would it not be true that the less points you strive for the more consistent your returns would be? ie earning 100 points a year in swing trading could lead to good and bad months. but earning .5 points a day should be easier, no?
If you're attitude is to come in each day looking for your 2 ticks, you will probably learn very little about the market you trade. The objective isn't to make trading easier, but instead consider raising your standards in order to make progress.
What I fail to grasp is why all the questions? Look, here are the steps: 1) Open two accounts with a broker. Send them money. Call them swing mini account, and daytrading account. 2) click mouse and enter and exit trades however many times a day in your intraday account. Keep track of PnL after comissions. Do the same on your swing account except the time frame chages and the number of mouse clicks goes down. After a year, you will have your answer! Why would you ever trust what was said on a website from total strangers, 99% of who are almost certainly losers trading the minis? nitro
Its a long run average... e.g. some days may be 20 points per contract profit, like many in Summer 2002.... The 0.5pt per day is not a profit target... it's just a long run average...
protrader---- all my current hand trading is done with a 333 tick chart, a 1500 tick chart, with stochastics and an envelope---------- 1500 Tick chart---------- http://www.ttrader.com/mycharts/display.php?p=35717&u=macroevent&a=MacroEvent&id=1511 333 Tick chart------------ http://www.ttrader.com/mycharts/display.php?p=35718&u=macroevent&a=MacroEvent&id=1511 i make very few trades a day usually because i am busy with other things, so when i get a good set-up i will make a trade entry based on my rules. for this method i have the patience to wait for what i will call an optimal set-up for a better probability result. i am more interested in trading a large size position per trade then to go for many points with this method--------this works for me and takes less effort on a daily basis.
also I saw someone mention 4 points a day. Notice that after his nice run the mentiioned trader dissapeared for a few months with a massive trade very much against him. He writes now that he is doing great and I hope he is he seems like a smart guy. But I have seen lots of guys make money every day by averaging down until they blow up. I watched my dad make millions doing it during the tech stock bubble. (yes, millions) he would up giving it back or almost all of it back and a perforated stomach. We saw niedhofer do sort of the same thing with hundreds. I saw guys do it in the bright office I started in 1996. I saw many many guys do it in the all tech office I was in. I even saw a few people do it in the office I owned. And those losing days always made me sick to my stomach. Watching friends lose thousands of dollars a minute. And you know its gonna end with a call from risk managment. Every person who I have seen do it. Loses control and blows up. That is not to say if you really put together a pyramid plan with risk control and you could avoid taking profits to quickly, you could not pull it off. You might be able to do it with some skill and experience reading the market. I imagine some very good floor traders with good feel for the markets have done it for years. But averaging into losers is wonderful until you are on the wrong side of the trade. Accounts dissapear quickly when you eat small and shit large.
Don't put words in my mouth that i didn't say. Have i said it is impossible? No, i said that it would be a enormous performance. Read my others postings and you will see that i already said before: it's not because you cant' do it that it doesn't exist. I only said it is very difficult.
I already explained ( what i wanted to share) about the way i trade in another tread on ET. Do a search.
NO, i wouldn't sell all i have. You know why? Because after 15 years of daytrading i'm convinced that only idiots do such a things. Even with a small amount you can make good money, and if ever it turns out wrong you still have your house. But i must admit that traders who write books need such a heroic action to make things spectacular.