How long does it take you to double your futures account balance as a day trader / scalper?

Discussion in 'Trading' started by _eug_, May 23, 2020.

  1. FTDK

    FTDK

    I never said it was impossible, you said it's not that hard, big difference ...

    Anyway, since its not that hard for you i expect you to have easily done it before?
     
    #11     May 24, 2020
  2. _eug_

    _eug_

    In April I took a $1500 account to $4000 in 3 weeks trading MES and MGC intra day both Globex and RTH sessions. I then increased size a bit too fast and now I am in draw down. So obviously I need to slow down and not trade as aggressively. I want to hear from more experienced and consistent day traders how they go about increasing position size, and what are realistic accumulation rates.

    I am also forward testing to see how often my reads are wrong and how many losses in a row I make which will allow me to be more intelligent about risk management/ position size and leverage.

    Day trading futures is a different beast to swing trading etfs / stocks which I am used to.
     
    Last edited: May 24, 2020
    #12     May 24, 2020
  3. old coot

    old coot

    Man, that took a weird turn.
     
    #13     May 24, 2020
  4. By a first time poster ... I would not trust even with a sim account...
     
    #14     May 24, 2020
    Nobert likes this.
  5. Sekiyo

    Sekiyo

    I’ve already x10 (500 -> 5000) an account in 20 days,
    Then went bust on the 21th day.

    A steady doubling time might be ...
    -> 70 days at 1% average / day.
    -> 139 days at 0.5% average / day.
    -> 278 days at 0.25% average / day.
    -> 555 days at 0.125% average / day.
    ...

    You better compound at 0.125% / day for 10 years (x23),
    Than to x10 in 20 days then go bust on the 21th (x0)

    (I did x10 with sport betting)
     
    Last edited: May 24, 2020
    #15     May 24, 2020
  6. hafez50

    hafez50

    Key word is this yr. Unprecedented volatility from Feb end to mid may 1st really .All you had to have was big cuts and let it fly as we were gryrating 50 pts on 5 mins at times . The last few weeks has been much choppier. He'll probably never make this returns again and i bet he is still swinging hard and has given some back . Thats what usually happens
     
    #16     May 24, 2020
    yc47ib and qlai like this.
  7. hafez50 is watching it n trading it obviously. he is 100% correct here. it changed again already
     
    #17     May 24, 2020
  8. _eug_

    _eug_

    Ultimately we can only take what the market gives on a specific day and also your skill level.in capturing the rotations.

    Hard to have a % gain target per day. Let's say you are trading ES or MES and have a 5 point stop /10-12 point TP (typical size rth rotation in recent weeks). With using the $1000 per MES contract your max loss per trade is 2.5%. You would need to be wrong about 36 times to go bust accounting for commission and having margin left. If your win rate is 50-60% you would accumulate at a decent rate. Also lots of trades can be scratched instead of full stop and some places if the HTF is setup you will get a bigger move that 10-12 points in your favor. As you get better scratch trades become more frequent instead of full stop increasing the win rate..
     
    Last edited: May 24, 2020
    #18     May 24, 2020
    tradingismybusiness likes this.
  9. This year includes January before the big swings from COVID19. Win rate was similar, the gains were smaller indeed, average seemed to be around half that of big volatility days. This was scalping with something around 180 round trips per day, January was half that due to slower moves. Keep in mind he was a profitable scalper of 10 years in much less volatile instruments (certain type of equities) than the NQ with obviously less leverage. He moved to NQ because with equities, sometimes he would make less than 3 trades per day, NQ moves like a mad man compared to what he traded.
     
    #19     May 24, 2020
  10. _eug_

    _eug_

    Is your friend reading the DOM manually as in looking at the ladder or is it some sort of algo driven analysis? Or is it looking at fast tick charts to see if there is a change of momentum? Doesn't the DOM on NQ just fly around like crazy?
     
    #20     May 24, 2020