How many pips is realistic?

Greetings good people! Being very very new to forex, I was just wondering what kinds of gains are realistic (in pip size)? Do any of you attempt to make a set amount each week/month eg 200 pips a week? What do you consider realistic? How many pips does the average SUCCESSFUL trader make?

cheers!
Dan

If you can sustain CONSTANTLY 200 pips a month, you're definitely in the right track.

Welcome Dan. There is NO average number of pips per day that a SUCCESSFUL trader makes. If you can learn to consistently capture an average of 5 pips a day you can make a good deal of money if you have good money management, almost no losing streaks, and a good compounding system. Some traders like Rob Booker and James16 recommend shooting for 10 pips a day as a minimum target. I think it is a better minimum target both psychologically and financially. Keep in mind that a pip may have value from .10 cents a pip (or less) to 500.00 a pip or more. So pips per day is only one kind of target. With a good compounding system though you'll still need to see a constant 5 pips a day to get decent compounding working for you. Most people would be bored out of their minds trading for that smalll of a target and most would lose at that game.

FT

I am trading Cable and aim for 30 pips a day (150 pips a week).

My daily score, in the last 3 months, has ranged from -30 to +90. This trading with a stop of between 10 to 13 and a target of either 13, 30 or 50, depending on the set up. I usually close a 1/3rd at +13.

My usual daily score is between -10 and 40. Slowly getting better.

I don't understand a 10 pip aim per day, considering most of the FX major pairs, even in a range, move 20 /35 pips.

I guess the aim depends on the individuals strategy, risk, target and winning percentage.

Thanks FT, WTB and Hagadol! I gues Im aiming for efficiency, I would like to make as many pips as I can for the least effort involved! Why I asked my question in the first place was that I noticed people advocating all kind of returns in these forums as well as others. For example, Ive read threads talking about making 10 pips a day, others aiming for 2 pips a trade for 20 trades a day, then I read a selling point of the James16 pf being Dialist teaching his version of a well know system that made him some huge gain last month! Its so difficult when first starting out - just so much information available, where to begin!

Dan

'I noticed people advocating all kind of returns in these forums as well as others.'

Rule Number 2 - Be very carefull reading / listening to scores / calls in forums and chat rooms. Most are overstated.

If you enter a chat room, for example, Money Tec, if someone calls a trade they never say 'I entered at Long 81 when the price is already at 76. Nearly all the calls are when the trade is already in profit. Strange that ! Because every few days I enter a trade which goes immediately into debit, not including the spread.

Back on subject - If you get your risk reward sorted out, making sure your winners are bigger than your losers, you should be able to aim for more than 10 !

I think you're missing a key component if you simply want to strive for a certain X number of pips a day. It's too arbritary. You definitely have to factor in your risk-to-reward ratio and win/loss percentage also.

Would you want to shoot for 20 pips a day if you have a 40 pip stop loss? This means for every trade you lose, you need two winning trades just to breakeaven. Does this sound like a good idea?

Maybe. You have to know your win percentage.

But if you have a 70% wining trade average, then you'll be able to do this because you'll still end up with positive pips at the end.

Also do you always take profit when you reach 20 pips or do you move your stop to breakeven and go for more? Doing this will now affect your average risk-to-reward ratio.

Trying to come up with a pie-in-the-sky pip goal number is like asking Kobe Bryant how many points a game he should average. What if he said 50 points? Okay, how many shots attempts (risk - risk of other team rebounding missed shot and scoring) will he need to reach 50 points (reward)? Is he going to jack up 70 shots to make 50? Assuming he doesn't shoot free throws or 3 pointers, he would have only made 25 out of 70 shots, that's a poor field goal percentage (35%).

Let's say every time he missed, and he missed 55 times, the other team scored 2 points and Kobe is only the player who scored for his team (which is usually the case anyways).

Okay, let's do the math, Kobe scores 50 points, the other team scores 110 points (55 x 2 = 110). Lakers still lose.

I hope this makes sense. If not, I'm sorry. I'm still in disbelief right now how Kobe singhandedly schooled Denver Nuggets last night.

What I'm trying to say is know the stats for the system you're trading.
After you analyze the stats, I guarantee you'll know how many pips you should average. Cheers!