Making 5-10% per month is realistic?
You must be a bloody champion
Keep up the good work brother.
Getting started in Forex
- Thread starter nizar
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Making 5-10% per month is realistic?
You must be a bloody champion
Keep up the good work brother.
professor_frink
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Making 5-10% per month is realistic?
You must be a bloody champion
Keep up the good work brother.
It's not that unreasonable for intraday trading, depending on the leverage used.
Ninja trader could be another option for you to look at too.
100% per month is not unrealistic if you scalp.
With EFX 60 pips gross per week (10 pips net a day) on AUD/JPY @ 80-100% account balance utilisation will easily give you 100% return in a month (in fact about 200%).
Remember a swing trader works with much slower timeframes and will have stops as wide as the Tasman, whereas a scalper works with incredibly fast timeframes (tick or under 30 seconds) and has (mental) stops only a few pips above/below where they entered and a disaster recovery stop set about 20 pips away from where they got in. You minimise risk further when scalping by only being in the market for seconds when scalping, not minutes/hours when you employ a swing trading strategy and focus on more conventional risk / money management techniques like the 2% rule & trailing stops etc etc.
You need to distinguish between trading styles/strategies when looking at ROI and with scalping you practice til you can't practice anymore on getting ten pips net consistently then you let compounding take over.
examples:
AUD/JPY 1:100 (acc denomination is AUD, lots are naturally in AUD)
Balance start of week, Week #, Lot size, Account balance utilisation (for single trade/scalp).
$500 Week 1 40000 80%
$720 Week 2 57600 80%
$1,037 Week 3 82800 80%
$1,492 Week 4 119280 80%
...snip...
$56,980 Week 14 4550400 80%
$82,012 Week 15 6549440 80%
$118,041 Week 16 9443280 80%
$169,990 Week 17 13599200 80%
I'll attach an updated pip plan when I get home (see the LinuxTroll thread for an older version).
With EFX 60 pips gross per week (10 pips net a day) on AUD/JPY @ 80-100% account balance utilisation will easily give you 100% return in a month (in fact about 200%).
Remember a swing trader works with much slower timeframes and will have stops as wide as the Tasman, whereas a scalper works with incredibly fast timeframes (tick or under 30 seconds) and has (mental) stops only a few pips above/below where they entered and a disaster recovery stop set about 20 pips away from where they got in. You minimise risk further when scalping by only being in the market for seconds when scalping, not minutes/hours when you employ a swing trading strategy and focus on more conventional risk / money management techniques like the 2% rule & trailing stops etc etc.
You need to distinguish between trading styles/strategies when looking at ROI and with scalping you practice til you can't practice anymore on getting ten pips net consistently then you let compounding take over.
examples:
AUD/JPY 1:100 (acc denomination is AUD, lots are naturally in AUD)
Balance start of week, Week #, Lot size, Account balance utilisation (for single trade/scalp).
$500 Week 1 40000 80%
$720 Week 2 57600 80%
$1,037 Week 3 82800 80%
$1,492 Week 4 119280 80%
...snip...
$56,980 Week 14 4550400 80%
$82,012 Week 15 6549440 80%
$118,041 Week 16 9443280 80%
$169,990 Week 17 13599200 80%
I'll attach an updated pip plan when I get home (see the LinuxTroll thread for an older version).
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Well, I've decided I'm going to focus on the linuxtroll method from Tayser's thread for the time being and take my time setting up a longer term system. If my stock systems are anything to go by it'll take probably 6mths for me to build a decent longer-term strategy anyway. So after new year I'm going to spend about a month on a pair or two just scalping in a demo and see how it goes.
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Alright. I agree.
Do you use multiple screens? In equities I'm longer term and thus accurate execution is not paramount. However, I have oanda and hotspot open in front of me, each taking up half the screen and it just doesn't work for me on such tight timeframes with execution being, IMO, so important.
Do you use multiple screens? In equities I'm longer term and thus accurate execution is not paramount. However, I have oanda and hotspot open in front of me, each taking up half the screen and it just doesn't work for me on such tight timeframes with execution being, IMO, so important.
Timmy
white swans need love too
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I only have a single 22" Widescreen at the moment - I want to get another one.
But realistically all you need is one if the platform your executing on can have its panels docked (never used hotspot). I just have my chart in the background with the platform's panels around the edge.
I only want the other screen so I can do other stuff!
Thanks Prof.
I think NeoTicker is right up my alley as well.
Anybody here have any experience with NeoTicker?
