Agreed. Even a 'mere' 21% annual compounded return has placed Warren Buffett among the richest men this world has ever known. IMHO, the real skill lies in being able to do it with large size.
The more money you have, the less important it is to make a big gain... the more important it is to "keep what you have".... makes it difficult to continue making large returns. When I did the research, there were 7 money managers (from ALL disciplines combined) who documented 40+% for 10 years. So, for all of you thinking in terms of "hundreds of percent" gains in a year... that's just fantasy. Of course, someone will always turn $5K into $20K every now and then, but keeping it going and with bigger sums?.... borders on impossible.
Lets recap: You are new to futures and you want to develop what amounts to your own personal ATM machine that just generates money without requiring your close supervision. Great idea, its amazing no one has thought of this before - just think all that money sitting there, waiting for you to take it. You want to set a reasonable goal as a new futures trader? Shoot for breakeven.
I'm sure all of us would love to simply "turn on the computer in the morning, go play golf, then come home and pick up the money to take to the bank".... no way, Jose.
The notion of constantly producing a net stream of positive tics each day is IMO the essence of trading. And yes it can be done, each and every day. In order to achieve this goal, you must firstly believe that you can do it and secondly you must work out and apply a plan to the ES to this effect. It will become apparent to you that what you read concerning trading is openly available to everybody else and since 95% of traders fail, you are going to have to be a little more original in your thinking and a great deal more robust in your application if you are to achieve your goal. I will get you started if you are all interested. 'Believe that one day is the equivalent of one week trading the ES'.
OK, for the last time, we will use an example: Let's say we are both traders. I trade ES you trade YM. We start our accounts with $10 K. I make 1 ES per day on average, you make 10 YM per day on average (after commission.). At the end of the year our returns are going to be EXACTLY the same. But if we go by your face value approach you would have a better return because the face value of the YM contract is LESS than the ES'. Now let me ask back, why would the face value matter? It is your starting account and the margin that matters.... Wouldn't you agree if we both make $50-50 a day on the same capital, our return % are the same?