Or know someone who did, not talking about 1-2 years, maybe 5-10. Just curious, no need to say things like focus on yourself, why does it matter etc. Let's just talk
I haven't but there certainly have been others that have. Trading legends such as Michael Marcus and Marty Schwartz both had these types of results. One thing I've noticed is that these type of success stories usually have some element of the traders being on the early side of some big emerging trend. For example, Marcus was on the front end of the major inflationary boom in commodity prices in 1970s...Schwartz was buying call options during gold's parabolic rise in the 1980s. I bet in a couple years we will hear about some incredible success stories in the cryptocurrency markets.
Basically Random chance went there way, just like winning the lottery but the odds are lower. I've turned 3 into 5 briefly, currently trying to turn 4 into 5 and hopefully onto 6, 7's soooo far out no chance realistically.
True, getting into the right sector at the right time is an easy way to multiply your accounts. The good part is different sectors go hot and cold all the time so opportunities are always there. However, Marcus and Swartz, the sector lucky guys should not be considered investment legends. One hit wonders come and go often. Legends are people like Buffet, Soros and others who have returned 20%+ annualized for few decades........IMHO.
I've known a few that have done it, but it based on a little skill and luck combined. I can count more that have gone from 7-8 figures down to 3-4 with ease.
I have to respectfully disagree with you here about Schwartz - I've read a lot of books and studied a lot of "famous" investors/traders, and Schwartz's story is by far one of the most inspirational for aspiring traders. He really did enter the AMEX trading floor with something like $50,000 in capital, and really did turn it into $20,000,000 completely on his own back. Won numerous trading contests, had a streak of 44 consecutive months without a losing month, etc etc. Buffet's story is incredible as well, but I think Schwartz rags-to-riches story is more inspirational for the little guy trader.
It's unrealistic to compare your hopes to the "one who did the best".... perhaps he was "one in a million and just lucky"... you know, like the guy who put $1,000 into Bitcoin 10 years ago? Realistically, you should hope to make a consistent return of 20% annually on total capital... all along while controlling risk. That would be very good work. (Not many today achieve that these days.)
Small acounts, futures or FX with high leverage for a profitable and good trader you can easily hit 20% most days. If you have a 200k account then 20% 40k per year fine, 3k account like then $600 per year, not worth my time.
This was how it happened for me: had an appetite for risk, a vision of cell phones having a future before they became mainstream - worked in that industry, was a good saver always putting away 1/3-1/2 of my gross income into my 401k: NDX-100 & company stock, and had a passion to follow which is not $ or trading. Worked for a hi-tech company. The late 90's bull market came along lifting the company stock much higher. They did a spin off of their cell network as an IPO, I got a 15% employee discount on this & went all in with close to $300k - inside of 5 months the IPO was up 400%. This is 0 to 7 digits inside of 10 years. * The first $100k or more was all me -my savings, which made this possible * * The draw downs were up to 37% along the way - took some real guts to hold steady and believe in my position. * A one-off trend made all this possible - right place & time * * I cashed out near the all time highs on both stocks - a bit of instinct and a hell of a lot of luck there as these 2 stocks ended up crashing - losing over 90%. * In the bay area in that era this was not uncommon for those working in hi-tech.