UK Trader Reveals $82.5k Return on Two-Year $10k Challenge

A home trader who aimed to show how you could turn $10k into $100,000 in just two years has revealed a final position of $82,500.

Charlie Burton, who featured last year on BBC2 documentary Millions By The Minute, began the challenge in March 2013 to show regular traders what can be achieved with a typical starting balance.

His progress was tracked through regular video blogs on YouTube with his return revealed last night (April 23rd 2015) during a live stream at his ezeetrader.com website.

Charlie says: “My goal was always to reach $100,000 and I am naturally disappointed not to have done so. But the outcome clearly shows how trading is not an exact science.

“Just because you think you can achieve a final position, it doesn’t mean you will. It’s the most important reality of trading. However much you plan, things will happen to knock you off course.”

Charlie placed two or three trades on average each day during the challenge – alongside his day-to-day trading in major currency pairs and U.S. stock index futures. His biggest loss amounted to $9,000 with his biggest single gain at $27,000 coming from a trade on the S&P futures.

He adds: To have turned $10k into $82,500 in just two years is a fantastic return. Whether you’re trading as a professional or from home to supplement your income or pension, it shows just what can be achieved from a relatively moderate sum.”

Charlie’s Top Ten Lessons from the Challenge 

– To focus on what is in front of me, not the end result. Breaking things down into small achievable segments is much easier.
– Ignore the winnings and losses of previous trades. Do not react to them on future trades. What is important is what’s happening now.
– The best trading is done in the mornings.
– After a good winning spell, don’t get over confident.
– After a losing spell, tighten up the trading up and reduce risk. This works well to recoup lost ground.
– The best periods were when I traded the most strictly on the best setups rather than getting side-tracked by average ones when the better ones were scarce.
– I had two larger drawdowns, both as a result of trading at the high-risk tolerance I allowed myself. The lesson is higher leverage doesn’t necessarily give you greater returns. The tolerance was a max risk of 5% on a single trade. Most of the time I traded at a lesser risk.
– At times I was too laid back putting on trades I didn’t need to.
– Focus on just a few markets to keep things simple.
– This was proof of what can be achieved but it takes hard work.