I feel like the deeper issue here may be lots of these new retailers blowing up. CME obviously wants more traders - as we all do - and they need to keep them in the game.
Here are some daily P/L records for one month many years ago. Main Book: P&L Com/Fee $115,910 ($8,525) $3,202 ($8,607) ($109,984) ($13,536) $47,565 ($11,977) $24,776 ($9,015) $170,320 ($19,565) ($74,069) ($9,203) $109,444 ($10,426) ($11,338) ($18,583) ($76,249) ($10,849) $132,671 ($30,227) $6,691 ($7,849) $38,045 ($8,132) ($174,239) ($7,848) $4,638 ($9,132) $147,703 ($8,443) $97,682 ($6,120) $10,883 ($2,525) $463,651 ($200,563) Book #2: P&L Com/Fee $13,328 ($906) $1,278 ($840) ($10,065) ($1,357) $5,115 ($1,202) $2,352 ($911) $15,517 ($1,958) ($6,274) ($940) $11,414 ($1,052) ($225) ($1,862) ($8,041) ($1,086) $14,770 ($3,053) $661 ($784) $4,243 ($820) ($17,762) ($790) $419 ($617) $15,183 ($1,015) $12,486 ($779) $333 ($314) $54,732 ($20,286) At about $300k/month, that was a decent month. But commissions really ate into the gross profit. The commissions were about 40% of total gross trading profit. Certainly spread trading has its own merit for low margins and reduced risks. The question is what is the best reward/risk ratio trading spreads or outrights. If I can get very low trading cost, I'll be happy to go back to spread trading. But some of the trading fees are not from brokers, but from CME/NYMEX exchange fees. Those are not negotiable.
What you said is useless. Why would I disclose all the details? Point clearly made with real data. Some people at ET are very rude like this.
This was a specialty hedge fund trading NYMEX spreads. Owner was a former NYMEX trader. Capital was mainly from institutions or other hedge funds.
I traded many '22 and '23 expiry Nymex and ICE energy futures spreads during 2021 - either exchange supported Butterfly or Condor combinations. Average position holding time frame was ten weeks.