(Poll) Those who make more than USD 100k p.a. trading, how much trading capital did you start with ?

"serious programming skills" - Hmm I am not sure what is meant by the adjective there as it can be interpreted. But I do have some basic level programming skills in some programs and better at others. No genius but I understand programming to a medium level is what I could say for this.

 

I ask because that skill is capital in this business.

 

Compared to what - scalping 100 shares of SPY?

It’s all relative and scalable, and that’s why this thread is for all practical purposes useless.

 

Do not understand why someone would respond in a brash and obtuse manner to a stranger on a random thread for no reason, especially when there is no compulsion to respond to it !

 

RoR is limited by the frequency of opportunities/setups, and most of all the need to keep your risk low enough to manage drawdowns. You see examples all the time of traders taking big risks and making huge returns, especially on social media and venues like wallstreetbets - but once risk exceeds about 2% of capital per trade, you're highly likely to suffer a crippling drawdown at some point. Averaging 20%/year consistently over years and decades places you in the hall of fame.

If you don't have to pay living expenses then you can start with pretty much any amount. If you need to pay living expenses out of trading funds then I'd say 500k is the bare minimum to make it as a solo operator, and even then you're banking on a run of good years right out of the gate. Once you cross the seven figure mark, it's enough capital to pay yourself a decent "salary" and grow the account at a reasonable pace, while keeping risks dialed way down to ensure you stay in the game.

 

Thank you Spefterx.

What about using leverage and good risk management - Do you think that would help with the above constraints you have mentioned ?


And of course, in the question meant to ask, it does not have to be USD 100k p.a. to start with, but rather - start with < USD 50k and build the account size to have appropriate risk levels to then do it.

 

Same reason some kids in high school beat up some other kids for no reason other than they enjoy seeing others suffered.

 

So far there are no such results, but it is interesting to know the opinion of others.