Quanto Ganha Pela Negociação Forex

3 Things I Wish I Knew When I Started Trading Forex Trading Forex is not a shortcut to instant wealth. Excessive leverage can turn winning strategies into losers. Retail sentiment can act as a powerful trading filter. Everyone comes to the Forex market for a reason, ranging between solely for entertainment to becoming a professional trader. I started out aspiring to be a full-time, self sufficient Forex trader. I had been taught the perfect strategy. I spent months testing it and backtests showed how I could make 25,000-35,000 a year off of a 10,000 account. My plan was to let my account compound until I was so well off, I wouldnt have to work again in my life. I was dedicated and I committed myself to the plan 100. Sparing you the details, my plan failed. It turns out that trading 300k lots on a 10,000 account is not very forgiving. I lost 20 of my account in 3 weeks. I didnt know what hit me. Something was wrong. Luckily, I stopped trading at that point and was fortunate enough to land a job at a Forex broker, FXCM. I spent the next couple of years working with traders around the world and continued to educate myself about the Forex market. It played a huge role in my development to be the trader I am today. 3 years of profitable trading later, its been my pleasure to join the team at DailyFX and help people become successful or more successful traders. The point of me telling this story is because I think many traders can relate to starting off in this market, not seeing the results that they expected and not understanding why. These are the 3 things I wish I knew when I started trading Forex. 1 ndash Forex is Not a Get Rich Quick Opportunity Contrary to what yoursquove read on many websites across the web, Forex trading is not going to take your 10,000 account and turn it into 1 million. The amount we can earn is determined more by the amount of money we are risking rather than how good our strategy is. The old saying ldquoIt takes money to make moneyrdquo is an accurate one, Forex trading included. But that doesnrsquot mean it is not a worthwhile endeavor after all, there are many successful Forex traders out there that trade for a living. The difference is that they have slowly developed over time and increased their account to a level that can create sustainable income. I hear about traders all the time targeting 50, 60 or 100 profit per year, or even per month, but the risk they are taking on is going to be pretty similar to the profit they are targeting. In other words, in order to attempt to make 60 profit in a year, its not unreasonable to see a loss of around 60 of your account in a given year. But Rob, I am trading with an edge, so I am not risking as much as I could potentially earn you might say. Thats a true statement if you have a strategy with a trading edge. Your expected return should be positive. but without leverage, it is going to be a relatively tiny amount. And during times of bad luck, we can still have losing streaks. When we throw leverage into the mix, thats how traders attempt to target those excessive gains. Which in turn is how traders can produce excessive losses. Leverage is beneficial up to point, but not when it can turn a winning strategy into a loser. 2 Leverage Can Cause a Winning Strategy to Lose Money This is a lesson I wish I had learned earlier. Excessive leverage can ruin an otherwise profitable strategy. Lets say I had a coin that when heads was hit, you would earn 2, but when tails was hit, you would lose 1. Would you flip that coin My guess is absolutely you would flip that coin. Youd want to flip it over and over. When you have a 5050 chance between making 2 or losing 1, its a no-brainer opportunity that youd accept. Now lets say I have the same coin, but this time if heads is hit, you would triple your net worth but when tails was hit, you would lose every possession you own. Would you flip that coin My guess is you would not because one bad flip of the coin would ruin your life. Even though you have the exact same percentage advantage in this example as the example above, no one in their right mind would flip this coin. The second example is how many Forex traders view their trading account. They go all-in on one or two trades and end up losing their entire account. Even if their trades had an edge like our coin flipping example, it only takes one or two unlucky trades to wipe them out completely. This is how leverage can cause a winning strategy to lose money. So how can we fix this A good start is by using no more than 10x effective leverage. 3 Using Sentiment as a Guide Can Tilt the Odds in Your Favor The 3rd lesson Ive learned should come as no surprise to those that follow my articles. using the Speculative Sentiment Index (SSI). Ive written many articles about this topic. Its the best tool Ive ever used and is still a part of almost every trading strategy I am using, present day. SSI is a free tool that can be found here that tells us how many traders are long compared to how many traders are short each major currency pair. Its meant to be used as a contrarian index where we want to do the opposite of what everyone else is doing. Using it as a direction filter for my trades has turned my trading career completely around. Learn From My Mistakes If I could tell my younger self 3 things before I began trading Forex, this would be the list I would give. I hope they help your trading as much as its helped mine. ---Written by Rob Pasche DailyFX provides forex news and technical analysis on the trends that influence the global currency markets. How Much Do Currency Traders Make Question: How Much do Currency Traders Make Currency traders are a bit of a rare breed. What they make can vary widely depending on what type of trader they are and how much experience they have. In general, how much money you make will depend on what currencies you trade, what leverage you use, and how much capital you have. Why This Is The Right amp Wrong Question To Ask At The Same Time: Of course, the reason youre here in the first place because youre looking to make money. No one falls you for that, and thats perfectly good reason to embark on foreign exchange trading. The problem with the question in my view is that its a long-term goal to make money consistently in the FX market is short-term goals have to come before the long-term goals for the long-term goals to be achieved. Just like a concert violinist who want to perform on stage for paying customers for the joy of it, they will need to have years of short-term goals of building the skills necessary to get there. The Forex traders are no different. There is no shortage of people telling you how to trade or waste to trade, but you will need to find the skills and hone the skills for the strategy you will trade. Therefore, the better question to ask in my opinion is: What skills are required to make money in FX trading This site works to answer those questions and more as you started in your FX trading. Just like the violinist needs to know what skills need to be learned before they can perform on stage, the FX trader will have skills they will need a master before they can think about how much they can withdraw a monthly basis consistently. Here is how your earnings are