Realistic targets for account growth

[u0362565]

Hi all,

I know everyone will think differently on this.  But i was thinking that if over the course of a year i could beat most passive investment funds, if we assume an average of 10% growth on investments annually, is that a good starting point.  As an example:

Investment:

£10000 + 10% = £11000 year 1

Trading equivalent:

Aim to equal or beat the investment i.e. the account must grow by >£1000 year 1.  If the account were £10000 as in the investment then that's 10% account growth.

If you can't even do this then there's no point trading? 

[jlz]

In my opinion when you set yourself a target of profits you are doing it wrong.

If we look at the ever present banner on this site that at least 70% of people lose money, being part of that 30% is already a massive achievement.

So that 10% that you mentioned in your post is really good if you think about it. Many traders would sign a 5% per year if they could.

My personal aim is not to lose at the end of a period, whatever comes in green is out of many factors, but my risk must be always set to not to lose over 12 months. A really hard task to achieve.

[THT]

I wouldn't set targets - trading is psychological warfare against yourself - adding targets and required returns just adds to the pressure

If you have a decent method it will pay dividends and most likely beat the markets average returns

 

 

 

 

 

[u0362565]

On 21/05/2021 at 18:29, jlz said:

In my opinion when you set yourself a target of profits you are doing it wrong.

If we look at the ever present banner on this site that at least 70% of people lose money, being part of that 30% is already a massive achievement.

So that 10% that you mentioned in your post is really good if you think about it. Many traders would sign a 5% per year if they could.

My personal aim is not to lose at the end of a period, whatever comes in green is out of many factors, but my risk must be always set to not to lose over 12 months. A really hard task to achieve.

Ok so seems that's the wrong way to look at it. Funny in a way that actually it's about damage limitation and that if anything the aim is to keep your account at least at break even and if you do better your doing well. That kind of says how hard it is.

[u0362565]

13 hours ago, THT said:

I wouldn't set targets - trading is psychological warfare against yourself - adding targets and required returns just adds to the pressure

If you have a decent method it will pay dividends and most likely beat the markets average returns

 

 

 

 

 

Yeah I see what you're saying, I guess you only know once you have enough data to get some kind of expectancy and this is a bit like when investments show you how they've done historically. 

[THT]

On 22/05/2021 at 23:46, u0362565 said:

Yeah I see what you're saying, I guess you only know once you have enough data to get some kind of expectancy and this is a bit like when investments show you how they've done historically. 

Yeah, but you can easily gain that by back testing historical price data

 

 

 

 

Edited May 24, 2021 by THT

[u0362565]

4 hours ago, THT said:

Yeah, but you can easily gain that by back testing historical price data

 

 

 

 

How do i find short time period price data e.g. 1hr over many years?  The brokers only show you so far back, then you have no choice but to view past data at lower time resolution lets say.  If you trade over shorter time periods how can you back test enough data when it doesn't seem to be available.

[THT]

1 hour ago, u0362565 said:

How do i find short time period price data e.g. 1hr over many years?  The brokers only show you so far back, then you have no choice but to view past data at lower time resolution lets say.  If you trade over shorter time periods how can you back test enough data when it doesn't seem to be available.

Not sure on that as I did all my back testing on daily charts which I was able to obtain data on covering many decades - but I buy in my price data and run it through my preferred charting software

I've never tried to back test with IG's provided data or PRT