That is how prop firms work (basically), so what exactly do u not understand? BTW risk has more to do with strategy than leverage, read my post before last to get an idea of what I'm talking about.
Nah I didn't forget anything, you are assuming that u are fully leveraged on each trade for a 2% dd to blow u out, but I didn't say or imply that. You scale your size according to what is in your acct, so if are drawing down, you size down and size up as u are making (water marks). There probably aren't that many traders who are all in every trade (max BP), unless they can reload easily. Maybe if u read my post before last u will get an idea. 10% on BP was an arbitrary number any way, just to make a simple point, which apparently u didn't get.
I'm trying.... What do you consider reasonable? How about a system that has a 30% win rate; 60 % losers; 10 % breakeven Risk to reward 1 to 3 Risk 1% of account per trade Take 12 trades per week.
Let me summarize what some of the posters were saying. At least that's the impression I got from their posts. I am not agreeing with them, but found their point of view interesting. - Trading performance is not measured by percentage gains but should be measured by absolute dollar gain. - Getting an average profit of $500 a day has nothing to do with account size. You can get this with a $50k account or even less as long as you have good leverage. - Never compound your gain. Compounding makes me mad. - I will trade 1 to 9 contracts to get $500 a day. Or roughly $125,000 a year. It doesn't matter if I have 10 million dollars in my bank or other people give me more money to trade. $500 a day is all I am aiming for and I am happy with it. Forever.
Close. I trade for income. Anything I make this week goes into my bank account. When I have a losing week, and I do, then I have to get my account back to break-even before I withdraw any more. Any surplus gets invested.
Trading versus investing in a nutshell: [From Building Minds for Building Wealth by Jack Hershey] There is a definite contrast between how markets operate and how financial investments are made. On the chart below, the red line depicts how capital is invested and how it is done with regard to the risk involved. Generally the higher the risk, the greater the returns are on making capital loans to those who require capital for doing business. In real estate development and construction, the diligence most closely relates to the potential for success. Long Term Value (LTV) is a common calculation that is done under a very broad variety of circumstances. Measures of risk are compared to measures of rewards. For intraday trading in markets, there is another path that is possible. The black curve roughs out this path. For learning to trade, the path moves from upper left to lower right. It is worth taking the time to understand why this is the route, above all, to follow. The market displays a broad variety of operating points that turn out to be arrayed all over the chart. Because these operating points are there, the trader may choose them for use. This is in stark contrast to investing capital to make money with investments where there is a direct relationship between risk and reward. Learning to trade is a serial process for all practical purposes. Therefore, focusing on low risk, high reward opportunities, is the most practical place to choose to start. See the red ellipse area on the chart. Generally, people decide how they are going to approach trading based upon their personal character, nature, knowledge and environment. An alternative is to focus on logic and reasoning. * * *
For all you high flyers out there making 1% a day remember that Bernie Madoff only promised 12% a year and he couldn't achieve that.
Yes...I have been sucked back into this black hole of the trading world known as Elite Trader. The damn webmaster and moderators ought to be sued for false advertising. There are a few traders here that actually trade and make their nut, but I can see that they are in the minority. A lot of wannabees and jock riders that don't know the bid from the ask inhabit this board and it seems that this particular convo has devolved into a damn mission impossible like all the others. 1st and foremost...the damn OP popped in with a question and hasn't been seen since. I think the moderators come up with most of this bullshit to keep debate and arguments going. It seems the topics with the controversy get all the views and comments. Since so many of you guys are into backtesting and algorithmic trading and all that BS I'm sure you also know how to reverse engineer a strategy. So you have 50k and you want to make $500/day average...how are you going to do it? What instruments are you going to trade? What is your max daily loss? What strategies are you going to use? Many of you guys keep talking about risk as if it is commensurate with the reward which it is not. If you want to make $500/day your max loss should be $500 or less/day. Some days you may make up to $1500-$2000 but never lose more than $500. Take profits out of your account regularly to keep it from being exposed to the market and you will be well on your way. No income trader I know speaks in percentage terms because percentages don't pay the bills. And only an ignorant ass would compare an income trader with a 50k account with that of a fund manager with hundreds of millions under management. Ever hear the term scalable strategy? I see why No Doji stopped her thread. She must be a damn savant since she is averaging $500/day with a 50k account. The funny thing is that a trader with a futures account that has 50k in it has a bad day when he makes $500. First thing we need to do is tighten up the definition of trader. Just because someone can afford to fund a damn Etrade account doesn't make them a trader. I have a couple pairs of Jordans and that doesn't make me pro ball player now does it? I constantly hear that 95% of traders fail...I'll contend that 95% of the people that have an account shouldn't be called traders.