How much trading profit is enough to live on?

Question needs to be turned around and asked this way--"How much can I stand to lose each day and keep my toes tapping?". This is more how one should look at this business and then decide whether or not to continue. If you make $1 a day, you're a winner.

 

Advantages are..


Mainly I can get in and out upto near my margin level pretty much instantly, 1 position or 2 half sized at 50:1 margin, means I can make 10% off 1 trade in 30mins. Your likely managing many small positions with much less margin if any, margin makes us rich wgen where good and spanks us when bad.

Also there is no such thing as luck good or bad,so 800 to 5000 is skill pure and simple, not saying he won't have a melt down sooner or later or conditions will stop suiting his method, but defo not luck.

 

So your "advantage" is you use far more leverage than a prudent trader would even contemplate.

And you don't believe in luck.

I give up.

GAT

 

Refer to my posting

 

GAT : I tried to explain to you that you can not understand if you have not " been in the tranches".
It is all about the trading skill that underpines it all.

 

But it works for me so don't see the issue, not that I'd trade a 100k account like that, but in the real world very few of us have 100k+ accounts or ever will as we'll be too busy spending it.

Luck isn't real, you get statistical blips but that's not luck.


No luck required, I'm jumping on short term direction nearly scalper like, taking a profit, moving on, nothing remotely complicated.

 

You don't need 100k plus to trade 1 ES contract. If you trade 1 or 2 ES contracts and not pull out 1500 a month, you aren't a very good trader. You shouldn't need 100k padding for drawdown. If you have a 5k draw on 1 lot you have a major issue. It's not that complicated.

 

What do you think of this poll result?

https://www.elitetrader.com/et/threads/elite-traders-day-trading-spectrum.306316/

 

Honestly raj I can't glean much info from that poll, way too subjective.

 

Trading is about risk not return.

The risk on holding 1 lot of ES is about 10% a year or 220 points, i.e. $11,000. On an account of $5,000 that's 240% a year. That's about roughly 15 times what a prudent trader would generally target. It's at least five times the "kelly optimal", which means it at least 10 times "half kelly". Bluntly, it's insane.


GAT