affected: First: How much money you have Forex is fairly risky, whether you are trading high or low risk, the amount of trading you can do will always depend on how much money you have to trade. Second: How much leverage you use In forex trading, brokers offer leverage. which means you can put on trades for more than you have. Might be a good thing, or might be a bad thing, but either way, it affects your trading. If you like to take heavy risks, you can see heavy account fluctuations in the positive or negative. Third: What kind of currencies you trade Some currencies are slow movers. They are good for beginners, or large traders. Obviously, if you are trading fast moving currencies, it can make a big difference in what you make. What you make is up to you, but the foreign exchange market is risky, and it is not for everyone. It takes a trader that can take an honest look at themselves and learn from their mistakes. For more information on forex trading and the latest news and updates, you can follow me on facebook and twitterHow Much Money Can I Make As a Day Trader How Much Money Can I Make As a Day Trader 8211 Here we8217ll look at income potential for stock, forex and futures day traders. Let8217s face it, this is what traders and potential traders want to know82118220How much money can I make as a day trader8221 Obviously there is a massive range of income potential when it comes to day traders. It is quite possible that some people will still need to work another job, but manage to pull a little money of the market each month through day trading. There are those who can live comfortably on what they make day trading, and there is the small percentage who will make a lot. There is also a large group of want-to-be traders who will fail. and never make any money. How much money you make as a day trader is largely determined by: Which market you trade . Each market has different advantages. Stocks are generally the most capital-intensive asset class, so if you trade another asset class such as futures or forex you can generally start trading with less capital. How much money you start with . If you start trading with 2,000 your income potential (in dollars) is far less than someone who starts with 20,000. How much time you put in to your trading education . To create consistent day trading income8211where you have a solid trading plan and are able to implement it8211will likely take a year or more if you dedicate yourself to it full-time. If you only practice part-time, it may take a number of years to develop real consistency and attain the type of returns discussed below. Your income potential is also determined by your personality (are you disciplined and patient) and the strategies you use. These issues are not our focus here. If you want trading strategies, trading tutorials or articles on trading psychology you can visit the Trading Tutorials page, or check out my Forex Strategies Guide eBook. Income potential is also based on volatility in the market. The scenarios below assume a certain number of trades each day, with a certain risk and profit potential. In very slow market conditions you may find fewer trades than discussed, but in active market conditions you may find more trades. Over time, the average number of trades balances out, but on any given day, week or month you could have more or fewer trades than average8230which will affect the income that month. Now, let8217s go through a few scenarios to answer the question, 8220How much money can I make as a day trader For all the scenarios I will assume that you never risk more than 1 of your account on a single trade. Risk is the potential loss on a trade, defined as the difference between the entry price and stop loss price, multiplied by how many units of the asset you take (called position size ). There is no reason to risk more than 1 of your account. As I will show, even with keeping risk low (1 or less per trade) you can potentially earn high returns. The numbers below are based purely on mathematical models , and are not meant to indicate you will make this much, nor indicate this is how much I make. The numbers below should be considered the very high end of what day traders make, with the average falling well below the monthly returns discussed below. The numbers below are used to show the potential, but are not intended to reflect typical returns. As indicated in the first paragraph, most traders fail. How Much Money Can I Make Day Trading Stocks Day trading stocks is probably the most well-know day trading market, but it is also the most capital-intensive. In the USA you must have at least 25,000 in your day trading account, otherwise you can8217t trade (see: How Much Money Do I Need to Become a Day Trader ). To stay above this threshold, fund your account with more than 25,000. Assume you start trading with 30,000. You use 4:1 leverage, which gives you 120,000 in buying power (4 x 30,000). You utilize a strategy that makes you 0.21 on winning trades and you lose 0.12 on losing trades. With slippage. or being forced to exit some trades early to due to news coming out or the market closing, let8217s assume over the course of a month your average winning trade actually ends up being 0.20 and your average loser ends up being 0.13. With a 30,000 account, the absolute most you can risk on each trade is 300 (1 of 30,000). Since your stop loss is 0.12, you can take a position size of 2300 shares (the stock will need to be priced below 50 in order to take this position size, otherwise you won8217t have enough buying power). To get those types of stats from a trade, you8217ll likely need to trade stocks that are 30, with some volatility and lots of volume (see How to Find Volatile Stocks for Day Trading ). A good trading system will win 50 of the time. You average 5 trades per day, so if you have 20 trading days in a month, you make 100 trades per month. 50 of them were profitable: 50 x 0.20 x 2300 shares 23,000 50 of them were unprofitable: 50 x 0.13 x 2300 shares ( 14,950) You net 8,050, but you still have commissions and possibly some other fees. While this is likely on the high-end, assume your cost per trade is 20 (total, to get in and out). Your commission costs are: 100 trades x 20 2000. If you pay for your chartingtrading platform, or exchange entitlements then those fees are added in as well. Therefore, with a decent stock day trading strategy, and 30,000 (leveraged at 4:1), you can make roughly: 8,050 8211 2000 6,050month or about a 20 monthly return . Remember, you are actually utilizing about 100,000 to 120,000 in buying power on each trade (not just 30,000). This is simply a mathematical formula, and would require finding a stock where you could make this reward:risk ratio five times a day. That could prove difficult. Also, you are highly leveraged, and there is a chance of catastrophic loss if a stock where to move aggressively against you and your stop loss became ineffective. You could face a significant lose or even lose your entire account where the price to move even several percentage points against you (unable to exit at planned exit point). How Much Money Can I Make Day Trading Futures To trade an E-mini SampP 500 futures contract you should have at least 7,500 in your futures trading account. That will allow you to trade one contract with a reasonable stop loss and still only risk 1 of capital (see Minimum Capital Required to Trade Futures ). Let8217s assume you have 15,000 to start your trading account. Once again you only risk 1 of your capital, or 150, on any single trade. Each tick8211the smallest movement8211in an E-mini SampP 500 contract results in a lossgain of 12.50. If you risk up to 150 on each trade, that means you can trade 2 contracts and risk 6 ticks on each trade for a total risk of 150. Your risk is 6 ticks, and you will try to make 9 ticks. Of course, sometimes we need to get out of a trades a little early, so assume the average winner only ends up being 8 ticks, and the average loss is 5 ticks. A 8 tick win is 100 for each contract. A 5 tick loss is 62.5 for each contract. A good trading system will win 50 of the time. Assume you average 5 trades per day, so if you have 20 trading days in a month, you make 100 trades per month. 