people are trading for a living?????

Discussion in 'Index Futures' started by ADX_trader, Aug 26, 2002.

  1. Quite a few people claimed they could make more than 30 points in ES every week. If so, they could easily earn a living by trading ($1500 per contract per week minus commissions). It could easily make the doctors and lawyers look humble :D :D :D :D

    On the other hand, many sources claimed 90% people in the market were losing money. I don't know which one is true!
     
  2. Both.
     
  3. ddefina

    ddefina

    :D :D In a normal distribution of things, there's always two ends to a bell curve. 30 points a week I'm sure isn't the end of the bell curve.
     
  4. You're right. I guarantee you there are people making 30 and 40 points a day, although very, very few.
     
  5. Publias

    Publias Guest

    Adx,

    My humble opinion, there are about as many traders that frequent this site averging over 30pts. per week consistenty over a min 6 month period as there are original Van Goghs hanging in my office.

    You do not need to avg 30pts. per week to make a nice living playing the ES futures. With proper position sizing and risk management you can make it happen averaging just 2pts consistently over a 5yr span.


    PEACE and good trading,
    Publias
     
  6. LOL!

    If you're making 30 points a week consistently, you can pretty much name what you want to make in futures.

    aphie
     
  7. AllenZ

    AllenZ

    Look at things from a standpoint of risk. If you risk an average of 1% of your account per trade then making a return of 10% a month is outstanding. This is a formula i use to determine a traders efficiency.

    Basically: 10 X ave risk per trade taken = monthly return expected

    Anything over this is a VERY good month. This also means if you want to make 40% of your account monthly you may have to risk 4% of your account per trade. What does this equate to?

    If you trade the ES for example and you risk say 2 points per trade.( $100 ) Then with an account of 10K you should be able to make $1000 per month without ever exposing yourself to a risk of ruin. If that is not enough for you then dont look to make more without exposing yourself to more risk because you will most likely obtain the opposite effect.

    The thing is the more risk you take the more you can make, but the high % chance you will blow out eventually.

    Use this formula to come up with a reasonable amount to make based on your risk, after commission.

    Anyone who thinks they can risk 1% per trade and still make huge monthly returns is pretty insane in my opinion.

    Good Luck

    AllenZ
     
  8. Keep in mind something very important -- all risks are not created equally. There is a such thing as a "calculated" risk that might prove better than flipping a coin with one percent of your position and going into a trade. Another strategy might be so simple as to draw a line and buy or short when the price crosses the line and then set a stop at 1.5 ES and take 1.0 ES profits.

    Which method would work better? Well, I'm sure one has a better risk profile than the other.

    aphie
     
  9. tntneo

    tntneo Moderator

    30 points means nothing.
    is that 30 points per contract ( :eek: ) or 30 points with n contracts ?

    you may have there the misunderstanding.
    anyway, bottom line is you have both few people making a living and a vast majority wasting their time and a few who will migrate to make a living.

    anyway it's a very difficult carreer. that's the paradox we are discussing for a few weeks now : trading is rather simple, but it's difficult to succeed. maybe because most get into it (including myself) with all the wrong assumptions and wrong mind programming. you have to get rid of them before you stand a chance.
    then some will still fail because they don't have the discipline, or work habit or not enough capital to make it happen.

    tntneo
     
  10. Allenz

    Do you mean trading one contract per day? My capital allows me to trade maximum 2 ES contracts. But I trade only one each time. I am a very short term trader, usually only hold it for few minutes. On average, I made 3 to 6 (sometimes 8) trades a day. Is there any difference betwee day trade and position trade?
     
    #10     Aug 26, 2002