I don’t think you can scale up intraday trading without adding substantial infrastructure (which is a huge fixed cost). what’s the point of making 500k/year with no hope of growing the account? Over time you will leave a lot of money on the table. Better to develop strategies that scale into 7-8 figures of pnl.
Your comment doesn't say who you're replying to, so if it's not me, it's not me. First of all, there's nothing wrong with making 500K a year. The best money managers offer 7-15% a year. That's easy to beat trading properly, but not everyone can or has the required stomach for it. Second of all, there are ways to upscale any trading method (I've successfully traded a many as 819,000 shares of AMC in a single session when it was over $50/share), so not sure why you think anything can't be upscaled, unless doing so lowers your personal risk tolerance, so if that makes you change your behavior, then upscaling is not yet a fit for you. Third, you don't need to catch every top or every bottom, no one ever does, it's not realistic, so a good trader's job is to consistently take a nice bite out of the middle, walk away with greens, grow the account, and never worry about what's "left on the table." Missed deals don't matter, you don't get a do-over. Find the next trade, make some more. Happy trails.
I designed my own trading platform, for high efficiency and lightning speed. When I saw your comment on how you create certain "layered" bid set-ups, I was intrigued, as I have similar design elements within the program, which I trade with every day.
it wasn't directed at anyone particularly other than the general title of the thread. This is the logical fallacy of day traders: "the best money managers may 15%, but i can make hundreds of percent day trading." Either they aren't the best, or the scale makes returns harder, or you can't make hundreds of percent day trading, or you are actually taking on substantially more risk than the best money managers. I do not believe 500k year (which is me being generous on what successful traders earn) compensates one for the risk of trading over the long run. You can earn 100-200k as a salary in many professions with no risk of obsolescence and no risk of catastrophic blow pretty easily. If you are earning less (like 200 or 250k) trading, you are massively under earning the risk of day trading. I have not heard of a day trader who can earn 10MM trading without some significant infrastructure. There are guys who have been able to scale their operation. If you can build it, then you are a proper trading firm and that's a different animal. Then you are a real firm whose not really speculating but providing a real service to the market and getting compensated for it (market makers who have technological and commercial edge over others). All trading and investing is about capturing your "bite in the middle" and walking away with profits. Over a lifetime, you should have an opportunity for those bites to get bigger and bigger. you will cap out with intraday strategies sooner than with other strategies. The one immutable law in business: If you aren't growing, you are shrinking.
Not sure who said "you can make hundreds of percents day trading," it wasn't me. Over the course of a year, can you beat what financial managers by executing properly? Absolutely, with consistent, repeatable techniques. You'd be hard-pressed to name any money manager ANYWHERE who will promise more than 10-15% per year. If you think so, ask a couple what they'll guarantee as a return. You haven't. If you trade properly, you should not be at risk for some "catastrophic blow" you talk about. The only reason you can take a big hit is failure to manage position size. That's over-exposure. If you're in too big, trying for a big score, and don't have the ability to offset a big drop, you end up high, it's the only reason a "big hit" is possible, over-exposing capital. Not sure why you're obsessed with big 7-digit numbers and "10 MM" comments. Top level, successful day traders usually work with a live account value of about 150-175 K. Their account is funded by previous profits built up over time. It's then "house money." The ability to recylcle that 175 K an infinite number of times with "4x" status creates the ability to make about 30-50 MM worth of buys and sells per week, more than enough capital to work with. That in itself IS "significant infrastructure." If you know how to manage 175 K twenty times a day, that's all you need. It's why pattern trader accounts exist. "The one immutable law in business: If you aren't growing, you are shrinking." This is incorrect, so I question the source of that. Growth companies (younger ones) grow, mature companies do not, (GE, Ford, Apple, etc) -they're not stuck - but they also do not shrink - they are simply no longer focused on growth. They have already grown, carved out their piece if pie, and now focus on maintaining market share. Instead of re-investing, they return profits to shareholders in the form of higher dividends. That's why they're called "mature companies," they are blue-chip, staple companies everyone loves because they're stable over time. They're not shrinking, so I would run from any business school that tells you any different. It seems like you're not properly plugging in some aspect of your own trading. Ask, we are all brothers here. Happy to share from experience on any topic.
