most people here arent risking $1 million or anything even close to it...so thats why. but agreed risk control is important.
I'm curious as to why you think so as it's not so obvious to me. Are you gordon gekko perhaps? Nitro seems to have his act together and I respect his knowledge. Thanks for an explanation. Mike
lmao risking $1 million? at least 90% of the people on this board are trading with 5-10k and trading prop. i've been doing this full time 15 years and i've really been searching as to why there seems to be as many day traders today as 1999 and i've found the answer.ITS CALLED 5-10K DOWN AND 50-1 LEVERAGE.if this were 1999 and one eneded 50k to get 2-1 leverage 90% of this board wouldn't be trading
Naked options can make 2.5% a month consistently, so take 400k, use half as margin and the other half to hedge if the market moves against you and sell deep otm calls on an option using span margining. You might want to get a job as well as it kind of dull!
First, don't worry about what the other guy is doing especially since there's a good chance you two aren't trading with the same account size nor with the same trading tools nor have the same experience level. Second...set you goals based upon your ability to follow your trading plan... Dollar amounts (potential profits) should be the last thing you should be thinking about as a new trader. Then...if your still trading after a year or so and profitable... Maybe then you can start setting some goals based upon dollar amounts (potential profits). Mark (a.k.a. NihabaAshi) Japanese Candlestick term
Hope I don't come across as adversarial or impolite in any way, and only wish to have an honest discussion. I don't understand how you come to this conclusion or suspect this is true, as I personally know four day traders who don't need margin and have sizeable accounts and trade from home. In fact the lady trader I know is in New Zealand right now on vacation and fully supports herself daytrading. I also know three other "investors" who don't daytrade on a daily basis but sector trade or buy and hold on a longer time scale and have quite large accounts. I personally don't know any trader who needs margin just to trade. And this is from rural Montana. BTW I do not travel in the country club set, but am just an average person, as are the traders I know. Just the blue jeans type of people. One other common characteristic I have observed about those acquaintences, similar to what Nitro was saying in his previous post, is that they take a lot of time off pursuing other fun things and also are quite diversified as to other interests. In particular I observe that they are just as eager to buy/sell real estate, construction equipment, etc, just as eagerly as they would trade. If what you say is true, it certainly would be discouraging to the newbie here or the aspiring trader and I wouldn't want them to get the wrong impression as trading has a lot to do with perception and postivie attitude. Are there any studies or sources of information to demonstrate your estimates? I have no way to ascertain this one way or the other and only bring up the question because the limit of my knowledge is based on the people I know. Thanks and good trading, Mike
I don't know about you, but my grocery store doesn't accept ROI, they want dollars. It's all about the cash, baby.