I am not sure if this was covered or not. I read few pages not all. If your broker requires $500 per contract. They will give you margin call when your account drops under $500 per contract. And the broker will liquidate your position shortly after that. You will need at least $600 if you plan to use 2 points stop. And you will be risking margin calls. No one wants that. You will be risking 1/6 of your capital ($600) per trade. Good luck with that. Keep in mind that most brokers will want 5000 to 10,000 to open an account for you. Let's say you go with 6000. You buy 10 contracts. The trade goes against you and you loose $1000. On the second trade you cant go with 10 contract as you will not have the $600 per contract. You need a reality check. Just borrow $5000 and try few trades. Everybody has a plan that evaporates when one gets a blow to the chin. Try it. You will see. "Everyone has a plan 'till they get punched in the mouth." Mike Tyson
Just as a matter of interest, say your first bet is stopped out at -2 pts. How are you going to cope with this ? 1.raising your stake perhaps ? 2.raising your bets per day ? 3.floods of tears that your system broke ? well ? P.S. I don't think 1 ES point per day is very ambitious. Try 2 then 4
You right re the margin. So even by having a 5% return (1 point on one contract per $1000) per day/20 a month it is 100%ROI.
To answer your original question: YES The vast majority of us started with that very math and added all the "next step" items you cite and now..mostly all of us make that 200% ROI with 10 points a day. Day after day, year after year. Really easy math if you think about it. R/R, comissions, etc....really just minutae that doesn't deserve your time or effort.
I should add this to be honest: Speaking for about 98% of those trading ES, a 10 point stop to get that 1 point profit is very acceptable. Don't let the worry-warts thwart your enthusiasm. No get out there tiger!
I just made 8 ES points today, in one trade riding the uptrend. But I lost money on Mon and Tues and I'm just slightly ahead for the week. You can't make money on a consistent basis, the way that you imagine. The key is to find a way to make more than you lose.
Everyone makes mistakes. Especially in the beginning. You have to assume that you will make a mistake where you will loose 6,8 or even 10 times your R. You will be dead at the level you want to play the game. You leave no space for errors.