I think your question is completely fair and seems pretty simple to me. Anyone who wanted to could show you their return on a weekly, monthly, quarterly, or annual basis easily. They just pull up their Realized P/L records and spill them out on the form here. I think that people only have two reasons for not providing you a straight answer.
1) They are not successful and don't even want to talk about it (some also choose to lie)
2) They do not want to sound like a "beginner" talking about their profit or loss. They feel that providing such raw numbers is amateurish and they have to beat around the bush and never give a straight answer to sound like a more seasoned trader.
These two things drive me crazy, when beginners really are just trying to figure out if they have any chance of being excited about this business. Most of us are asking how much can be made because we want to know if it is worth our time, and because we want to know how excited we should be about Forex. What is a reasonable amount to expect? What is unreasonable? Etc. etc.
I don't think that random people on the forums providing straight answers for once would hurt anyone, and I seriously doubt it would turn very many soon to be traders away from trading. That is the situation I am in now. I am about to start trading on the 27th. I have been studying and practicing on a demo for a year now. I have heard all of the negativity and how I am just going to lose my money and blah blah blah, but I still am going to do it because I have the itch to trade.
One final thought, those on the forums who post their sour grape replies about how much can be made in forex with something like "You can make a million dollars in forex, just start with 2 million", we have heard it all before and it is neither clever nor original. If you really hated forex that much, you would not be contributing to the forums in the first place. Don't pretend you don't still love it.
1) They are not successful and don't even want to talk about it (some also choose to lie)
2) They do not want to sound like a "beginner" talking about their profit or loss. They feel that providing such raw numbers is amateurish and they have to beat around the bush and never give a straight answer to sound like a more seasoned trader.
These two things drive me crazy, when beginners really are just trying to figure out if they have any chance of being excited about this business. Most of us are asking how much can be made because we want to know if it is worth our time, and because we want to know how excited we should be about Forex. What is a reasonable amount to expect? What is unreasonable? Etc. etc.
I don't think that random people on the forums providing straight answers for once would hurt anyone, and I seriously doubt it would turn very many soon to be traders away from trading. That is the situation I am in now. I am about to start trading on the 27th. I have been studying and practicing on a demo for a year now. I have heard all of the negativity and how I am just going to lose my money and blah blah blah, but I still am going to do it because I have the itch to trade.
One final thought, those on the forums who post their sour grape replies about how much can be made in forex with something like "You can make a million dollars in forex, just start with 2 million", we have heard it all before and it is neither clever nor original. If you really hated forex that much, you would not be contributing to the forums in the first place. Don't pretend you don't still love it.
there is no guarantee with Forex, but unless you have some Magic or a very hands on successful trader/mentor who literally sits with you evety trading day confirming every entry you make, it will take time to make money with it. It is not reasonable to expect everyone or even most people to make it just because they put in the time, it is like anything, some people have capacity to learn something's better than others. One man is trusted with billions of dollars of machinery and a countries reputation to reach the moon, but that same man cannot build a fence or paint a good painting. Each to there own and what they feel/want to achieve. But reading Price action, monitoring different timeframes, looking for support and resistance and looking for clues as to when and when not to risk your money on a trade is like flying a plane through a snow storm sometimes, so many things to consider. Best just to close the airport some days when the weather is uncertain.
btw i am still on demo, been on demo for the 8 months i have been getting mentored, and i plan on going live in about 2-3 months, 3 months of consistency so far, 3 more, and i'm in it with the big dogs, see ya in the markets ;D