200k with a "portfolio margin acct" and trading:futures,options and stocks....with no gambling then yes the sky is the limit
Well just to get everyone on board where I am. I am not 100% newb, its been 20 years since I have traded on the stock market, and right now the one thing holding me back is these new fangled finra 2520 rules. They suck. With a cash account, one can only trade their money once every 4 bank days, with a standard margin account one can only trade 3 times in 5 bank days (unless they are holding between days), and you need $25,000 before you "qualify" to be a pattern day trader. That honestly pisses me off. I am up $300 this week which is really good. That's about 25%. I am dropping another $450 into the account on Tuesday, that will qualify me to upgrade to a margin account and I will be able to trade more often. After that its a matter of patience, because even if I continuously drop money into the account, I won't qualify for a PDT sweep account for a few months unless I get lucky. So anyway, yeah I try to do my research, I have been paper trading for quite a while, while I was saving my money for opening this account. As well I played a game called Eve Online where I literally became one of the richest individual players in the game through trade (mineral trade actually, kinda like trading commodities). I am 38 years old, started life as a stock broker and left within 6 months because I hated the sales aspect of the job. I have a 148 or something IQ, and I am approaching trade with the basis that I need to manage risk more than try to make as much as possible. For me its a take the P/L whatever it is a run before it goes really bad. On the other hand, today I lost $50 because I didn't follow my own rule of run while you can, and I got lucky and caught my position going bad before I got flushed. I had FAZ at 17.02, which yesterday looked like an awesome position to hold (and it may still turn out to be an awesome position in the longer run), and I held it overnight. I should I have dumped it at opening bell and ran with $25 in net profits, but I held the bet and lost. I was at work, and I can't monitor all day long, so when I ran into it and saw it was down to 17.50's I watched to see if it would turn around, but it kept falling and I held on until $16.59 which is what my sale executed. Lesson learned hopefully, and at a lot less cost than it could have been. Cheap education, but one I won't forget because I am doing this with toughly earned and held (from the wife) savings. I am however up for a total of 25% for the week so I should be happy with that. I am however pissed off that I will have to wait until wednesday before I can trade again. Unless of course the bank will let me upgrade my account with unsettled cash funds, otherwise I will have to wait, and then I will be good for 3 day trades a week which is a whole lot better than 1 trade every 4 days.
20 years? You are indeed 100% newb my friend. Quit dinking around with this finra stuff . . . go set up an account and trade your heart out on a simulator. The best advice any decent experience trader will give you right now is . . . quit trading real money! You aren't ready and it will solve the whole question for which you started this thread. Good luck. Keep trading.
Thanks, but...I am ahead....and the point is to build my savings, not pretend to build it. The more money I have the lower the commission percentage, and the easier it will be to move forward not having to "beat" the commission. I am also not trying to go full time yet, or rather I am trying to augment my savings with trade in order to break through to that point where I can trade full time. It'll take me years to save up enough to bust the finra qualifications otherwise. Also, having setup an account now, each trade is free. yes I am paying for them right now, but at the end of the month's worth of trading, I will get all my commissions back. That's worth REAL money also, and only helps me get there. Each trade I do = more money at the end of the month. Small potatoes in the scheme of things, but helpful in the end. So you see, I am not entirely newb. Even if I average break-even because of the high price of commissions while doing low volume trades, I am still making money. And really the only way to do it, is to do it with real money. Using fake money although helps teach the mechanics, doesn't do anything for teaching you how to deal with the perils of your own psychology.
1) Get with a low commission broker. At 1/2 a cent a share (or less), they're barely a consideration. 2) And ditto on the simulator. It's great for learning the mechanics of your broker's trading platform but it's a far cry from dealing with real risk.
Best plans for raising trading capital. Bad Idea Borrowing from friends/family tough to do since you are stuck seeing them forever. Tough Idea Find outside investors can be tough since they want an audited track record and constant updates. O.K. Idea Borrow from bank at 4% (if you can get the loan) they just want their interest payment on time and of course the principal amount back. Good Idea Go to Prop Firm put up $20k to $30k get 20/30 to 1 use their funds to trade with pay their interest and commish cost; however you keep all profits. Best Idea Trade your system with just your capital then make lots of money and just piled it up in the bank.
Well just to update everyone. My balance today is $2311, that's quite a bit more (%) than the $1020 I started with. Honestly though I added $150 into that last paycheck. If I can keep going with the swing trading I am mostly limited to, I may be able to start day trading rather sooner than I expected.