As someone else mentioned, the chat room is open to all and free form. You can operate under whatever parameters you, scientist and the rest agree to. While I am usually in the chat, I am not its moderator. However, there is almost always another moderator in there who can and does boot anyone acting poorly.
Yes, *sigh* indeed. Because once again, you haven't switched on your brain. Who says I'm only making 8T a day on the ER2? You think that is exceptional performance, on an index with a 100 tick daily range? Give me a freaking break. Yes, you are correct, mentoring others does take liquidity out of the market, when exact parameters are given and followed, at least in purely limit-based approaches. Which is precisely why I earn on mentorships on a %of return basis. That way, I do at least get compensated for liquidity my 'protege' illiquidates. However, please also remember that I don't force them to do exactly what I do. They use a variety of my angles, but ultimately end up doing their own thing in one way or another. Let's face it, no trader is exactly the same, that's just the way it is. Ah, incidentally I was actually talking about performance in terms of return on initial with FT71 just the other day. So your point is rather weak. You don't know who he is obviously, perhaps you should do a search and educate yourself. To save you the search time, he is an ace scalper, runs a top prop firm in the CBOT building, he's a top buddy and one of the best-spirited people I've ever met. One of those people you can talk to till the sun rises. I have also traded with him on several occassions, and will continue to do so daily once he's back from holidays. By the way, if you doubt what I'm telling you about performance, perhaps you should go and ask him about my typical action on the ER2. You might be surprised indeed to hear what it's like trading alongside me. That would be some contrast opinion for you from the "other" side, i.e. the small community of people I trade with, which people like you would just wish they could learn something from. Remember, this is just ET. I meet some great people here, but the real action happens elsewhere. If you want to know why, you just have to look at the general level of conversation here... Come on let's not nit-pick shall we? I have heard a lot of questionable things about Tudor, and as far as he knows he long ain't trading anymore. I'd bet he'd get killed in today's markets. As they say: "Yesterday was always easy." That's why said I'm not sure if he is. Soros is a real player, and he does staggering returns despite his huge size. Nobody else can do this, not even his protege Stanley Druckenmiller. That doesn't mean that anything that applies for us, as day traders, applies to Soros. Totally different game. This is what I love about Finance. It is actually the fairest business of all, because the smaller you are, the more you can make, relatively speaking, and the larger you are, the higher your handicap...
People seem to misunderstand "return on margin". For an active intraday trader this is pretty much a meaningless number. Most traders active intraday only keep a portion of their total trading capital in their account. This lowers credit risk, and allows you to use the capital for position trades, investments in stock, bonds, or other intruments which generate higher returns than t-bills in a broker account. So if someone makes 100% on margin, chances are they have made much less than that as a % of their total trading capital. Because intraday margins on many products are very low, it is quite feasible to make 100% on margin in a given month. As an example, the margin on the Bund, one of my main 2 or 3 markets intraday, is 1600 Euros. This is 160 ticks per contract. That works out at about 4 ticks per contract per day. This is not unfeasible, given that the average range is 20-40 ticks per day, with some days even bigger than that. On a volatile day like today, I would hope to make 15+ ticks, and when I trade well it's quite feasible to make more. As it happens, I'm up 42 ticks per contract today - that is about 25% on margin, after subtracting commissions (oh and by the way, just to stay on topic, virtually all my winning trades had tight stops, as in 3-4 ticks). Now I don't make that many ticks very often, but if that is doable in one day, then clearly 100% in a month is doable. So how come I am not compounding my way to megabucks? Simple - no one in their right mind would leverage their capital to the maximum possible. Using the maximum leverage permitted by the exchange, you can leverage up to about 62.5-1 in the Bund. Whereas I personally would not go over 10-1. So a 100% return on margin at 62.5-1 leverage would be equivalent to a 16% return per month at 10-1 leverage, and 8% at 5-1 leverage. Now, bear in mind that you are unlikely to make 100% on margin *every* month, and it is clear that with prudent leverage, you are not going to be able to make 5000% a year or whatever ridiculous numbers some people are assuming. Someone taking huge risk, with excellent trading skills, might be able to do that in good market conditions, but not repeatedly. With reasonable leverage, a good scalper should be able to make between 100-200% per year non-compound on his total trading capital, IMO. In the Bund that would require an average of 4-8 ticks per contract per day, if leverage was limited to 10-1. Not easy, but it is achievable. Those willing to use more leverage, or who step up size in accordance with trading profits, can generate higher returns. If this were not possible, then you would not have people who started with 10-20k and ran it up to 6 or 7 figures within a few years, yet this has happened plenty of times. Anyway, must dash, the Philly Fed number is out in a few minutes.
Scientist, You are an unbelievably difficult person to pin down. After I don't know how many posts in a few different threads, I just give up. You win. If Jack Schwager ever writes a book titled "Market Lizards" I will look for your interview there. Perhaps Mr. Schwager will have better luck.
mentor him about what - how to get a job selling costume jewelry in a mall kiosk? the guy is a lying sack of shit, best way to annoy him is to put him on ignore and not respond.
that nitwit's idea of "mentoring" is to suggest someone use $4k for ES OVERNIGHT trading. oh, i'm sure he'll deny it now, but the posts are all there in the ET record, despite his attempts to run from them. i remember the exchange well: after looooooong winded bullshit "explanations" involving appeals to EMH - which he claims is BS, but uses it anyway, only he's too stupid to realize it - he added "but i could protect myself with options". which of course is more bullshit, since the overnight margin on ES wouldn't leave a $4k account with enough left to wipe a dirty arse with. he's a poser loser trolling for attention. just put him on ignore and let him wither in the dark.
there are - still - barely - people on ET who actually do trade for a living and are willing to talk about it - and i'm not talking about bogus ausies sending emails about managing a (non-existent) $2B fund (LOL!) - but in typical ET fashion the poster getting most attention is a used car salesman from australia. let's face it - ET would rather have pikers like scientist/bryce than anyone with a verifiable record because a pro would make 99% of the posters here feel like inadequate donkey crap.
Liar! I ask you to find the proof now. Shouldn't take long with the search feature. Better hurry, 'cause I'm gonna use the complain feature for this one. Not only are you a poser, but you're a liar, just like Wittgenstein. Don't like liars at all, they give me goosebumps.