Can Day Traders make a good living.

Discussion in 'Trading' started by Kastro_316, Jun 14, 2002.

  1. Nemsy

    Nemsy


    I see where you get that 621,845 USD from but I wonder, is this the usual way to calculate the % return?



    Now you could also say that the largest amount of money he had invested in the market at a given time was 94,740 USD (KLAC trade: 2000x47.37).

    If you look at it this way he made a $7,165 return on what could be as little as a $94,740 trade account. That's a return of 7.6%.

    And suppose he used max margin (25k account x 4 > 94 k)

    that would be a return of 30% in one day with as little as 25K.

    But I guess you shouldn't calculate those percentages like this, right?

    Still impressive tough :)
     
    #21     Jun 15, 2002
  2. exactly.

    you've got potential.

    :D :D :D
     
    #22     Jun 15, 2002
  3. spieler

    spieler

    The biggest difficulty is to not lose a 10 days gains on one single day which is not good for your account of course but for your mental.
    Because you will want to recover in one day and often oversize your positions and overtrade.

    Cut your loss but do not forget to cut your profit as well and not let your profit run as you can read everywhere. That s not true in day trading do not forget to catch your profit.
    You have to take small profits but often and sometimes the home runs will come but only 1 or 2 times a month not everyday.
     
    #23     Jun 15, 2002
  4. Nemsy,

    My calculations are for the daily average. In looking at each individual trade, his returns are: 1.6%, 1.2%, .06%, .008%, 2%, 1%, 0%, and 2%. This is an average of 1.18% for the eight trades. When you back out his commissions, which appears to be $460 from his post, the average is 1% for the day.

    It can be argued that your returns can be figured on the amount of money you put up irrespective of how much margin you take. I personally disagree with that and prefer to base my calculations on exactly how much the stock cost relative to how much money was made or lost on the trade. Margin exposes you to more risk and while you're in the trade you are responsible for the entire amount. That risk has to be calculated into your returns or IMO they do not reflect the true risk to reward ratio.
     
    #24     Jun 15, 2002
  5. You can make a decent living in today's market (high five figures, early six) if you trade conservatively and disciplined. I don't think Seanote's trades are typical since I didn't see a single losing trade. The worst trade I saw was a breakeven one. You must really be in the zone to trade that perfectly which is not common. My average day would have about ten winners and four losers. Of course, I try to cut my losses quickly so I'm still net positive for the day.
     
    #25     Jun 15, 2002
  6. rs7

    rs7

    Don't think it doesn't happen. I was long a LOT of MSFT one day, when CNBC goes to a news flash....there's Janet Reno announcing the opening of anti-trust proceedings against Microsoft. Stock dropped 10 pts. in about a second...(this was at lunchtime when I was usually flat)
    I couldn't even begin to count the times I had a stock position, and the stock was held during trading hours. Certainly enough times to age me an extra few years over the last 10.
    The point of my post, however, was that "part time" is statistically insignificant. Believe me, I admire greatly that you have averaged 1.2% per day. But over time, that is an impossibility. If not an impossibility, then certainly a first!
     
    #26     Jun 15, 2002
  7. spieler

    spieler

    I don't think Seanote's trades are typical

    Sometimes it can happen but it is unusal see first gif
    On average it is for me closer to between 60 and 65% of winners
    see second gif

    As you can see i am a scalper thistime because of too much faulse breakouts
     
    #27     Jun 15, 2002
  8. spieler

    spieler

    sorry first gif
     
    • +v.gif
      File size:
      10.9 KB
      Views:
      276
    #28     Jun 15, 2002
  9. spieler

    spieler

    Of course i only pay per ticket commissions 9.95$ for 9900 CSCO via island for exemple
     
    #29     Jun 15, 2002
  10. onondaga

    onondaga

    So what would you consider is a more reasonable average return per day for someone like you trading full-time?
     
    #30     Jun 15, 2002