50 of them were profitable: 50 x 100 x 2 contracts 10,000 50 of them were unprofitable: 50 x 62.5 x 2 contracts ( 6250) You make 3750, but you still have commissions and possibly some other fees. Your cost per trade is 5contract (round-trip). Your commission costs are: 100 trades x 5 x 2 contracts 1000. If you pay for your chartingtrading platform, or exchange entitlements add those fees in as well (recommended trading platform for futures trading is NinjaTrader ). Therefore, with a decent futures day trading strategy, and a 15,000 account, you can make roughly: 3750- 1000 2750month or about a 18 monthly return. This is simply a mathematical formula, and would require finding five trades a day that offer this reward:risk. That could prove difficult. Also, you are highly leveraged, and there is a chance of catastrophic loss if a market where to move aggressively against you and your stop loss became ineffective. You could face a significant lose or even lose your entire account where the price to move even several percentage points against you (unable to exit at planned exit point). How Much Money Can I Make Day Trading Forex Forex is the least capital-intensive market to trade. Leverage up to 50:1 (higher in some countries) means you can open an account for as little as 100. I don8217t recommend this. If you want to make money, start with at least 3000. Only risk 1 of your capital. Each pip of movement in the forex market results in a10 gainloss if you trade a standard lot (100,000 in currency). Each pip with a mini lot (10,000 in currency) is worth 1. Each pip with a micro lot (1,000 in currency) is worth 0.10. 8220Pip value 8221 varies based on the currency pair you are trading, but the above figures apply to the EURUSD, which is the recommended currency pair for day trading . Assume your strategy limits risk to 8 pips, you attempt to make 13 pips on winners and you have a 5,000 account. With 8 pips of risk you can trade 6 mini lots8211which equals 48 of risk per trade. This is less than your maximum risk of 50 (1 of 5,000). A 13 pip win is 13 for each mini lot. A 8 pip loss is 8 for each mini lot. A good trading system will win 50 of the time. You averaged 5 trades per day, so if you have 20 trading days in a month, you make 100 trades. 60 of them were profitable: 50 x 13 x 6 mini lots 3900 40 of them were unprofitable: 50 x 8 x 6 mini lots ( 2400) If day trading forex, use an ECN broker. ECN brokers offer the tightest spreads, which in turn makes it easier for your targets to be reached. Commissions with a good ECN broker will run between 0.3 and 0.5 for each round trip trade per mini lot. Therefore, commission costs are 100 trades x 6 micro lots x 0.5 300. Therefore, with a decent forex day trading strategy, and a 5,000 account, you can make roughly: 1500 8211 300 1200month or 24 monthly return. Once again this may seem extremely high, but you are actually using 60,000 in capital to generate that return. Your position size is 6 mini lots, which is 60,000. Therefore, to attain that return requires at least 12:1 leverage. Your return on your own capital is very high, but your return on buying power (60,000) is a more modest 4 monthly return. Leverage is very powerful. This is simply a mathematical formula, and would require finding five trades a day that offer this reward:risk. That could prove difficult. Also, you are highly leveraged, and there is a chance of catastrophic loss if a market where to move aggressively against you and your stop loss became ineffective. You could face a significant lose or even lose your entire account where the price to move even several percentage points against you (unable to exit at planned exit point). How Much Money Can I Make As a Day Trader 8211 Final Word All scenarios, and income potential, are assuming you are one of the few day traders who reaches this level and can make a living from the markets. At the beginning of article it was stated that a large group of day traders fail8230only about 4 of people who attempt day trading will even be profitable. The very profitable traders will be an even much smaller percentage. Each market uses different capital amounts, so don8217t think one market is better than anther based solely on the dollar returns. The major distinction is simply that to get involved in stocks you need the most capital, and you need the least to get started with forex. Futures trading falls in the middle. All are great and profitable markets if you find a strategy that allows you to replicate the stats discussed above. The exact figures don8217t matter8230for example a 0.12 stop loss and a 0.18 target. Basically you just want to make sure your wins are bigger than your losses and you need to win about as often as you lose. Note that you can8217t perpetually compound your account at these returns . Most day traders trade with a set amount of capital and withdraw all profits over and above that amount each month. To understand why, please read Why Day Traders Make Great Returns But Aren8217t Millionaires. It contains important information about managing expectations and building wealth. Plug different numbers into the scenarios above and you8217ll see infinite ways to trade8230and very small changes can have a huge impact on profitability. The scenarios are setup so you only win a bit more than you lose, and your winning trades are only a bit bigger than your losing trades. In the real world, that is typically how day trading goes. The problem is that most traders can8217t handle losing 40 to 45 of the time. They think they are doing something wrong and keep switching strategies. This constant flip-flopping of strategies results in losing even more often. Maintain discipline, keep your wins slightly bigger than your losses, and strive to win 50 of your trades. Do this, and you may join the small ranks of successful traders. Winning 50 of the time is not as easy at it sounds though, and you may not be able to find 5 valid trades per day in all market conditions, like in the examples. Expect variance in your income from month to month. And also realize, that when you utilize leverage you have a very real possibility of experiencing a catastrophic loss. Stop losses aren8217t always effective, and you could lose more money that you deposited with your broker if the market moves significantly