It is 2% because statistically, that is where your chances of blowing your account is close to zero. Some traders suggest using just 1% limit on losses. The 2% limit on losses is huge if you have multiple positions. Say you have 5 positions which all turned out losers, that is a 10% drawdown on your account like from the get go! Risk management should be job number 1 if you want to be a top trader. Blowing up your account because of excessive risk, will not make you a better trader.
I've applied as a junior trader/assistant to firms like FNY, Apex, but I've received no responses. Connected with a firm in FL recently, so maybe there's hope here.
Would that not be 50 losing trades x 2% on initial capital? If you concurrently lost 2% over 50 trades and 2% was on your new balances, then after 50 losing trades you would still have 37% of initial capital. After 100 losing trades you would still have 13.5% of capital. However, the smaller trading capital becomes the more difficult to trade on 2% stops.
Without knowing how much money your trading with it's hard to judge. If your trading with 20K, keep going as your doing you'll be making a good wage in 5years time, a lot less than everyone else. If your trading with 1K then your going to need 12 years to get to the 20K wage level. You've got investors, likely rich mom and daddys money, where 80% is too much risk for them. Then you get traders, starting with nothing ( us ), we need to go hard and make high returns or it's not worth our effort. Money you can risk wasting, Time on the other hand, never waste, go hard I say!!
That "fantasy hedge fund job"... It quite honestly might not really exist. Sales Job/Hustle Hard....200k/year + Develop as a trader = $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ over time As you get better as a trader, and your sales job gets less hard, you might like the "hedged" balance of the two and insulate yourself from unforeseen issues. That's the only way to go!!!!