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I trade off the charts [directly] most of the time , takes a little getting use to , but one click is also good , on a back platform . My page is the chart , the rest of the platfrom is really just for renavigating and hedging etc.
The only time I have had difficulty in this style , is when I start trading off a chart I've done workings on and my workings gets in the way .
You should see it when one needs to get in sync , I'll have 4 charts up on one screen and sometimes charts on a second , but the CPU makes a blinking racket when we push that pedal .
Each currency pair has one currency pegged against another. So in your example of the USD/JPY pair, when looking at a chart you are seeing the US dollar pegged against the JPY. Therefore if there is an uptrend and you see an entry you would buy the US/JPY pair speculating the US dollar will rise against the yen. It's the same when shorting, if the US/JPY pair is in a downtrend on your chart and you see an entry you would then sell the pair speculating the US dollar is going to weaken against the Yen.
Hope that helps(and makes sense hehe).
Each currency pair has one currency pegged against another. So in your example of the USD/JPY pair, when looking at a chart you are seeing the US dollar pegged against the JPY. Therefore if there is an uptrend and you see an entry you would buy the US/JPY pair speculating the US dollar will rise against the yen. It's the same when shorting, if the US/JPY pair is in a downtrend on your chart and you see an entry you would then sell the pair speculating the US dollar is going to weaken against the Yen.
Hope that helps(and makes sense hehe).
Oh so selling is as easy as buying.
Thanks for that.
The contents of my own FX board:
We've actually got really good liquidity tonight (well compared to the past month).
From European open, usually:
AUDJPY 2-3
EURJPY 1-2
GBPJPY 3-4
EURUSD usually spends the whole day at 1
GBPUSD 1-2
AUDUSD 1-2
USDCAD 2-3 (better after NY open naturally)
roundtrip commission on AUDJPY (only pair I reguarly scalp) is 1 pip (actually less than a pip when the rate is less than 100 yen like now).
We've actually got really good liquidity tonight (well compared to the past month).
From European open, usually:
AUDJPY 2-3
EURJPY 1-2
GBPJPY 3-4
EURUSD usually spends the whole day at 1
GBPUSD 1-2
AUDUSD 1-2
USDCAD 2-3 (better after NY open naturally)
roundtrip commission on AUDJPY (only pair I reguarly scalp) is 1 pip (actually less than a pip when the rate is less than 100 yen like now).
The contents of my own FX board:
We've actually got really good liquidity tonight (well compared to the past month).
From European open, usually:
AUDJPY 2-3
EURJPY 1-2
GBPJPY 3-4
EURUSD usually spends the whole day at 1
GBPUSD 1-2
AUDUSD 1-2
USDCAD 2-3 (better after NY open naturally)
roundtrip commission on AUDJPY (only pair I reguarly scalp) is 1 pip (actually less than a pip when the rate is less than 100 yen like now).
Thanks Tayser.
Yeh the past few weeks has been holiday season, that may explain it.
Alright, first time posting in these forums, so here we go...
This thread seems the place to be for forex newbs so this is what I have learnt over the last month of research. I'm sharing it so that if I have anything incorrect hopefully someone will correct me!
Brokers
In the retail forex sector (low cap traders) there are only two kinds of brokers, bucketshops and ECNs. ECNs are better. Period.
There are only 3-4 retail ECN brokers around, IB, hotspot and MBT/EFX (they are the same company).
I didn't look into hotspot, not interested in them as they do not do mini's.
IB has a $10k USD opening balance requirement (unless you are under 21, then its $3k). As I do not have close to that amount of money I couldn't use them but I would prefer them for data reasons (everyone's program seems to be able to hook into their datafeed).
MBT/EFX has a small opening balance requirement and allows you to trade in mini's. They are pretty much the broker of choice for poor bastards like me. Only problem I have is that there aren't many good programs which can hook into their data and they don't supply backfill either.
Datafeeds
Once I was done looking for a broker I went and looked at datafeeds. I'm a long time user of Metastock EOD for trading ASX. So I searched for compatible feeds for Metastock Pro. The more I looked the more I realised this slight conundrum.
You either have two choices. Use a 3rd party datafeed or use your brokers datafeed.
There are many quirks which go along with either choice. The first one I realised is that if you choose the 3rd party feed it isn't going to match your brokers feed. What your broker says is happening in the forex market is not neccessarily what is happening on your 3rd party feed. This is a real problem as these differences large and small can have a bad impact on your trading.
