Thanks for the color and for helping newbies. I bought a membership to trade ES (~$70k) and negotiated a flat rate $0.10 clearing fee. A retail trading MES pays 12x my cost in fees and faces worse microstructure (never any fills at edge, only gets picked off by arb). Platform, pro data fees, news feed costs $7k/year. Right now making $1-2k/day on 3-4 lots with a mid five figure account with similar targets and trade frequency to the guy you mentioned. I've got other income so not drawing on the trading account, plan to top it up by ~$300k over the next 12-18 months to grow provided I'm staying monthly profitable. I don't leverage beyond exchange margin in this volatility; at 9% vol I'd be at 50% margins. Assuming an edge I wouldn't try to trade short term in the ES without member rates, at least $150k risk capital, and another income to cover the first 2 years of trading. Even then, it's going to be tough. If I get near a 7 figure run rate I'll be looking at diversifying to other strategies, ideally defined risk in equity vol. Maybe I'll report back in a year with my results, but I'm still short stacked and facing pretty high odds to compete in futures as a manual trader. Been lurking on ET for a decade, traders I've found informative to read from: @destriero and aliases, @taowave, @garachen, @rallymode, @MrMuppet, @nokomisjeff ...but if you don't have the discernment to figure out who is sharing valuable info probably best pick another profession.
Not easier but convexity will be the key to become very well off if one can figure it out. OP is too young and does not have the technical background to benefit.
like me but it took me 20 years to even smell a profit from far. stick to buying good companies and not even looking at the price till you know what markets can do. i started in 1987 and turned day trading in 2007. passion is not enough. you need extreme commitment both financially and emotionally. and remember just because tiger is your mentor you cannot expect billions
i had you on my block list for a long time because, not because you didnt anything wrong. but because it was painful to see you suffering trying to become a trader, it was painful. i always aid there reason that traders dont become successful is they lack passion. but now i realize that you are so correct it takes even more than passion.
I'm not sure about @poopy he's pretty new here (joined April 2024). Padu and SML have a Private Message Group you might be able to join to learn day trading.
Poopy is a multinick, he's been trading for decades and posting here since....way back. Plus should be able to discern he knows his stuff just from limited post history. Best of luck...