I have traded options for over 30 years. You can't get a realistic P/L from what I expect are midpoint executions in a paper trading account. 30%/month is not a realistic goal for you. I guess you will find that out soon. The option market does not provide that type of Vig for even a professional MM. If you can get 30%/year on a $1mm account, net of all expenses in a retail account, that would put you in the top 5% of all traders today. Good luck....time for real trading.
At this time I won't disclose the instruments I trade, because finding them is part of my edge. I can post them only some weeks later. I trade mainly equity options, primarily weeklys (there are about 500 underlyings of them, and once in a month, ie. a week long, about 4000). Regarding number of contracts: there is not a limit (I think the highest was about 180 contracts, but accumulated by multiple trades over multiple days); I just try to use many strikes if it makes sense....
@1245 Yes exactly, that action serves as preparation and as training for real trading, for gaining confidence etc. It is scalable to a smaller account size. Regarding mid-point fills: you are right, it of course doesn't work all the time, but in about 1/3 of the cases one gets a fill. I'm nerving the MM by "frontrunning"... It's like a sport and fun for me to beat the MM (pun intended )
BTW, if you can make 30% to 50% in real trading per year, you will be able to raise many millions from investors as long as your draw downs are appropriate for that P&L. I've raised money for portfolio managers with 12% returns net of all fees.
Is that your experience, you were able to raise millions from investors? I think it takes more than just your great performance.
Correct, but it all starts with performance. Without performance they don't look at your strategy, your team, your background or your potential. And, it's not just real performance but risk-adjusted performance. The last manager I raise money for, the investor wanted to see daily P&L so they could run their own risk metrics.