If you still have account equity equal to what you put in after a year, you have already beaten 50% of all day traders. Of course everybody thinks that they are "the one" and are immune from the laws of chance.
Many donât, and therefore hit an earnings cap for their style. This is one of the reasons I chose position trading as my core. With these trades I can take 100 shares or tens of thousands, so I have fewer limits on my growth. This is correct, and is why I stopped reporting my room trades in % or point gain terms. I report them in terms of risk units. This makes life easy as you just multiply the unit profit by your level of risk. You up 5 units? You risk $1,000 per trade? Your up $5,000. No mess, no room for fudging or misinterpretation. Your % return is then based on this simple equation.... how much you earned after commissions/expenses divided by your starting account CASH value for the reporting period. After this leverage and risk assumed will determine your % return. So yes, a trader who takes larger risks will return a larger % return, but will also have larger drawdowns. Choosing the level of risk is something you have to decide for yourself. -Bo
A couple of people asked me to post if I ever reached a $1000 net in one day. Finally, today, first time. It was over before the market was ten minutes old. I don't usually trade news, but AMGN was way down in the pre-market and I decided to go long in AMGN at the open if the market looked up or to short its sister stocks if the market looked down. It turns out either way would have worked, but because it was a down opening I shorted some sister stocks at the open and set my exits so I would have a net of $1001. Only took a few minutes and I had it on 2500 shares. Didn't trade after that because a bird in the hand etc. Didn't want to spoil my first 1K day. I'm still happy with $500 per day, but I'm looking for more if it is there. wash
Congrats on passing that trading milestone! Hope you have many more "K days" in your future! Good Luck and Good Trading, -Bo Yoder
Thanks a million Bo, this board really helped me raise my sights. I appreciated people telling me I could do better. Candletrader said I should start having a few 1K days and so I have been determined to get there. I am not very proficient at technical trading, and I find myself looking at charts less and less and just staring at the prints, but I try to use an old fashioned commonsense approach that seems to work for me. I have had one down day since I first posted, the rest I've reached my goal ($500+) This board has really helped me with insights and advice, and I know I'm small potatoes to some members, but I really appreciate the kindness people have shown.
a question to BO ... ( and other experienced consistantly profitable traders) I am having difficulty keeping faith in my trading when I have drawdowns on my trading account. I have been able to make a living the last 2 yrs but have had my swings up and down and my returns are nothing like 2000 in 2000 I was profitable in about 50 weeks of the year and I know it was a different era thanks to all on elite who give me hope
It IS a different world. I bet all your answers lie in your trading logs... What kind of records do you keep on your trading? For instance, my room trades this month were 69% winners, 12.57 âUnitsâ of profit for a max 3.5 unit drawdown. My newsletter had an epic month with only 2 trailed stop losers. It had an 83% win rate, with a 3 unit max drawdown. But interestingly enough, even with the high accuracy, since the trade frequency is low, the profit came in at 5.2 units. My personal futures trading had 63% accuracy, a max draw of 5%, and was more of a wash as I only made 5%. So, I can look all my different forms of trading, both public (in my room/letter) and private, and see quickly where I am and where my averages lie. This info helps you in the drawdown period as you have history to lean on. You can look back and see the character and scope of your losing periods. In my experience these cycles are as reliable as clockwork. Managing them is key to success. Example: I had a win streak of 8 trades in a row early this month, of course everybody in the room gets all excited, but I knew this was an âexhaustion barâ in my trading, and told them all to get ready for a drawdown. Just when they all were ready to become very aggressive and active, I knew I was headed for a storm BECAUSE I have a good historic feel for my trading. I spent the next two weeks treading water and losing before the next win streak hit. That period of struggle was something I expected after such a nice win streak, so for me it was not a stressful time. So peek into your past, and see what pops out at you! One thing that is important to maintain this consistency is consistency of style... Pick one style your good at and then specialize, if you hippity hop between styles and setups, your results will reflect this mish mash Good Luck and Good Trading! -Bo Yoder
Once you know what your commission rate is, how many trades a day you make on average, what your winning percentage is, what your average gain/loss are, and what your drawdowns are, the number just pops out... I have no goal per day - I start trading at 8:30 AM and stop trading at 3:00 PM, CST. If a trade that has positive expectation (as defined by my discretion) pops up, I trade it, regardless of what I am up or down before it (I do sometimes stop trading, but mostly because I get tired and start making silly KB or mouse errors.) nitro