Many people begin trading Forex, stock, commodities or other instruments in the hope to make money and build capital by taking a reasonable risk. Very often they are disappointed with the results, and wonder why they cannot become a profitable Forex trader. However, it can be done, provided that you do some homework to build a good plan and stick to it. This can put the odds on your side. It requires patience and steady nerves above all else. In this article, I am going to explain what you need to consider in making a plan to turn an initial deposit of $10,000 into $1 million, and how to give yourself the best chance of achieving this goal. In short, how to become a profitable Forex trader.
How Long Does it Take to make $1 million?
The best place to start is with an understanding that you need to allow yourself a reasonable length of time to achieve your goal, and not just for the obvious reasons. For example, turning $10,000 into $1 million requires an overall increase of 9,900%, and that is leaving aside the entire issue of taxation of any gains. For any trader, achieving such an astronomical positive annual performance is a very tall order, but that is what you would have to do to reach $1 million within a single year. However if you allowed yourself 10 years, and compound every year, you would need to make “only†58.49% each year. That is still very tough, but it is not a completely unrealistic annual return in terms of taking a reasonable risk. If you become a profitable Forex trader, it is possible to achieve an annual return in this area. The point to consider is that you need to allow enough time for your profits to compound and grow exponentially. Compounding is essential for exponential growth and this is something that needs to be factored into your trading strategy/ies, money management essentials, and risk management method.
The second time element which is less well understood derives from the fact that you cannot make a really huge gain in the market unless the conditions are very strongly in your favor. For example, if you are buying stocks, you are really going to need a big, strong bull market to come along, no matter how good your stock picking and market timing is. Now, the longer the time horizon you can allow yourself, the greater the chance there is that you will be in the market when the kind of conditions you need to make money will occur.
Money Management Essentials
In another article I outlined some money management essentials that every trader should consider, covering the very important question as to how to determine how much money you should risk on each trade. It is very important to take a reasonable risk. That article concluded that it is generally advisable to use a risk management method that risks a percentage of your equity per trade, primarily for the purpose of protecting against the risk of ruining your account. However, very aggressive account growth might require a more aggressive money management and risk management strategy, such as risking a fixed amount per trade regardless of recent results and your account equity. At periodic intervals when the account has significantly grown, the calculation can be rebased so that the amount risked rises. This may give the advantage of allowing a faster recovery from losing streaks, provided they have not been overly disastrous.
It is important to understand that your money management essentials must tie in with your trading strategy, especially its method of determining when to take profits.
