Aiming for 30-40% per month is not that crazy as long as one can handle the drawdowns that come with using that type of leverage. Some traders prefer to have minimal excess liquidity and can handle the swings while others grind it out with minimal size and fall into a depression if their drawdown exceeds 10%. And yes even with a basic IB retail account these returns are more common than you think among people who actually do this for a living.
Maverick, if you do indeed have a firm, if you are by some fluke my former boss, than you know as well as I do what you expect of traders. I stand by my statement made earlier: when I was hired I was told I needed to earn $2000 in one month trading stocks with no more than $10,000 of capital to graduate to the next stage. This is approximately 1% per trading day. Clearly, this is a goal achieved by only a few number of people.
I would say about .25-.5% per day. Or it caps out around 4k to 12k a month. One out of 5-6 months goes bad where I don't make any cash. That's my experience at least.
If one's goal is only 12%, stick your money in a growth portfolio consisting of ETFs, and leave it alone for the long term. Spend your new found time in a real job or develop new interests and skills.