A lot of food for thought in your comments. I have been reading and rereading some of your posts. This is what I'm thinking right now: One thing holding me back seems to be being to conservative. Having too many too small positions. While I'm fully aware that there is a line between calculated aggressiveness and dumb decisions, 20-30% p.a. will not grow my account substantially. Compounding my account at this rate over 10 years might be a viable option, but that is exactly the reason why I came here because this approach sounds frustrating and time wasting to me and I asked myself what can I do about it. Dedication is another thing to think about. Starting to regularly think about how to make the transition into another level of trading income might open your mind for ideas never thought before during your daily routine of every day life. Pushing yourself, setting high goals and then starting to question yourself how to get there. Also, it seems luck plays a role in the process to a certain extent. But this also implies that you have to be there and know what you do when the lucky circumstances happen. A lot to think about.
Nevertheless, there must be more traders out there who at some point made it happen that their account made a big leap forward. What happened? How does it happen? Would love to hear more stories and comments?
I didn't read the thread. An acquaintance told me this at drinks last nite. Her grandparents were given the gift of Esso stock as a wedding gift. She inherited it and is married to a medical doctor. Her horse of choice is the jumper. She feels breeders in Greenwich do a good job. She has taught the childern of some of my friends to ride.
i will be the second here to agree with rally. true edge i can attest is fleeting. in the years following the last crash i feel i had an edge...i pushed like a madman..for i always feared what was working would cease at any moment. thankfully it lasted for a few years..the risks i took were shocking to those who knew me, but my returns were jaw dropping..to me at least. now i see currently no edge , but i have large sums of funds and can live well on much less returns. real edge is rare to find..i wish you guys luck..as i'm on the lookout for a new edge, lol.
I once knew a HFT making 200 - 300% annual returns on a fixed capital base. He made money for about 5 years until his edge vanished, causing him to be no longer profitable. An edge was never regained after that and he quit trading. So the question is can you grow fast enough into a big account before your edge vanishes? Can you find a new edge to make outsized returns? Not easy. There are many hundreds of smart mathematicians and PhDs working at quants trying to identify short term trading patterns to exploit, which is why patterns never last long. If you read Marty Schwartz's "Pit Bull," you know he exploited the after-hour cash bond movement to predict next day's open in the S&P. That allowed his account size to grow immensely before that pattern went away.
I just started getting into trading around november of last year, but havent had alot of time to actively trade. I have been trying out alot of different strategies, from 1 minute chart fibanocci scalps, 1m chart moving average breaks, to pivot points, bollinger bands, blah blah lol but the last 2 weeks I have been trading the gap at the open. and actually I am up for the week. But let me give u an example. Today DUST gaps up like 10 bucks, it hits 115 in the first 10 minutes. it stops there, and then the 4th 5 minute bar breaks to the down side of the 1st 5 minute bar. it does bounce back up a little from 110 to 112, but after that it drops all the way to 101. with 112k buying power you could have shorted that from 112 to 105 for 1k shares=7k profit. so that around 28k in cash needed to make 7k. thats 25% gain on your portfolio. now after the short, there was nice support at 101, long position 101 to 104, 1k shares long nets you 3k profit. up to 10k for the day. I didnt play this one, and every time I look back at the charts on the days action I say to myself, why didnt I pull the trigger? I dont want to sound like a douche, but I do think that its possible to make 2k-5k a day with a account thats 30k if you use leverage correctly. Also, SCALE into positions. yesterday I played NFLX for a 2k scalp. WHen the first candle showed strength, I bought a few contracts, then it ticked up and I bought 4 more, then it bounced again and I bought 10, and then 4 more, I think I had 21, and right after the last buy I started exiting. if it went against me after the first candle...I could have just dumped 2 or 3 contracts. and my last thing, and most important, is when u get your buy signal, play it every time, dont choke. The last week I had 5 or 6 set ups that I liked, but for one reason or another...I didnt put in a order. I look back the share it up 2 bucks, and options are trading 300% higher, so once u get your setup...trade it. thats what ive learned so far. I plan to paper trade for a few more months before I go live. but yes I beleive 3 to 5k a day can be made with a 30k account.
its common to attribute your success to things in your control, always forgetting the extanuating circumstances. if 100 hour work week was necesarry to become millionaire, then half the people in USA would be millionaire. becoming millionaire by 25 is only really possible in finance and software. you have to be lucky to fall into that sector. also about getting a girl. no talking to 5 different girls a day doesnt work