Realistic weekly or monthly returns of a top pro trader

Discussion in 'Strategy Building' started by seekingbuddha, May 5, 2012.

  1. I am sure this topic has been discussed in one of the forums here before, but i am unable to locate any useful thread (and there are hundreds that come up with different keywords for searches). So here i go with an old question, and would like answer from top traders who have been trading for a living for atleast 5 years successfully (so your beginning years dont count which probably are the best).


    To make it down to earth and avoid generic answers that i have seen before here are some criteria.....

    Initial starting capital = 50k
    Percent at risk on any given day = 30% (based on my system's profitability analysis) = 15k.
    Leverage instrument = naked options on spy, trading the directionality of the day. (or you can consider ES futures)

    Preferably i would like to answers from those who are trading ES or trading options on SPY. But i welcome answers from any veteran trader. Please avoid generic answers, since i am past the stage intermediate and already making consistent profits. This is simply a question to vet my curiosity. I know what an average hedge fund makes and other such things, but want to see if there are any successful short term traders who are able to acheive much greater annual returns consistently. Weekly or monthly or annual returns are all welcome.

    Thanks - s.
    PS: please avoid silly answers to make this thread more useful to others in future, who might search the same topic. :)
     
  2. gmst

    gmst

    Very interesting yet very strange question primarily because of the daily max risk of 30%. I don't know any trader who runs that kind of risk with 50k capital. Yes I do know a lot of folks running this risk with 1k-2k-4k capital trading FX. Anyways, please answer below.

    Roughly (or very roughly), how many ES points per year does your system equates to? You may think this is an irrelevant question, but trust me it is very relevant. Please answer this and I will write back and my response will answer your question to some degree at least. Thanks.
     
  3. gmst

    gmst

  4. you kids sure have balls. If you think I am going to take a 15k hit in one day on a 50k account one of us is crazy.
     
  5. oh, I got you. You mean just 15k committed in margin. Yeah, that sounds about right.
     
  6. I was beginning to think, "So that's how they do it. 30% a day, hopefully third time is the charm."
     
  7. Market Wizards 1, the 1st page of Marty Schwartz chapter: "Not only has Schwartz scored enormous percentage gains in every year since he turned full-time trader in 1979, but he has done so without ever losing more than 3 percent of his equity on a month-end to month-end basis."
     
  8. gmst

    gmst

    Thanks v. much . just verified it. Its truly amazing!
     
  9. "Realistic weekly or monthly returns of a top pro trader?"

    Common question and flipside provided a good answer of what is possible to achieve by the very few. Think of your chances of making it in to the MLB and the level of effort that would take. Compare it to trading.

    The more important question at beginner level is " Realistically how much can I lose daily, weekly or monthly as a beginning trader?"

    all the best
     
    #10     May 5, 2012