The world of traders was always evoking a luxury lifestyle. With the movie Wolf from Wall Street and similar movies, that image of a trader settled even more. But how much do traders, and particularly Forex traders, really earn? Let’s see first what numbers say.

According to Payscale, the average trader’s salary can reach $83 000. What is interesting is that the bonuses can bring them as much as $100 000 per year. If we include commissions and profit-sharing options, the average equity trader’s salary can go up to $160 000. These numbers refer to the equity traders working on behalf of their companies or clients. But are also giving the cue about how much their Forex trading peers earn.

How much do retail traders earn?

When it comes to the retail Forex traders, the story gets a little more complex. It’s because the retail traders’ profiles are so different, which reflects on their earnings. Very often, it depends on their choice of a Forex broker. However, what affects the final calculation of the Forex trader’s profits is the trading lot size per transaction, the number of pips you have made. And in the long run, it depends on the frequency of profitable trades.

The most successful Forex traders – how much do they earn?

The richest Forex traders of all time are, for instance, George Soros, Bill Lipschutz, Stanley Druckenmiller, Mark Douglas, Bruce Kovner, Andy Krieger, Cheng Likuy. These people’s fortunes amount to billions of dollars. And not just that. They are the owners of corporations and charity funds. Of course, their career path cannot be compared to that of a retail trader. However, they have all started small, worked for corporations, achieved stunning results and slowly invested in their own businesses. On the other hand, we also have retail traders who trade privately from their home computers and earn significant sums.

You have all heard of George Soros, the great legend of Forex trading. Nevertheless, ordinary traders manage to achieve incredible results as well. Let’s see who else makes part of the top traders’ list.

Cheng Likuy deserves to be mentioned among the best traders. He’s coming from the Chinese province of Shanghai and started trading in 2008 with $ 400 and set a new profit record on Forex. In less than a month, he succeeded in accumulating accumulated over $ 240,000by trading Forex. Cheng only spent six months training. The latter did not reveal all his secrets. But he claimed to have mostly used pending orders to earn his fortune.

But the most incredible story came in 2012 with Akhmad Arief, who managed to do what any trader dreams of doing. In two weeks of active trading, he grew his starting capital from $ 1,000 to $ 1,000,000 by using the aggressive tactic to trade major currency pairs such as GBP / USD and EUR / USD. No one expected he could become a millionaire using a high-risk strategy.

For sure, big profits require a significant investment. The average annual return of professional traders who take big risks ranges from 20% to 100%. It’s pretty easy to see the difference: 50% of the profit from a $ 100 investment makes only $ 50 while 50% of a $ 1,000,000 investment makes $ 500,000.

Conclusion

Many traders make a very good living trading Forex, and some have had large returns that have allowed them to become professionally independent. A novice Forex trader can indeed make lasting profits by trading currencies, even with a low starting capital. Of course, no one can guarantee regular 100% income safety. But once you have enough trading experience, then you can consistently make a profit. It takes just enough patience, learning, and practice to successfully generate reasonable profits regularly.