What is considered a good return?

Hello All,

Lets say that the person in question is a professional with a good trading record, risking between 1-3% at any given point.

What would you expect the average monthly or annual return to be at?

I know its a bit of a stab in the dark, but interesting never the less.

Thanks and Happy New Year

Just realised beneath this thread there are some directly related, so i'll have a browse with those.

Looking through i'm talking annually rather than compounding monthly

0 to 0+- = Decent Return.

1) Find the windows of Profit in your system & Trade them. Then find the windows of Loss in your system & Learn them...

2)...

Happy New Year...

A good return will be represented at the sum of your Withdrawal every week, every month, or even every year.

Return in forex lies in your withdraw, not in your profits or lots of trading

for me everything above 15-20% annualy is good. above 30% - very good. above 40% - SUPERB.

I am not trading real cash atm, but ill add my idea of a good return in forex.
I wud consider learning a profitable strategy and spending days perfecting analysing untill finally u have something that will make u money consitantly, regardless of the monetary value it brings u. This i think wud be a good return, because u came to the market with nothing in the first place.

A 'good return' is anything greater than the amount that could have been gained by a) committing your capital to alternative avenues and b) the amount you could have earned through spending your time in alternative ventures. For most this will be around 10% p.a on capital plus the average salary for your demographic/profession wherever you live. Anything more than that which you could have earned elsewhere would suggest trading has been a profitable venture. Obviously there are other considerations beyond money such as stress, value placed upon freedom, reduced social aspects of trading etc..

I suspect the question is more on what is possible to be had from the market. There will be some who will tell you 20% a year is about the limit - but the only limitations are those within your mind. Anything is possible. If you are a long term investor then those returns are realistically about as good as you're going to get. But then if you trade short term everything happens much quicker. For me, sitting on a loss more than 15 or 20 mins is a cue to exit, whereas a long term investor will ignore the red and keep telling themselves it will turn around. I am sure eventually they normally do but all that time the capital is tied up and not earning money. The markets are moving tremendously right now, those that are shying away are cowards, probably the same people who will be complaining when the markets eventually quieten down and do not present the immense opportunity to profit. Almost every day, the markets move a good number of pips, and if you have an effective method of forecasting the turning points or getting into these moves without too much risk and a high probability of gleaning some profits then it is not hard to imagine these profits doing some amazing things in your account without over-extending risk.

The argument that high profits will produce absurd profits in the medium term with compund interest is not an argument, it just reveals the limitations in the debaters mind and possiblly their incompetence in trading.

great post birdt!. Except the coward part. ...Most don't have a good entry so cowardace is the only backdrop. The mind is the only limitation after a good entry...but that's the trick isn't it?-- -high profits require high risk to produce absurd profits -- but then, a weak system and shutting your trades down too early will blow you out of the water a lot faster.