It is useless to do math on theoretical trading results. The only useful thing is to do it based on real results. In that case you can see what realistically is possible, and what can happens if your results diverge from what you did in past. I see again stupid hypothetical calculations. The fact that NOBODY, even not Simmons, Buffett, Soros or any other person was able to achieve these fake results, proves that making this calculation is the most idiotic thing to do. Even the world famous Niederhoffer couldn't achieve it. The fact that people continue to make these assumptions proves that they have totally no knowledge about the real trading world. Compounding over 400 years is utter stupidity, even if you post it 20 times over a 1 year period as JK90029 does. If you use eternal compounding and accept that it is realistic,you can "prove" that even the best trader in the world never can make big returns. I already said before that Renaissance does not take any new clients anymore for years already and redistributed massively profits because they couldn't handle the amount of money anymore. There are limits in managing money, but there are clearly no limits when it comes to the imagination when calculating hypothetical results in hypothetical compounding. With enough imagination you can prove anything.. at least in their imagination.
As far as I heard, there is only ONE family keeping their own logic to make money in the bond market. If I heard correctly, Rothschild kept own principle roughly 200 years(???). They do not speculate in the housing market directly, but lend money with collateral. Mostly their expected rate is NOT high, but very safe. In my personal guess, Rothschild family does NOT 1)buy house with borrowed money 2)speculate in the stock-related market.
Of course, unlike Roths, Buffet is one of the successful stock investor. However, it is true in case his 50 year report is confirmed. Not that his overall record (50 years) shows roughly 20%( 12% outperformed over the index), as showned in http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/letters/2014ltr.pdf . Therefore my guess is that no one can make annual 20% compounded over 50 years. That is same as APR for your credit card intereste rate. If credit card lender does not lose money to customer at all, they make 1.2^50 = 9100.438 = 9100 times over 50 years. So if you think you cannot perform as much as Buffet, open a credit card business.
Most traders are afraid to do this or underestimate its importance. Simply, if the OP (thread starter) was able to do 100 trading days with 3% gain each trading day...never a fail at least a few times before a losing trading day in his past trading results... That's when he can sit down and do hypothetical math calculations about what's possible in the future while understanding its not guarantee to occur again but there's a more realistic possibility that such could occur again.
Exactly. If I would be the best player in the NBA I could buy a plane, have a beautiful girl on each finger, buy a few houses all over the world..... The only problem is that my hypothetical calculations will stay hypothetical as I will never be an NBA star. My hypothetical calculations started from a hypothetical career. Many wannebee traders make the same mistake. First see what you can make in real trading, and then watch what it would be if you succeed in improving your trading skills. But no matter what happens, stay REALISTIC. Dreams will remain only dreams for 99% of the people.
For example, 95 winning days and 5 losing days for roughly 5 months.(20D*5Months) It means (1+0.03)^95*(1-0.03)^5 = 1+ 13.23623, implying 1300% For yearly APR, 14.23^(12/5) = 585.7223 Keep going.
Yep but until the OP is able to do such with real money...the numbers can easily be hypothesized anyway we want.