against you before you can get out of the trade. Over 300 pages of Forex basics and 20 Forex strategies for profiting in the 24-hours-a-day Forex market. This isnt just an eBook, its a course to build your trading skill step by step. Follow me on Twitter corymitc and check out our Facebook page . Aaron Wilds says: I am self employed and in my early 408217s I have a few thousand in a mutual fund and some money in life insurance etc. I have a tdameritrade accout. Do you have or know of a good course that can teach someone like me how to start off with say 5,000.00 and make money..500.00 8211 1000.00 each month pretty consistently I8217m trying to find a way to grow my money with minimal risk each month over the next 10 years so by the time I8217m 55 or so I have turned that 5,000.00 into 100,000 or more8230if I made an average of just over 400.00 per month for the next 10 years I8217d have over 50,000 dollars in this account. Factor in buyer power and regular contributions over the same ten years wouldn8217t my actual cash value in the account be more like 100k or higher I just need to do this..I need training and someone trustworthy who is not just trying to sell me a bag of goods8230. Cory Mitchell, CMT says: Long-term goals are good. But I personally don8217t like to think in dollar amounts. Most traders find a return they are comfortable with and that is what they make (it MAY be a dollar amount, or a percentage amount, or a certain number of pips in the forex market). So until you start learning some strategies and making some trades yourself, it8217s hard to tell what kind of return you will make. Everyone is different8230even if they are trading the same strategy. Some people are more aggressive, some people are more conservative, some people can trade all day, some people can trade for an hour. But 10 per month is reasonable8230but not easy. Expect to work hard for at least 6 months to a year before you start to see income. Several months will be spent in a demo account trading fake money and making sure you can actually make a profit. If can8217t make money in a fake account (following the exact strategy you will use for real ) then there is no point trading real money. Even once you know it strategy it takes time to learn all the variables to watch for, and to develop the confidence to place trades exactly when they need to placed (not a second before or a second after). You have some things to work on first. I assume you are interested in day trading With 5000 you can8217t day trade stocks (in the US), futures require at least that much, so you are pretty much left with currenciesforex. I would read through some of the free forex content in the Tutorials drop down menu for a basic understanding of the market and some general strategies to get you started and practicing in a demo account. I don8217t offer personal mentoring, but I do respond to comments on all the articles posted on the site. I have compiled a Forex Guide (vantagepointtradingforex-day-trading-and-swing-trading-strategy-guide ), so that combined with the loads of free content and being able to ask questions in the comments should give you good based to start from. Cheers, Cory Jay French says: Thanks for the comprehensive overview Just one quick question regarding the day trading section: Wouldn8217t trading equities up to 2300 shares a day (for a total of 20 days) violate the freeriding trading policy In other words, can I apply all of my buying power for each of the 20 trading days and still sell all my positions at the end of each day and not violate the policy If I am understanding the day trading scenario correctly and we are assuming that we are trading up to 2300 shares each day, we are using most of our 120K buying power for each day 8211 2300 shares x approx 50share (maximum) 115K. If we sell all our positions that day, our buying power will reset to 120K the next day however, we should not be able to sell any additional positions until the T3 settlement rule kicks in. So, instead of having 20 trading days, we would only have about 6 trading days for a total of 30 actual trades (6 x 5 trades a day). Please let me know if I am not understanding the freeriding rule correctly because it would awesome if I could max out my buying power each day Thank you for your time. Cory Mitchell, CMT says: It is best to check with your broker (or the broker you intend to trade with)8230so you and them are both clear on how you wish to trade and can handle any issues now before you begin day trading. I have never experienced a problem with this. Day traders often make MANY trades in the same (and different) stocks each day. As long as those trades are closed at or before the closing bell, there shouldn8217t be an issue. Most day traders use all, or most of, their capital in a day8230or even WAY more, if you add up the value of many trades which could be taken in a day. As long as you have capital (and margin) to cover all your trades, you are fine. Your broker will net your trades and you get the profit or loss on the trades addedsubtracted from your capital (this is all tracked in real-time in your trading accountsoftware). As long as your positions are closed before the closing bell, no need to worry about settlement too much. BUT AGAIN8230check with your broker so you are in full compliance with any day trading rules they may specifically have (some brokers impose additional restrictions, etc). Overall, it shouldn8217t be an issue. Is it possible to have an experienced day trader create a platform, to simply trade with someone else8217s money, and that someone pays a percentage of profit. Cory Mitchell, CMT says: FOR DAY TRADING: You would likely experience problems before these limits though. Your broker may impose a day trading limit on your positions, and if they don8217t, you will experience liquidity issues the larger your positions get. In the S038P 500 Emini you can easily trade 10 to 30 contracts at a time. As you start getting bigger (and even in the 10 to 30 contract range) you will start to get partially filled on your winning trades but always receive all the contracts on a losing trade. So how many contracts you trade without negatively impacting your own performance will depend on the strategy, the futures market you are a trading, whether you add or remove liquidity and whether you accumulatedispose of positions at multiple levels or just one. But in a liquid contract like the S038P 500 Emini you can easily trade 10 to 20 contracts. 