Realistic Expectations in Forex Trading

If you are just getting into Forex, you probably have seen a lot of websites promising to teach you how to turn a thousand dollars into a million within a year. You have seen advertisements telling you that you can quit your full-time (or part-time) job elsewhere and trade for a living NOW. You have heard about the huge leverage which many Forex brokers allow you to use and think that leverage could be the key to making it overnight. Can Forex get you from rags to riches?

All these claims are grounded in something real — but they are not healthy, intelligent claims, and they do not promote realistic expectations. A lot of people who are attracted to Forex are part of a get-rich-quick crowd. Naturally, there is nothing wrong with wanting to get rich quick, but the fact is, "quick" in real life rarely means a year. You are lucky if it means ten years.

Trading Forex is a full-time business — even if you are doing another full-time job on top of it, and chances are that you will be. Unless you are already ridiculously wealthy and just sitting on investment capital, you will have to do another job in order to pay your bills, since you will not be able to live off of the money you are making with Forex in the beginning. Indeed, even if you could, you might not be able to grow your account if you have to keep withdrawing from it to pay your rent or buy your groceries or gas.

So no, you will not be quitting your job just yet. As to using leverage, leverage is a powerful tool, but it is more likely to break you than to make you, especially at the beginning stage of your Forex career. In fact, by the time you can feel confident using leverage, you will probably lose interest in doing so, because you will have figured out that responsible trading means investing only a small portion of the money you already have — not more money than you have.

Can you turn a thousand dollars into a million in year by trading Forex? It is possible. It is just not likely, and it is likely that the more you rush, the more mistakes you will make. Those mistakes will cost you, and that means in terms of real money. You can make a lot of money in Forex, but only by being patient, setting realistic goals, and taking your time. There is nothing that will get you down faster than finding out that your hopes were unrealistic and being constantly disappointed. So start out with the right, patient attitude, and approach Forex with discipline. That is the best route to success, even though it will not happen overnight. If you want to trade for a living, make trading for a living your goal — not making X amount of money in X amount of time. Make it your goal to place only the best trades based on the best setups, and you will be far more likely to succeed at your financial goals.