It's not up to anything/year. He trades opportunistically, takes huge risk, could've lose all his money, and just had a great year. He may not do it again. No hedge fund would even be allowed to take such risk or drawdowns. But he pulled off huge wins a few times (while losing other times), and isn't as stupid as most others who just get lucky one time. This is not about a strategy but about someone trading opportunistically without a strategy, and showing that he can time the market better than others. The Japanese trader Takashi Kotegawa (BNF) made $150 million making similar and larger bets, so yeah, why hedge funds cannot do this? It takes balls, smarts, and luck. We haven't heard of him doing it again either. Same with Qullamaggie who made $100M, verifiable with publicly available Swedish tax records. And same with Muhammad Ali. Why not everyone wins at boxing? What kind of question is it even?
Well I don't think we'd be talking about it if he was trading 1 contract and was making $224 per trade. It all comes down the the multiple. He must have a large account for the margin requirement of some of those positions.
Btw, it’s not like I believe everyone that makes such claims. But historically there were famous traders who made huge profits and that’s why new traders get into this business as well. Not to be mediocre like everyone else, but to be the best. So even statistically there must be some traders better than others, and a few will be the best. No reason to believe that absolutely nobody can achieve success, as otherwise no one would even bother trading.
But unlike these Elon Musks of trading, who obviously like to advertise their success in public, don't you think there might be more traders (and funds) who make above $100M that we might not have yet heard of? I dunno about you, but if I were making $100M, I would keep my trap shut.
I'm not saying that the hedgefund take on such risk, but maybe apply a certain allocation of money to play this niche area, and a million bucks for a hedge fund to play a few hands at this potential return, why not.....hey if you can trade just 1 contract and make this return you can make a living off ot it. You don't have to put on the risk he's taking.
How do you know hedge funds aren't employing similar strategies?? Are you guys familiar with the Hedge fund model at places like Millenium?
They may be making huge bets, but likely not risking all their money like the guy in question seemed to. Otherwise there would be blowups with news about hedge funds that blew up spending all their money on 0DTE options. We’re taking about risking 20% of all your money on each bet.
Something tells me that if you WERE making 100M per year, you would just carry on like you are now, and just not mention it. So from this we can logically conclude that you ARE making 100M per year. I am flawless. :-\
I am not sure when you were there. These days risk limits are pretty tight (4+4 usually) and the moment you hit the second one, you might as well not show up to the office the next day. An established team might get a bit more leeway, but even they will get canned if they lose anything meaningful. As for this guy, he’s probably fairly talented but this is very much a result of consecutive YOLOs. Not sure you’d want a guy like that working for you