I am relatively new to futures trading. To be honest until now I am 1-2 contract piker. About actual profits there is a lot of bulshitting. Beause most traders have some statistic I would like hear their EXPERIENCES how many contracts needs to be trades at once to average $500 daily profit during year. Conditions: As minimum 150 trading days during year /so if your yearly ES profit was not compaable to $75000 you do not "qualify" to reply/. If you are trading more than 40 contracts usually do not reply, please. I believe your strategies can be others as by somebody trading 1-20 contracts. I know that problem can be that in some situation you are trading 1 and in another 10 contracts but I would like hear about some standard or average size. If your average daily profit is for example $2000 and you trade usually for example 20 contracts simple split it 4x and the reply will be 5 cars. Thanks to reply just those that are in fact sucesfull, with real results, not opinions. Get $5000 one day profit is after my opinion easier than average $500 during year. I can accept replies if you averaged 250 daily with 3 contracts that the $500 will be 6 contracts but if you averaged $50 with one contract reply 10 looks questionable to me /psychological problems/. I believe same will be interesting for many so I am glad hear any opinion. I know, volatility is higher these days so it is necessary look on longer time frame. I am not asking your exact profit numbers, I do not ask how many contract you are trading actually. In difference to replies in pool I am happy to see voting everybody if his ES trading results are above zero during past year.
Ok, I knew that there will be not many replies. To stand up in front of such auditory and say openly: I can do it is not easy. I hesitated include pool but I was afraid there will be no reply at all if I will not offer it. I hoped that some respected member of trading comunity will openly say: It can be done, but I imagine they are afraid that it can start flame war and that everybody will ask prove it and speak about audits, etc. . I am promising that if ever I will be able achieve such succes I will say it openly. If somebody will PM me to avoid public problems I will respect his/her anonymity. Simple very interesting for me can be information how much can be in fact averaged per contract during year. It will help me in some my strategy decision those I need make early. I probably should ask about 1000 USD per day because too many replies are concentrated in 1-2 contract option. If most of those replies are correct - than here are really excellent traders around. Some are wearing rose glasses I am afraid. I personally believe that $500 can be averaged if trading few contracts - but by most sucessful traders only. Ok, teoretically there are enough ticks to get even half million USD per day and even if I calculate with spread teoretically $20000 per day per 1 contract should be not problem - you need just to be correct on may be quarter of every 5 tick movement /and never wrong/ So teoretically there can be traders averaging even more than $500 per contract. One more note - I wanted ask about scalping - daytrading - short swing trading /max up to 1 week/, reply above 20 shows to me originate from position trader.
This is 100% related to the skill of the trader. Some might need 1 some probably could not do it with 100. Susana
Susana, I agree, probably most traders will be not able achieve any profit /90% by ES is not probable, simple those not sucesfull will blow up much earlier than 1 year trading so I think that from those that were able stay in play during year must be sucesful % much higher). There must be some real champion that for example averaged during past year for example 83 ticks per day. I believe he/she was trading about 5-20 contracts (simple I can not imagine such sucesfull trader staying by 1 contract and above 20 contract there will be some more problems with fills by quick market so I believe if same champion will trade 10 and 30 contracts than by 10 will get more tick/contract). For me is very interesting how much can be in reality done - because everybody has bad days and periods, even the most sucessful trader. I have longer experiences just with simulated trading but these results are for sure in fact not significant for real trading. Therefore I am asking.
3 to 4 is my answer - with a good system this is very doable on a consistent daily basis. You take several controlled high probability swings at the ball each day, with tight money management, and you will eventually get your double or triple for the day. 4 to 1 or 5 to 1 reward to risk is needed to trade this type of set up for minimum of $500 a day, trading 3 to 4 ES contracts per trade.
Regardless of your opening litany which I am too hung-over to bother reading allenhobbs gave you a correct answer, he also included a comment which shows that making that profit is much harder than you think. If anyone said 1 contract they are clueless and are missing the whole point of what it means to trade liquid leveraged derivatives or the definition of compounding, which they should lookup post haste. I will now continue my journey through ET Pikerville.