30, you are becoming a bigger player and will likely notice performance degradation (again, will depend on the variables mentioned prior). Above 4050 contracts, how you manage your positions (getting into and out of them) is as much a factor as the strategy you use8230position management becomes a strategy in itself. SWING TRADING: positions size is less of a factor when holding your trades for multiple days because you have more time to accumulate and unload positions. Here, it is your capital that will cap your position size. I want to start trading but not not got a trading account yet, but my question is when I do set a trading account up what is the lease amount of money I can put in my trading account where I can start making a good amount of money. thanks Cory Mitchell, CMT says: Its takes a long time to 8220make good money.8221 Expect to put in a year or more of research and practice before you can make ANY amount of money consistently each month (see this article: vantagepointtradingarchives13591 ) How much capital you need varies by market, and whether you want to day trade or swing trade. Since this is a day trading article, I will assume you are interested in day trading. For how much money you need to day trade, see: vantagepointtradingarchives5901 Open a real account only after you have proven to yourself that you can profitable in a demo account for several months in a row. is it possible to eventually make a living with starting capital of 5000 or have most full time traders started with much more I don8217t need a time frame I8217m just curious to know if it8217s even possible. Cory Mitchell, CMT says: You can eventually make a living off that. If you live in a cheaper country, you can even make a living off just the 5000. If you make 20 a month (less than described above), you either make 1000month, or you can continue to grow your capital until you reach an income level you are comfortable with. This does take time though8212expect to practice for at least 6 months to a year before you start to see profitable returns in a demo account. Then another few months to acclimatize yourself to trading with real money. And most trades fail8230more than 95 of those who attempt it. So it is possible, but not common. I have a 5000 account to start with. Is it possible to one day make a living from trading or does this only happen when people start with 20, 30, 40k since they can make more Good write up. I haven8217t been able to replicate these results in my own trading, but I can see how these figures are possible once a person finds consistency and develops a solid plan for catching fluctuations. btw, the reason why I suggest in stocks one can make more when daytrading is because of more abundant opportunities with news driven andor momentum events, no For example, this guy averages 2 day on a small account because he can get on the right side of momentum. twittermadaznfootballr This is different than pattern and momentum trading on FX or futures, which seems less predictable (more computer algo dominated) and less opportunistic to me. Cory Mitchell, CMT says: I prefer boring any day. I trade the trends that occur, and step aside for news events (only entering after into normal trend trades). My bread and butter is being able to trade everyday boring moves. That8217s just me. For some people, there may be more opportunity in some markets than others, but for me, I do the exact same thing no matter what market I trade, so the results are pretty much exactly the same. I do trade big momentum moves as they occur in forex, stocks and futures. Some days are bigger, but that is just what the market provides, and not a function of the market I am trading. All markets provide ample opportunity (way more than any trader can take advantage of). Of course, each person trades in their own way, so if they have a strategy that works on stock-based news events, but nothing else, then they should trade stocks. But I can only speak for me. I focus on boring everyday trends, which makes how I trade fairly universal across markets, and not much changes when I switch from one market to another8230except that stocks require a lot more capital for the same return I get elsewhere. Don8217t dismiss a market just because you don8217t know how to trade it, or haven8217t met someone who trades it (called availability bias). Your objections are hearsay, from people who haven8217t mastered that market. I should also point out that I could care less if I am trading against all algos. That is a journalist-created demon, which really doesn8217t affect a solid and adaptable trader in the least. It8217s all just buy and selling8230just like it always has been. If you talked to forex traders, they will say that trading forex is great. If you talk to futures traders they will say trading futures is great. All these markets exist because people succeed at trading them (while the mast majority lose). Whether you trade stocks, forex or futures, your odds or success are the same (low), but that doesn8217t change the fact that there are loads of traders in each that make money consistently. By all means trade stocks if you like them. But forex and futures are also viable options. Put 6 months to a year of hard work into any market, and your odds of success are the same, and your income likely will be as well. Have traded all three markets, profitably, for multiple years, I can say that without question. The only difference is the capital you need to trade them (and a few details like trading hours, etc). I mostly focus on forex because it is the easiest market to get into for the everyday person who doesn8217t have a lot of capital to work with. But that said, trade what interests you most. I agree that the good traders stay silent. Thanks for your knowledgeable response. I just still disagree with your analysis of returns possible in FX and futures. No way anyone can consistently pull out 15-20 per month. If they could, they would be managing a successful, small hedge fund and the world would know about it. The only place anyone can consistently pull out those returns with reasonable RR is with small accounts in small to midcap equities. Or MAYBE a combo of FX, futures, and equities, but primarily in equities. I just think you should be steering newer traders away from FX and futures if possible since it is way harder to find trades with context and tempting to overtrade. Technical trading alone in FX and futures can still lead to big drawdowns. And how could any new trader expect to compete with algos anyway Cory Mitchell, CMT says: Agreed, returns like this are limited to smaller accounts8230typically under 100,000 for futures and forex which are highly leveraged markets (at least in my case). I discuss this in Why Day Traders Make Big Returns But Aren8217t Millionaires: vantagepointtradingarchives17125. In my case, since I mostly focus on forex (and occasionally futures) I actually don8217t have much use for more than 70,000 when day trading (but I use more because I am swing tradinginvesting etc.). Day trading with more than that and my profits stay the same or start to drop as more capital is added. So you are correct, as soon as large sums of money (hedge fund) are involved, the returns drop because it becomes harder to find liquidity and great trades with more capital 8230but my focus here is the individual trader, who CAN make seemingly high returns. Day trading most of these markets since 2005, the forex market has by far been the most lucrative for me (in terms of returns). There is so much money passing back and forth that based on my strategies it seems to be the easiest to day trade. Stocks I also like, but the lack of leverage can SOMETIMES make ideal position sizing impossible (as I always risk 1 of my capital per trade). Futures are also good, and another market I really like because of the inherent leverage in them. But I disagree on steering traders away from futures and FX. If you know what you are looking for, these are more lucrative markets, because much less capital