The ATR (Average True Range) of the ES is about 15 points right now. 15 pts x $50 = $750 Your mileage may vary if you overtrade, are psychologically weak, position sized incorrectly, etc.
Another question is how many contracts do you need to trade to ave $1000 a day. I have had my share of $1000 days in the minis trading 3-5 contracts but I dont ave that. My guess to average $1000 per day you need to be trading 20+ contracts on average. Then you need to make about 3 points a day/ 15 per week. Then, my guess is, to take proper risk into account you would need to trade with a 150-200k account and make 10% a month. I dont know of anyone doing that, I am sure there are a few. Best of luck. AllenZ
I'll answer the first question for you - I'll leave the next two for those better qualified. Try this for size : http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/attachment.php?s=&postid=114127 I was only trading 2 contract lots and it took just a little over an hour. It's documented in my journal (September 3, 2002) and there's more where that came from.
Nice one, how any one can think they can beat the guys in the pits, when they can "smell" your stops, amazes me. I'd stick to purely electronic exchanges where they can't keep shaking the trees until you fall out. Go Dax and EuroStoxx and go large.
I agree 100% with your general sentiments on the need to be grounded in reality and on the need to think in terms of long-run averages and not just the occasional $1000 day... I assert that $1000 a day gross (on average) is feasible with 10 ES contracts (2 ES points long run average gain per day), very feasible with 15 ES contracts (1.5 ES points long run average gain per day), and pretty much a cakewalk with 20 ES contracts (1 ES point long run average gain per day)... for your NQ, the contract sizes remain the same, but the scaled up required points per day are now 5pts for 10 NQ, 3.75pts for 15 NQ and 2.5pts for 20 NQ (which is very close to your assertion of 3 points for 20 NQ) i.e. we approximately agree on required contract sizes and average point gains necessary to average a gross of $1000 a day...
Just trade consistently to a gameplan or to several gameplans, and keep risk in check... be a tortoise, not a hare... trading is like wine: it takes some time for good things to happen... but it's worth it in the end...
Mr Subliminal... Wow, that is scary indeed. And only on 2 lots keeping relatively tight stops... yikes. But did you manage to come back on the day?