Choosing your brokers datafeed can leave you with insufficient data. Basically MBT doesn't provide backfill, so even though I have intraday data with them and there is no issue of not having the "correct" data, having no backfill well sucks.
Choosing your brokers datafeed can also limit the programs you can use. Unless of course your broker is IB, which practically everyone hooks into (big reason to use IB!).
At the moment I am using MBT's datafeed with backfill provided by tickquest (through FXCM).
Charting/backtesting/automation
When it comes to intraday forex data, there isn't much choice for metastock pro, so I decided that I basically had to drop it for another charting program. This was the longest part of my quest to get started and I am still treading this. I have been through a lot of product websites, read heaps of user comments on products and tried to ascertain which product would suit me. I've only investigated charting at the moment. I haven't even begun on which backtesting app will suit. Although I have automation largely figured out with tradebullet.
On the charting side I'm comparing 3 products atm.
Amibroker, I would probably like to settle on this, but I am having issues with datafeed as it does not hook into MBT's feed at the moment. The current plan if I go with amibroker is to subscribe to dtniqfeed and just put up with any tick differences.
Neoticker, I am currently demoing this. It hooks into MBT fine and backfill is provided by their own backfill server (which gets its data from FXCM). Integration with MBT is really good as well. I don't really like neotickers interface however and its charting doesn't seem to be up to scratch.
Sierracharts. Again needs to hook into dtniqfeed. Relatively inexpensive charting program, haven't tried it out yet but I want to.
Thats all I have figured out atm.
This thread seems the place to be for forex newbs so this is what I have learnt over the last month of research. I'm sharing it so that if I have anything incorrect hopefully someone will correct me!
Brokers
In the retail forex sector (low cap traders) there are only two kinds of brokers, bucketshops and ECNs. ECNs are better. Period.
There are only 3-4 retail ECN brokers around, IB, hotspot and MBT/EFX (they are the same company).
I didn't look into hotspot, not interested in them as they do not do mini's.
IB has a $10k USD opening balance requirement (unless you are under 21, then its $3k). As I do not have close to that amount of money I couldn't use them but I would prefer them for data reasons (everyone's program seems to be able to hook into their datafeed).
MBT/EFX has a small opening balance requirement and allows you to trade in mini's. They are pretty much the broker of choice for poor bastards like me. Only problem I have is that there aren't many good programs which can hook into their data and they don't supply backfill either.
Datafeeds
Once I was done looking for a broker I went and looked at datafeeds. I'm a long time user of Metastock EOD for trading ASX. So I searched for compatible feeds for Metastock Pro. The more I looked the more I realised this slight conundrum.
You either have two choices. Use a 3rd party datafeed or use your brokers datafeed.
There are many quirks which go along with either choice. The first one I realised is that if you choose the 3rd party feed it isn't going to match your brokers feed. What your broker says is happening in the forex market is not neccessarily what is happening on your 3rd party feed. This is a real problem as these differences large and small can have a bad impact on your trading.
Choosing your brokers datafeed can leave you with insufficient data. Basically MBT doesn't provide backfill, so even though I have intraday data with them and there is no issue of not having the "correct" data, having no backfill well sucks.
Choosing your brokers datafeed can also limit the programs you can use. Unless of course your broker is IB, which practically everyone hooks into (big reason to use IB!).
At the moment I am using MBT's datafeed with backfill provided by tickquest (through FXCM).
Charting/backtesting/automation
When it comes to intraday forex data, there isn't much choice for metastock pro, so I decided that I basically had to drop it for another charting program. This was the longest part of my quest to get started and I am still treading this. I have been through a lot of product websites, read heaps of user comments on products and tried to ascertain which product would suit me. I've only investigated charting at the moment. I haven't even begun on which backtesting app will suit. Although I have automation largely figured out with tradebullet.
On the charting side I'm comparing 3 products atm.
Amibroker, I would probably like to settle on this, but I am having issues with datafeed as it does not hook into MBT's feed at the moment. The current plan if I go with amibroker is to subscribe to dtniqfeed and just put up with any tick differences.
Neoticker, I am currently demoing this. It hooks into MBT fine and backfill is provided by their own backfill server (which gets its data from FXCM). Integration with MBT is really good as well. I don't really like neotickers interface however and its charting doesn't seem to be up to scratch.
Sierracharts. Again needs to hook into dtniqfeed. Relatively inexpensive charting program, haven't tried it out yet but I want to.
Thats all I have figured out atm.
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