4.6 dollars, for sure... it recalls me an (already) old joke in vogue when I start on this business in the early 90's: -How do you make a small fortune on the stock exchanges ? -...with a BIG fortune... :-D cheers
Jealous of your paper trades? Of course not. Real money trades affect your psyche, paper money does not, so you can sustain drawdowns with ease, same goes for ability to hold leveraged position.
The market needs those guys who trade papermoney, and then blow up with real.. as for how you stack up, to be honest, only worry about your trading, who cares if someone makes a little or a lot more..
I made 285% within 3 weeks by trading SPY options (Jun. 12 ~ Jul 3rd), usually close the trade next day, 100% win, but it's a very small account. I'm going to try my strategy with a bigger account.
Your sample size is most likely extremely small and the length of time isn't long enough in the grand scheme of things to state that your strategy is profitable in the long run. Please take caution.
460% on paper is nothing - its when you exited the trade(s) and you can spend the money that it counts., If you want to brag - I made 11,000% (annualised return basis) on one earnings trade on Oracle last year. I opened a short straddle two days before earnings (and expiration), the stock moved up, earnings came they were 'meh', the stock moved right back to the strikes. I legged out in the most lucky manner I ever legged out in my life and that was that. Of course when I opened that trade I KNEW it was a gamble - so it was just 5 options each way - it left me a cool 600$ for 2 days in the market. Now that's a real return but I wouldn't have risked a 100 grand on it. 2017 has been my best year ever so far (I have been trading for 25+ years) and I am up 73% which eclipses any of my previous results even from the great bull markets of yore. I am not counting on being able to repeat this ever before - on average I have made something over 8.4%/annum on my modest investments per year 1992-2016