can be utilized effectively. Having traded all these markets8211and I only day trade for 2 hours a day, in the US morning8211I typically find the same number of trades in each, and the rewardrisk on the trades are typically the same. So with pretty much everything being equal, I choose forex or futures because they are more accessible to the person starting out with a smaller bankroll. The Small or midcap equities doesn8217t matter8230if you are risking 1 and using a similar riskreward parameter on your trade, it doesn8217t matter if you trade a penny stock or a 500 stock. YOu lose 1 or make 1.5 or 3 either way. I don8217t really understand the drawdown argument. Every trade is capped at a 1 risk (slippage has never been an issue in 11 years of trading because I don8217t trade during news or against momentum), and daily risk is capped at 3 (not discussed in this article but discussed in Daily Stop Loss: vantagepointtradingarchives10685 ). So you need to be losing all trades and not winning any to see any significant drawdown8230and since our winners are bigger than losers it takes less winners to make back the loss. So with a good strategy drawdowns are minimal, and in a worst case scenario it is a VERY slow capital drain, but if this is happening the trader can hopefully work on finding the issue that is causing the drain in capital before it becomes significant. Once a trader has practiced a strategy thoroughly and is implementing it well, a more than 10 drawdown should VERY rare given the protocol discussed in this article. This stuff is not fantasy8230it just works with enough practice. Cory, thank you again for your diligent response. You are clearly passionate about this industry and about helping others. It is evident in your patient thought and articulate delivery. Less successful traders than you who would have quickly dismissed my first question and then arrogantly summarized my commitment and character. As I am sure you can sometimes gauge, your skeptics include aspiring traders who have become disenchanted by 8220educators8221 promising quick, easy profits. Some of these traders worked very hard and still failed. Although they must realize it requires 10K hours. I wish I would have engaged some good mentors early on. Most of my trading knowledge was built by observing and reading about every good trader I could find. Then, after about 6 years (I was with a full-time job), I implemented a strategy to generate consistent income from equities (80 winning days). Almost doubled my money until I got burnt out and lost control of my emotions. A bad trade w no stop started me on tilt, and in two weeks, I had managed to lose all profits. From that experience, I learned that good health is just as important as any trading strategy. I know it sounds wacky, but I believe in adrenal fatigue, and I think adrenaline does often flow during trading. But there are ways to effectively manage it. I did this while working a full-time job. It was always interesting trying to speak intelligently on an incoming call while managing an erratic position. Fortunately, I made that first hour of the day up to my boss Anyway, my family kind of lost faith in trading as income after that, or whether it was even healthy. Every good trader knows this is just another final step in the process to success (assuming you8217ve learned how to effectively manage emotions). After that experience, I even designed a strategy, position management and risk management application for IB API. 8K in programming expenses later, I couldn8217t use it as little money for an account. ha. But given that a vet like you says there are opportunities in every market, I believe it. I have recently taken an interest in futures. I8217ve found a few trustworthy mentors. I know you mentioned Daytrading Academy. My only concern with them is that I have not seen the lead traders offer any live trading statements (to tradingschoolsorg for example). Probably because they8217re so busy teaching Look forward to transferring some of my skills in equities to futures using a gentle approach that starts in demo Cory Mitchell, CMT says: Here is an article that discusses what you are talking about8230adrenaline fatigue8230although this article refers to it as self-control fatigue. A very real, physicalmental obstacle. Self-Control In Day Trading: The Biological Factors vantagepointtradingarchives6112 As for The Day Trading Academy8230I have taken their course (I had already been a trader for 8 or 9 years, but knew some traders with the DTA and wanted to see what they were learning). I thought it was a great program. Although they trade in a similar fashion to me, so I liked that. Hi my name8217s Mark and I did trading, I had to send identification, such as my Driving Licence and a utility bill, and once I sent them in I could start trading I payed 250 to start it up but my trading adviser left me to it, and never helped me, I contacted him a few time to asked for help on some aspects of how to trade but he never got back to me so I took a chance and went alone but I lost all my money I put in which now as made me very weary of starting it back up. I think it was Forex I was trading with. So my question is how do I trade if I want to start trading again and to earn an income all so how much can I earn per month, or does it go off how much I put in my my trading account thanks and kind regards Mark Wheatley. Cory Mitchell, CMT says: It takes time to learn how to trade. It is not something where you can deposit some money and hope to make a consistent profit. Also, the advice of a broker will likely never make you money. They are brokerssales people, not traders (at least the people you would be talking to). I would also recommend starting with more than 250. Start with at least 1000 (assuming it is forex, for other markets8211stocks, futures8211you need way more) and keep risk on each trade low8230only risk 1 or less of capital on each trade. IF you don8217t know what market you were trading, then more research should have been done prior to trading. Spend at least 3 months in a free demo account, learning about the market you want to trade and refining a strategy. The demo trading should reflect as accurately as possibly how you will trade in the real money account. Your demo account should be showing a profit each month, for several months in a row, before you open another account with real money. Your income potential will vary. Expect to lose money the first few months once you open the live account (after months of demo trading). Trading real money is psychologically tougher than trading a demo account, so it can take some time to adjust. After that, your income is up to you. It could be tiny, negative, or could be 10, 208230. per month. Income is totally dependant on the amount of work, and the QUALITY of our practice, that we put into our trading. There are lots of free tutorials on the site, under the trading tutorials menu. There is also the Forex Strategies Guide which provides a more thorough overview of forex trading. Hi Cory. Your dedication to trading is admirable. That said, I have to call BS on your numbers of what8217s possible. They are grossly exaggerated. Please show us brokerages of any trader that can consistently generate even 