What's good and what's bad? I can't find anything on what traders make Right now I'm playing with 100k and making about 4 grand out of it is this good fair or bad? per month We all know what rookie football players make then what pros make what about Traders?
do not worry about money. worry about consistency. if you can keep up with $4k out of $100K every month, you can easily expand to $8k/$200k for a $100K yearly income from trading. the common figure to "make it" in trading seems to be 250K a year consistently. year in and year out. 1k a day keeps the boss away.
Rookie traders make nothing. Pro traders typically make between 10% to 50% on average with the ability to make more than it in a really good year, like 2008. Also dont forget drawdowns, which ideally should be no more than half the yearly returns. Pro traders can occasionally have losing years too. Some traders trade with notional money and dont even know how much assets they are dealing with. For example if you open an account with a bucket shop you can leverage up 100s of times and % returns become meaning less in this case. eg you can make a 1000% return on one trade.
Why not futures or fx? To OP, Making 20% or more in a year on total net worth is a job very well done by my standards. Making it positive is good, Making 10% percent is pretty good, over 20% very good, over 30% excellent. This is on total net worth. Account size should be small compared to total net worth just to cover margins IMO so the percentage gain or loss in account could vary widely depending on the individual. THere are some FX leaderboards on a different site where guys post 1000%+ percent gains but you know they are trading a smaller nut with that kind of action.
Well both. But options trading is a great supplement to that as well. I am a big fan of FX, esp w. the margins and tick values.
15% per month is good for all trader. But please keep your %profit for a long time. I have heard a lot of trader could make even 50-100% a month but their account would be burned next month. Stay safe with a good profit per month.
Trading is a business. Inside of the business of trading are so many different ways to trade and instruments to use. There are equities, derivatives, futures, commodities, position trading, swing trading, scalping, rebate trading... It is so varied that I think it is very difficult to put a number on what is normal. I think that figuring out how much a "normal" trader makes is the same as asking: "How much can one make starting a business?" Starting a business you could lose all your money, make $25k a year detailing cars, do well with a nice restaurant, make billions like Bill Gates, and/or fit into every other possible variance of profit and loss including doing well sometimes and poorly at other times. Also there is a matter of perspective and relativity. Making $85k a year detailing cars out of your pickup truck is probably fantastic while doing the same with a $400M hedge fund is not.
you can make 2k a month at McDonald's... so quit if you can't make that. and double that is only 4k...you gotta be 2x as good as McDonald's since you take so much more risk. good job makes 6k a month and has retirement, health care, sick time, paid vacation... so now you better make 8k a month just to be "good". and this is every month.....average for a year. now, if you are elite, you are making 800k a year to 800 million.