Beginner here. Pardon me for the obvious question. But, what should my expectations be for the year or two? What can be my sharpe, if i get lucky?
You can get lucky for a short period of time, but not in the long run. If you are beginning, expect to lose the first few years. Don't try to make money. Just try not to lose any. Focus on the process, not on how much you can make. If you are able do that, it will be a success. Enjoy!
With billions, you can make millions. Seriously though, most well known individual retail strats have sharpe of 0.3 to 0.5 for longer term trades. Intraday strats are really hard to develop
Negative nine thousand. Sorry, there is no easy answer for this. It entirely depends on the person and capabilities. I seriously doubt anyone is able to make a consistent return in the first few years. Personally I find consistency elusive -- now you have it, now you don't.
It comes down to. 1) Your bet size (which will based on how much capital you have to risk) 2) How good your system is (its expectancy and robustness) 3) The number of trades your system generates in any give time period. In general the easiest way to increase profits is to increase bet size (as long as the makets you trade have the extra liquidity needed). If you risk $10,000 on each trade, it might be possible to make 7 figures by the end of the year (100R in net profits). But if you are risking just $1000 on each trade then it is very unlikely your will make 7 figures (1000R in net profits)
Algorithmic trading is a very bandied about term on the retail level. Define 'Algo Trader'? Did you just receive a Masters or Doctorate in Statistics or Financial Engineering? Perhaps you are just wondering if your trading income would change if you were to automate your manually entered trading methods into an (ATS) Automated Trading System or use somebody's off the shelf trading system?
It might be expected in some trading circles that Algorithmic Trading should involve advanced mathematics. But the more general definition of an Algorithm doesn't have to involve advanced maths.