20 mo over a 2 year period. They mislead anyone who wants to be in the profession. Also, the potential in futures and forex is way lower due to the talent of those competing. Also more volatility opportunities in stocks. Cory Mitchell, CMT says: Don8217t take the stats out of context. This is what you can make, not what you will make. Maybe 1 to 4 of traders (who are really dedicated for more than a year. This stat doesn8217t include the thousands of people who decide to day trade on a whim) will make it to this level. Most people who attempt trading are never even profitable8230that is clearly stated with several links provided in the article to actual stats. This level is reserved for those who dedicate themselves not only to understanding the market, but understanding how to practice and how to control their personal tendencies. I have multiple articles on the site stating your chances at day trading success are slim based solely on the numbers. But if you are one of the ones who relentlessly dedicates themselves to honing their craft, then the math above simply works. This article is what you are striving for. It is possible, but it is reserved for those few put in the most work. The other 96 will always doubt. I have published statements and provided proof in the past on this site. No one cares, because seeing isn8217t doing. The doubters still doubted and bitched in the comments, and those who know it can be done or are successful traders themselves just nod, but know it is a useless fight trying to convince someone who doesn8217t believe. There is no upside in taking on that fight, so I no longer publish stats the exception is my paid investment newsletter (not day trading) which is up 39 YTD, plus a 5.75 dividend yield. Even if you decided it was possible, you would still need to put in the thousands of hours it takes to reach the level discussed in the article. And very few people that have determination. The people who work their asses off get there, and the other 96 don8217t. The few percent who do make it don8217t listen to the opinions of those who say it can8217t be done. Those who say it can8217t be done never reached that level, and aren8217t exactly credible sources on what it takes to make great returns. Although their opinions may be useful for what not to do. I feel it is important to tell people what is possible, otherwise the bar stays low. And in the financial industry it has been set VERY low. It has convinced people that a 5-10 per year is a good return on their hard earned money. That is just not good enough for me, and so I found ways to improve on that. Of course not everyone can make high returns8230high returns are always limited the those who work the hardest (so if don8217t want to do much work, then 5-10year is what you shouldwill get). This goes for professional traders as well. All markets are good day trading markets. One isn8217t better than another. I personally prefer the forex market, but futures and stocks are also great. Volatility is nice, but doesn8217t matter. I like volatility and enjoy trading in it more, but ultimately position size is the equalizer in quieter markets a larger position can create the same riskreward scenarios as a more volatile market. Realistic scenario, is that you will make no money for the first year or two. I say this because you should not be even using real money for the first few years. The real issue is you need a mentor and coach. Finding that is uber difficult. Most teachers make their money from teaching because they failed at trading. Any trader worth his weight in salt would not need a dime from a student. A good trader can pull money out of the market at will. A certain elite group. The rest are schmucks. Don8217t look for them on twitter or any web site, we do not advertise. we do not need it or want it. The proof is always in the pudding. screencasttxH8IBTnCt, thats one week work. Mind you I have been trading for 10 years. 4 with a teacher. Ardeshir Mehta says: Thanks for the excellent advice, Cory. I also realize that volatility these days is low compared to what it was a few years ago. But even making profits half as large as you say above would be absolutely fabulous for me. As I said, I can afford to put as much as 50,000 into my trading account. So I am really looking forward to reading your upcoming book and trying out a few of your recommended strategies 8211 first in a practice account and then in a real money account. (I use OANDA as my broker, and with OANDA I can trade even individual units, and am not restricted to mini lots or micro lots. And just FYI, I trade the EURUSD pair exclusively.) PS: Is there any indicator that gives a precise idea of how much daily volatility there has been in the past week, month or year I am just using my naked eyes and estimating the volatility, but if there were an indicator that gives actual figures I would very much like to use it. Ardeshir, you can get a load of information, such as average daily volatility, average volatility by hour of day, average volatility by day of week, and historic volatility comparisons on the Forex Daily Stats page: vantagepointtradingdaily-forex-stats. Some other stats as well (correlations aren8217t currently working I8217m working on that). You could also add an Average True Range (ATR) indicator to your chart. Set it to 14, and when looking at a daily chart, that will give you the average price movement per day over the last 14 days. Ardeshir Mehta says: Thank you, Cory. Yes, I understand now. To put it another way, with 5,000 in my account and 30:1 leverage, I8217d have 150,000 to trade with, and so I could easily set a trade worth 5 mini lots (equal to 5,000 units of the base currency 8211 in the case of EURUSD, that would be 5,000EUR). The TRADE itself would be even larger than my entire account, but the RISK I would be taking taking if I were to lose any single trade should be only 50. Right If I am right, could I please ask you another question You wrote: Assume your strategy limits risk to 10 pips, and you attempt to make 17 pips. You find on average though at the end of the month that losses are actually 12 pips and winning trades are 16 pips. A good trading system will win 60 of the time. You averaged 5 trades per day, so if you have 20 trading days in a month, you made 100 trades. My question is, where can I find such a strategy trading system I should very much like to try it, since it looks so very promising. I can easily afford to put 5,000 into an account. In fact, I could afford ten times that much. I have been trading for over a year and half now, and although I am successful, I am less than one-twentieth as successful as you are saying I COULD be. Correct. Except 5 mini lots would be 50,000, not 5,000. A mini is 10,000, a micro lot is 1,000. Either way, you8217re getting the idea. If you deposit 5000 you only risk 1 of it per trade, even though cost of the trade may actually be larger than what is in the account. See Position Sizing in Forex: vantagepointtradingarchives2031 As for your other question: Finding 5 trades a day, equivalent to the above, is tough in our current environment (becoming less so, and there is always the option to trade multiple pairs or pair which just have a lot more volatility). While