Yep I was just about to say that some people are confusing trade size with capital at risk. Trade size is certainly not = capital at risk, at least not all the time. A day trader who is trading something that is extremely liquid can usually limit his loss to a predefined % of his total capital, unless its a black swan event like the CHF blow up a couple of years back, hard stops will generally do the job. Of course stops are pretty much useless for any overnight position due to gaps, experienced traders manage this risk by greatly reducing trade size since capital at risk is now potentially = trade size. Its impossible to know if a trader is managing his risks properly from the size of his trades alone, he could be utilizing 20% of his account on a daytrade but risk managing it with a hard stop that limits the loss to 10% of that position (effectively a 2% drawdown on his account if he gets stopped out). That said I'm pretty sure the op is taking some pretty huge risks with his trades and he is not likely to be managing them with intraday hard stops, its impossible to 4x an account so quickly without going crazy with risk, either that or he must have discovered a serious market inefficiency that enabled him to do risk free arbitrages on a daily basis.
My career goal was to be a clown at McDonalds, but they cancelled that position and I had to settle Good answer, even though I was not asking for specifics. Broadly speaking, the edge can come from three sources - investment/research process, lack of competition and a structural dislocation. If you are saying that you have an investment process edge, better be well equipped to prove it.
Sure and it's wrong to assume that the risk is 100% in every scenario. If one is trading ES during the main session with stops, risk percent is very different from position percent.
Regarding ES trading with stops..... does anyone employ a day stop ? i.e. $20,000 account, quit for the day when down -$400 ??? For 2 contracts, that would be only 4 points.
@OP <insert> snowflake Neo liberal trigger warning. don't read if easily offended. Having trodden your path and watched others I can translate your question as 'I am pretty much broke made a bit of money trading and now doubt myself and doubt whether I should continue trading or take another path'. I say you are broke because I classify anyone who has under 100 shekels as flat broke, under 250 certainly broke, under 500 ok up to 1 you are just warming up. Think about it what can you do with 1 in NY, LA or London you can't even buy a nice place, nice cars, schooling and holiday home you are still just getting by. The answer to your question boils down to your number and if you have one. What do you want to do with your life? I don't mind telling you my number is 10 and I will not settle until I have achieved that as a minimum, that gives me and my family a level of comfort I would be happy with. If you don't have a number I can't help you but if you do have a number then it is largely is an exercise in transferring dumb money (street money) to your wallet. It doesn't matter which way you slice it you either sell something for $3 and make a $1 or employ someone for $1 and get them to produce $3 and profit $1 it's the same 5hit different arse. Get smart and you can learn how to buy companies for $2 and sell them for $3. You buy with smart money and exit with dumb money. Most people don't even have 100 shekels to trade. Even if you make 30% in a year thats still only $30k table scraps. The people with actual shekels are able to make easy trades. Right at the moment if you actually had 1000 shekels you could buy 20 contracts of oil sub $50 far out in the curve and scale out at $60,$70,$80. It really doesn't matter if it drops to $30 as you just by 20 more contracts and wait. That should tell you that if you have any actual money it becomes very easy to make more money trading with minimal risk if you are prepared to wait. Your focus should be on accumulation not pissing around with chump change accounts earning some dumb %. And don't give me any 5hit about not having the skills, confidence or contacts to make it. Your schooling, media and parents have trained you to think like that. Just do it, you literally have nothing to lose, the worst thing that can happen is that you are broke again. The biggest risk is taking no risk. GL.
Hmm. A fundamental analyst vs experienced trader play each other at TH? Good luck man. I know this thread has gone many directions but i think you might need a fundamental recheck whether you want to be a trader or wish you could be a trader.
i think you might need a fundamental recheck whether you want to be a trader or wish you could be a trader. i agree