1000% a month! WTF?

i've seen contest results where people are making 1000% - 80000% a month! WTF? HOW are they doing this? does the market even move enough?

These are probably results from the EA contests.
These things are designed with a complete lack of money management, and are usually running on as many currency pairs as possible.
It's essentially gambling that they'll have a good run, win the contest, and make a few thousand off their EA that will appear to have good results, but will end up running an account into the ground in a week or two.

ok good i was beginning to feel discouraged lol

Nah, no need to be discouraged.
Even if you're only 0.0001% up, that's still profits, and profits are something to be proud of, big or small. Realistically, huge returns aren't something to expect. Aim for consistent, steady returns and let your account grow. Don't bet the farm on one trade hoping to double up fast.

I think that those type of returns must have been doctored up or something.

I am happy with my average return of around 10% per month

This was made on with real money on demo account. I double demo account in a week, but I can't expect the same on my live account. Any profit on live account better than profit on demo. Whatsoever.


This is very good income. Thumbs up!

I think 10% is a good place to start and push on from there.

If you have a sizable account (say $1M), you don't need anything more than 10% a month. Because you'll have $100M+ in a few years at this rate of growth.

I'm working toward my $1M with 4% monthly growth and i found it already hard enough to sustain it because of the dollar figure as the account size increases. (it was very easy to roll a $1000 into a $5000 acct in a few months....but not from a $1M to a $5M in the same amount of time)

Having said all those crap, what is more important is to keep a consistent rate of return regardless of capital size (even if it is 1% a month, of course, it will be meaning if you can noly make consistenly 0.1% a month because you can probably get more from a fixed rate deposit). If you can find a rate which you can grow your account regardless of the amount of capital you have. Then technical you have developed yourself a system which you can rely on and be proud of. And ignore those with higher than 100% annual return because majority of them are unliable and unsustainable.

I think those crazy returns you see are on demo accounts using martingale systems which anybody can do, heck you can martingale an account for months on end with those returns only to wake up one day and find your a/c melted away like ice in the sun

This is the person thats leading the myfxbook competition at the moment, no martingale, just bet big and be right, same with any type of gambling

http://www.myfxbook.com/members/sara...st-saraa/87218

10% a month is pretty optimistic.

I wouldn't think so to be honest.

It all depends on ones methods.
Taking a month as 5 weeks
2% a week?. Easily done ..

Nothing wrong with optimistic. Merely another factor to drive you on.

Agree with you.

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So why is 10% per month optimistic?

Newbies focus on returns. Pros focus on managing risk.

Consistency is key. And market conditions can change over time. I'm reminded of the famous Keynes quote: "the markets can remain irrational longer than a trader can remain solvent".

When I started in forex, I was likewise very optimistic, hence I don't want to sound too negative. But to anybody who's serious about adopting a professional approach, and feels ready for a dose of realism, here are three posts by pros that IMO are a must read:

http://www.forexfactory.com/showthre...57#post3170457
http://www.forexfactory.com/showthre...799#post205799
http://www.forexfactory.com/showthre...68#post2311668

That system has made a mere 13 trades. It currently has a profit factor of 286.15

I've posted this many times before, but IMO it bears mentioning: billionaire trader Paul Tudor Jones apparently once said that he could count on the fingers of one hand, the number of traders he's met that have been able to maintain a profit factor of 2.0 over their entire career.

Re automated systems, if I can find one that has a PF > 1.4 after a minimum of 2,000 trades spread over many years of changing markets, then yes, I'd be very interested.

Yes, there are thousands of financial instruments that can be traded.

You should have a look at for how long they can maintain theyre stats. Someone hwo made 1000% in an hour means nothing at all, dont trade real money until you understand how that works.

Think about maximal loss, average profit over long periods of time.

If you got a 10% chance of loosing it all, a 20% gain is nothing. If you have a 25% risk of loosing it all, a 50% gain is nothing. If you have a 50% chance of loosing it all a 100% gain is nothing. I really mean NOTHING, from a standpoint of probability theory and game theory its not worth it, you might as well play videogames. I would say a 50% chance of loosing it all isnt even worth a 150% gain, i wouldnt bother at least. So if 50 dudes lost it all five of them got a 1000% gain that means little. Of course price isnt decided by probabilities, its decided by orders, their size and timing. The probability of any event is either 0 or 1, it will either occur or not occur. Probability like this is simply an estimation based on a very limited amount of data. Im using it because im illustrating a simplified point, one i think is important and with time i think you will appreciate what i mean.

If a person can sustain say a 5% gain on total capital each day, no withdrawals, that person would amass ALL the wealth in the world in a couple of years.

No one can learn how to trade by reading an internet forum, id say that might be 10% of it so you need to do a lot more.

I hope i gave you a few things to think about.

I have such a system. 1,860 trades over 12 years.... 19,900 pips with a maximum drawdown of 1,100 pips.... these numbers including a 2 pip spread.

PM me with your intentions, David. Tell me what you mean when you say "I'd be very interested"

No use of candlestick patterns (price action), MAs, or fibonacci numbers. Everything is based on pure momentum coming off of support and resistance.... using Donchian Channel breakouts. No tops and bottoms of trends are ever predicted, thus much of large trends are often captured with no loss on the stop and reversal.

Your talking about an optimised, curve fit backtest, not real trading history right?

Optimized through 2009.... Then forward from 2010.

There are some specialists that work for banks and can make that figures, but they are very rare.

Its competition .. everybody are risking all of their equity .. it is extreme difference between trading with real account and with competition account .. when i started i made from 20$ -> 863$ in three days .. simply i had only several bucks, so i traded all in .. but when you trade with account bigger than 10 000$ you cant risk such so