Well, I piced BGEN for my example because its easy to trade and goes up and down like a whore's drawers. There are several dozen to pick from. If you think going 400% is risking the farm, well I'm so surprised I don't know how to react. There are guys on this board who will go 8 times with a yawn. For the record I call 25,000 a small account and 500,000 a big account for an individual trader to use on a daily basis if he/she goes flat at the end. Right, today was as difficult as it gets to trade, if you're up today you're good. Good luck to you.
I made $512 after commish today. I started the day with $33,255 in my account. That would be roughly 1.5%.
I am glad to hear that I am not the only one who had a tough time today. Nothing more frustrating than having a bad day when it feels like the rest of the trading world is celebrating. As far as this 1% debate goes, how would someone who derives all of their income off of a small trading account (40,000) live on less than 1% a day. ? It is useless to talk about compounding for someone who trades for a living, because we sweep our profits to pay the bills. 1% a day is $100,000 a year in a profession where we have to pay for our own medical insurance, trade related services etc. On this point I agree with Geezer that 1% a day on a small account should be attainable, not just to be a successful trader, but to make a living wage.
Thunderbolt there is a big difference between making 1.5% on a "good" or "decent" day and averaging 1% over an entire year, especially when you have an account much larger than 33k...
I would have to add myself to the bad day club. Nothing like going to bed smug and waking up feeling like an idiot. One thing that was pointed out to me, and makes a lot of sense. I did a lot of driving over the weekend, so Monday I closed out a few shorts early and took a nap. Around 2 I set up some shorts and decided at days end to let them ride, just till morning. The point though, was not to try and make decisions when you are tired or otherwise pre occupied, and this lesson was a little more expensive than a few hours on a shrink's couch.