volatility is creeping back up, it is still below what it was back in 2012 and parts of 2013 for pairs like the GBPUSD and EURUSD. So when volatility is higher, consistently over 120 pips per day then the above scenario becomes more realistic. A lot of days we are only seeing 70-90 pip movement in these pairs, so finding 5 trades to make 17 pips on isn8217t as easy. Basically, when you look at 1 minute chart, you want to be able to see the price making runs of at least 20 pips before seeing a pullback, with some regularity (either direction). So right now, it8217s more like 1 to 3 trades per day (assuming only trading during the most volatile 3 or 4 hours of the day). But this changes over time. Back in 2009 when pairs where moving 400 or 500 pips some days potential was higher than what I have laid out here. So expectations MUST change with volatility. When a pair is moving 150 pips a day there is theoretically twice the potential as when it is moving 75 pips per day (currently, we are more toward the latter case). We can8217t force money out of the market, we can only take what it provides8230sometimes that is more and other times less. I will add a tidbit about that into the article. All this8211adapting to volatility, only trading during certain hours, which pairs to trade, how much money to trade with, and the strategies to use8211are all coming out in my new book. Should be available in the next few weeks on the website. vantagepointtradingforex-day-trading-and-swing-trading-strategy-guide Ardeshir Mehta says: In your bit about 8220How Much Money Can I Make Day Trading Forex8221 you do not mention the amount of leverage that would be needed to make the kinds of returns you are talking about, so I calculated the leverage myself. It turns out to be 1:1000. Isn8217t that mad dangerous, and possibly not even available 8220Each pip with a mini lot (10,000 in currency) is worth 18221 8220With 10 pips of risk you can trade 4 or 5 mini lotswhich equals 40 to 50 to respectively.8221 So 4 or 5 mini lots equals 40,000 or 50,000 in currency, and as a result, to trade 40,000 in currency with 40, or 50,000 in currency with 50, you need 1:1000 leverage, right Or am I wrong here It may seem that way, but actually no. How much a trade costs to put on, and how much is made are two different things. In fact typically a trader won8217t need more than 50:1 leverage: How Much Forex Leverage. vantagepointtradingarchives7654 I can buy a mini lot (10,000 in currency) and make 50 by making 50 pips, and that is the same no matter if I put up the entire 10,000 (no leverage) or put up only 500 (20:1). Where leverage matters is in your percentage return, not your absolute dollar return. If you have a 5000 account with no leverage you can8217t even trade a mini lot. But if you have a 30:1 leverage account that gives you 150,000 in 8220buying power8221. So you can buy multiple mini lots (for 10,000) each. If you buy one mini lot you still only make 50 on 50 pips8230as would someone with 5:1 leverage or 1000:1 leverage. The leverage level just determines how much capital you need in your account to trade a certain position size. Does that make sense Basically leverage determines how much you need in your account to take a trade8230and is a separate issue from the actual dollar amount return of a trade. Hope that helps Hi Cory I am a college student and i want to learn Forex. what would you recommend to(course) learn for beginner.. which will a good online broker for beginner Forex I have written an ebook which covers the basics of forex trading and provides multiple day trading and swing trading strategies: vantagepointtradingforex-day-trading-and-swing-trading-strategy-guide Other than that, you can go through the Trading Tutorials page and read individual articles. While this approach is fine, articles don8217t provide the full picture like the book would. As for brokers, it will depend on where you are located and your trading style (if you want the option of scalping then FXOpen is recommended), but here are a few to check out: Oanada FXOpen HotForex TD Ameritrade Thinkorswim I used different account amounts to show that you can generally start trading forex and futures with less capital than would be required for day trading stocks. Also, I used slightly different strategy examples for each market. Based on the different variables used in the calculations, the article isn8217t meant to showcase which market is better or more profitable, rather simply to show making a living in any of these markets is possible. To answer your question though, yes I believe there is more profit potential in the forex and futures markets than in the stock market. This is largely attributed to the use of leverage in the forex and futures markets which can magnify returns (and losses). Forex and futures markets can also be traded 24-hours a day, which in my opinion allows risk to be controlled more precisely8211especially if you do decide to hold positions overnight8211because (unlike stocks) there aren8217t any gaps in the price from one day to the next (except on weekends, but that can8217t be avoided in any of these markets). Hi I love your explanations I just have two questions: First, When you compared how much money you can make a month in different markets, you started stocks with 30,000 and Forex with 5,0008230. proportionally this should have Forex most profitable because if you started a Forex account you could possibly make 11,520 a month.(19202156). Therefore my first question is, is the forex market the most profitable if I plan eventually invest large sums of money I am a college student and as I career search I find myself especially attracted to investing so I want to know what market I should plan to invest in as an occupation for the rest of my life ETFs are great. If you aren8217t a day trader but looking to trade ETFs you may want to consider Thinkorswim then. The reason being that there are a number of ETFs you can trade commission free with Thinkorswim. There is a full list of commission free ETFs (with select brokers) available here: etfdbtypecommission-freeallexpenses. As you8217ll see there are few other brokers who also offer commission free trading select ETFs. And the platform is pretty good for most traders purposes. You can try out Thinkorswim for free using a 8220papermoney8221 account: thinkorswimtosdisplayPage. toswebpagepaperMoney Depends on where you located and how you plan to trade. Interactive brokers is a very popular choice. So is thinkorswim (TD Ameritrade), but Interactive Brokers is likely the better choice8230especially if day trading when costs need to be kept low. There are other brokers of course. To see what lots of people are saying about their brokers and how they rate them, a good source is: elitetraderbrindex. cfm Thanks for the feedback I heard of them before and I currently trade forex as a trend follower I8217m not into day trading however I am looking to diversify my trading by trading etfs as well what are your thoughts on that quentin walker says: Hello Nice Website, I am a forex trader and I am looking to explore trading stocks, what are your reccomendations on what broker to use hello my name is hira i am a beginner at forex can i personally interact with you through email chat