Lack of diversification. Only a few markets are as deep as the S&P. This is fine if all you want to do is day trade ES or say ZN. But these are the hardest and most competitive markets around. With a smaller account you can day trade a mix of almost any markets you please.
I think Warren Buffet would agree with the thread title He once said he could make much higher returns if all he had was 1million USD under management.
It is not always the size of the account. Here are a few examples. Any money managed by a registered person (RIA/CTA) is a institutional relationship, even though the account is a retail account owned by an investor. Any Hedge Fund or CPO of any size open to investors is an institutional relationship and an institutional account. Any PMA set up with the intent to build a track record in order to manage money, is an institutional relationship. Any PMA owned and traded by a full time trader with an institutional past. Sometimes they also hire traders. Even though I handle more "retail" accounts than what I consider "institutional" accounts, these types of accounts described above are my target market as VP of institutional sales. For the accounts above, we provide added services like Nirvana Reporting to help them run their business.
I don't need to outperform anybody. Please let me know what are good strategies to make a decent return. I'm more than happy with that.
Unfortunately, that is your role and the hardest part of trading. That said, I agree. Trading or investing is not a competition.
What is Nirvana report? I didn't see that in offerings in your website. I guess all traders aim to achieve "Nirvana"