Good to hear it. It's a core trading approach but pita since have to manually enter each OTO pair. A plus is it's able to capitalize on sharp moves very well, eg I made week's biggest profit on yesterday's midday UVXY run... and did well with SOXL Thursday.
You hit upon fallacy. The "best" money managers can't guarantee 15% but yet anyone with some good execution skills can beat that handedly. How can that be? Either these guys aren't the best managers, or their strategies are not nearly as levered, or their strategies scale and the day trader's doesn't. Obsolescence is the greatest risk. The street is full of traders who were put out by market changes or innovations. In speculation, catastrophic blowup is always a risk no matter how good you are. And a permanent impairment of capital can be career ending. You should be compensated for these two risks even if you are so good that you will never blow up or be obsoleted by a change in market dynamics/regulations/structure. I don't think a pure speculator should be playing just for income. There are many less risky ways to earn a good income. Any good trader would understand risk/reward and know where they should not play. Over 30 years, if you can't scale your account you are missing out on some real wealth creation. All those companies you cited are trying to grow their businesses - they want to grow their revenues, their market share, and their margins. Some pay dividends, but those are a fraction of their earnings. The only institutions that don't try to grow are called "life style" businesses. Basically the owner has bought himself a job. That's a fine option, but then you should probably be in a business that has the same characteristics of a job (stable recurring income). I may not be the best trader on this forum. My guess is your sharp and your %age returns are much better than mine over the last 10 years. But I have been able to compound my account in a small institutional account. I will likely get to a situation where i will be capital constrained in the next 7 years. I'm already planning on how i will continue to grow my wealth when that happens. If you want to take this privately, we can talk more openly.
One click enters as many levels of bids you want, at whatever quantity you want, any price point, and vertical increment spacing you desire. One click removes any or all of them. I have an operational version for the public, which would be perfect for you and your students. We have a solid, tested product, and are developing a "pitch reel" to demonstrate the benefits of the program to deep pocket guys with enough capital to properly build out the infrastructure required to service "public" customer signups. Accounting, billing, tech support, marketing and educational materials, all need to be addressed. This requires skilled "teams" of those specialties, beyond the "mom and pop" level.
It's simple, money managers found out they didn't have the stomach for trading or couldn't get a knack for it. It's not for everyone, it's not for most, so they do something more docile. I don't want to debate tickers, the example I gave you are the market definition of mature companies. Startups are growth companies, not IBM, GE, Coca Cola, or Boeing. There's no "market obsolescence." Big money and the MMs are running the exact same games they've been running for 100 years, none of it's changed other than it's done with computers. It hasn't changed because it works. Same games. If you understand the market is 100% manipulated 100% of the time, you study their game, how they do it, so you can read their intent, trade with them, and not getting steered where they want you. If you understand where they're steering traders with fear, you play their game better. Anyone who got "run out," did so only because they didn't manage position size well, which is 90% of traders, based on the only reason traders lose money - - emotion. I appreciate the offer for a private chat, but you seem less interested in improving craft, and more about expressing beliefs, which doesn't create a learning environment either direction. I was mentored from deep insiders how the market works (from the inside). It was shocking at first, but cool once you accept and understand "the game behind the game," then learn how to play it. I can tell you twenty ways til Sunday how everything is manipulated, how to read and play it, but it takes time and practice to use that intel in real time. I can't force you to be interested. If it's not a passion, it's not. I've helped a lot of people change their trading for better, more consistent gains, but the ones who do so have open hearts. You have opinions, which is fine, it's just that many of the "scary" market beliefs you hold can be demystified if you put the work into craft, in the right way, to understand "the game behind the game." Have a great weekend.