Required Investment Growth Calculator: a practical guide
What would it take to reach my money goal?
See the daily growth your trading goal would need. Then try a different daily gain or loss, including costs and days off.
By VolatileShares · Example version 1 · Updated . Hypothetical inputs, not financial recommendations or live company data.
A worked example, in plain English
The idea in 10 seconds: A goal is a destination. The required growth tells you how steep the route would be.
Your goal and your tested pace tell different stories.
Markets do not pay a steady daily return. Required growth is not an achievable strategy.
- Required growth per trading session
- 0.04%
- Scenario ending balance
- $2,102.54
- Scenario gap to goal
- -$97.46
Walk me through the full calculation
Turning $2,000.00 into $2,200.00 over approximately 252 trading sessions requires 0.04% per session before costs. Testing 0.03%, with 5 skipped sessions and $0.20 charged after each active session, ends at $2,102.54: $97.46 short of the goal.
At that same tested pace and cost, the goal needs approximately 466 active sessions, before adding skipped days. Compare more time, a smaller goal or different costs, not leverage. The model applies the same return to the whole account, ignores holidays and taxes, and does not describe a repeatable trading strategy.
Required daily, weekly and monthly rates are equivalent compounded targets, not amounts to add together. Larger goals require larger returns; none are promised.
Inputs used for this example
These are the calculator's example defaults, not suggested amounts or rates. Market calculators initially display USD. Change currency in the toolbar without creating a personal profile. Under optional Location & display settings, choose an example country for its currency and available historical CPI. Review any example household size and rent assumption before explicitly applying local assumptions: matching unedited budget/inflation fields change, while edited or restored inputs are kept. Lifestyle budgets are fictional examples, not measured national averages. Local tax, pension and borrowing links are guidance, not personal calculations. Switching currency alone does not change percentages, ages or share counts.
- Money you start with (USD)
- 2,000
- Money you want to reach (USD)
- 2,200
- How much time do you have?
- 12
- Time unit
- Months
- Different daily gain or loss to compare (%)
- 0.03
- Cost each day you trade (USD)
- 0.20
- Days you will not trade
- 5
Work backwards from your goal
What starting balance would reach my goal at the tested pace?
Work backwards at your tested pace, or give the goal more time.
Choose Work backwards, enter your target and the few essential inputs, then choose Calculate my goal. The answer is checked with the same forward calculation and applied in one step. Example assumptions are disclosed under More options. Expand Calculation details & tools only if you want more detail. Impossible or out-of-range goals show an error instead of invented numbers. Long numbers display commas while editing; calculations and saved snapshots keep the original precision.
Includes your tested daily return, fixed daily costs and skipped days. A repeatable trading return is not realistic or promised.
Return to the interactive calculator above →How the calculation works
Sessions: round(duration x unit factor), using 1 per trading day, 5/7 per calendar day, 5 per week or 21 per month. Required session growth = (target / start)^(1 / sessions) - 1. Active sessions = sessions - skipped. Each active session: balance = max(0, balance x (1 + tested return / 100) - fixed cost).
What this cannot tell you
Approximate planning calendar, not an exchange calendar; holidays are not deducted. Maximum 2,520 sessions. Required rates exclude fees and skipped sessions; the separate tested scenario includes them. Fixed costs are charged after each active session; no borrowing, deposits, taxes or withdrawals. A repeatable daily return is not realistic market behavior.
Changing an assumption changes the example, not the future. Verify source dates and actual product, tax and lending terms before relying on any result. These tools do not replace appropriately qualified advice.
The daily, weekly and monthly numbers are the same goal
A constant 1% per session compounds to about 5.10% over five sessions, not exactly 5%. Equivalent period returns are not amounts to add together. A repeatable 1% daily return is not a market expectation.
Illustrative arithmetic, not market evidence or a promise of returns.
Keep a useful starting point
In the interactive calculator, compare different assumptions or explicitly save a named snapshot to My browser notebook. Saving is optional and browser-only, not an account or cloud backup. Revisit it on the same browser profile; restoring never refreshes prices or assumptions.