1000$ minimum 4000 competitors each month Championat de France ,for stock 1000 euro minimum Exist alsov some another*s - russian RTS ( 1200 $ accounit minimum,3 month ) PFG CTA (50 k$ account minimum) ****************** Best observed result was 855% on 3000$ per month by fxcm contest. Before was Xpresstrade(until merger with OXPS) future contest with account minimum 5000$ , best result was some 800+% for 3 month.