This is a question I’ve been asked many times over the years:
“If I start with a £2,000 trading bank, how much profit can I expect to make?”
Unfortunately, there isn’t a figure I can give you.
The size of your trading bank doesn’t determine how much profit you’ll make.
What you do with it does.
Two people could both start with £2,000 and have completely different results. One might steadily grow their bank while the other could lose a significant part of theirs.
The difference isn’t the amount they started with. It’s how they trade.
The Question Is Usually The Wrong Question
I understand why people ask it.
They’re trying to decide whether tennis trading is worth their time.
But asking how much you can make from a £2,000 bank is a little like asking how much somebody can earn from a business simply by knowing how much money they invested in it.
There are too many other variables.
Your experience, strategies, staking, risk management, discipline and the quality of your trading decisions will all affect your results.
Your Bank Determines What You Can Risk, Not What You Will Earn
A trading bank gives you the capital you need to trade.
It doesn’t guarantee a return.
If two traders both have £2,000 but one risks £10 on a typical trade while the other risks £100, their potential profits will obviously be very different.
So will their potential losses.
Simply increasing your stakes doesn’t make you a better or more profitable trader. In fact, increasing your stakes too quickly can wreck your confidence. If you lose confidence, you make poorer decisions.
Poor decisions will soon eat through that £2,000.
Percentage Returns Are More Useful Than Pounds
When you’re learning, I think it’s more useful to think about the performance of your trading bank than a particular monthly income.
For example, somebody making £100 from a £1,000 bank and somebody making £1,000 from a £10,000 bank have produced the same percentage return.
The monetary figures look very different, but the performance is identical.
That’s one reason comparing your profits with another trader’s screenshots isn’t particularly useful unless you know how much capital and risk were involved.
Don’t Set A Profit Target That Forces You To Trade
There’s another problem with deciding beforehand that your £2,000 bank must make a certain amount every month.
What happens when the opportunities aren’t there?
If you’ve decided you need to make £500 this month, it’s very easy to start looking for trades simply because you’re behind your target.
You trade matches you would normally leave alone.
You increase your stakes.
You stay in trades longer hoping to squeeze out a little more profit.
Suddenly your profit target is influencing your trading decisions.
I prefer to take what the markets give me rather than trying to force the markets to give me what I want.
Having said that, I always found it useful to be able to gauge the day’s results. So, if I made a profit equal to my normal stake, I was happy with that.
A Bigger Bank Doesn’t Fix Bad Trading
This sounds obvious, but it’s worth saying.
If somebody can’t trade consistently with a £500 bank, giving them £2,000 isn’t going to solve the problem.
Likewise, if you’re learning with small stakes and consistently making sensible decisions, increasing your bank later allows those same decisions to be made with larger amounts.
That’s the point at which bank size becomes useful.
The skill should come first.
Protecting The Bank Matters
When people ask how much they can make from a trading bank, they’re usually thinking entirely about the upside.
I think the downside deserves just as much attention.
Your trading bank is the tool that allows you to trade.
Protecting it means controlling your liability, accepting losing trades and avoiding the temptation to dramatically increase stakes after a bad result.
A £2,000 bank that is managed sensibly gives you room to trade and learn.
A £2,000 bank that is treated as £2,000 you can afford to gamble can disappear remarkably quickly.
Your Results Will Change As You Gain Experience
A beginner shouldn’t expect to produce the same results as somebody who has traded thousands of matches.
That’s not realistic.
As you gain experience, you’ll become better at selecting matches, identifying opportunities, managing positions and recognising when a trade isn’t developing as expected.
You may then decide to increase your stakes. Gradually.
That’s a much healthier way to grow than starting with a financial target and working backwards to calculate how much you need to risk to achieve it.
So How Much Can You Make With £2,000?
Of course, you can make money with a £2,000 trading bank.
But nobody can responsibly tell you how much.
If someone tells you that a £2,000 bank should make £X per week or £Y per month, I’d want to know a lot more about the assumptions behind those figures.
The better question is:
“Can I learn to trade this bank consistently while controlling my risk?”
If the answer eventually becomes yes, the size of your trading bank can grow alongside your experience.
I’ve been trading tennis since 2008 and have traded professionally full-time since July 2010. My TradeShark Tennis Trading Course focuses on the strategies, risk management and decision-making that I’ve developed during that time rather than promising a particular return from a particular bank.
FAQ articles
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Why Trading Isn’t The Same As Betting
How To Manage Risk When Trading Tennis
What Makes A Good Tennis Trading Opportunity?
How Do I Know When To Exit A Trade?
When There Are Lots Of Matches, How Do I Choose Which One To Trade?
I’m Not A Great Fan Of Tennis. Is That A Problem?
Tennis Matches Can Last For Hours. Do I Have To Sit At The PC All Day?
