I trade the sp futures and want to know what would you consider a good sp (or es) trader in terms of results. I was once told that if you can earn a minimum of ten points per contract, per day, for 20 consecutive days this would be a major achievement and a person could confidently land a job with almost any company with that track record. Would you consider this to be true? Is it attainable? I haven't made it yet. I'm curious to hear any comments or thoughts.
I think it depends to some degree on ones particular trading style. The return charistics between a scalper and a position trader is totaly different. An good and objective measure would be to measure the number of SP/ES points per month over a longer period, that way you can compare different trading styles side to side in a more fair way. A position trader may for example sit on the side lines for months before the right opportunity to strike show up, a scalper or daytrader can more easily measure his performance on a week to week basis. How many SP/ES points per month or year that do constitute a decent return I dunno, depends on your equity size and risk exposure I guess. I figure 50 points per month is pretty ok? - wst
dude...if you can net only 1 little ES point per day the financial $$$ sky is the limit...look at this..1 ES point = $50.00 USD per 1 contract...if you traded 10 ES contracts and netted only 1 ES point that would be $500.00 USD!!!!! per day!!!...and the ES has the volume to handle it...totally serious here...also, if you could personally net 1 ES point per day, why would you want to work or trade at some trading firm??...now, this is only my opinion...please do not begin trading off of it...
A rule of thumb I heard was that if you can average better than half the daily range youâre doing extremely well. Unless your JH of course
who really trades half the daily range of the ES?...if one really could, they would be millionaires!...again my point on just trying to get 1 ES point per day
This guy is doing 6 ES points/ day during the last 4 months http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?threadid=133521
No 1 point a day wouldn't get you a job at any firm. Most HFs and IB prop desks are infamous for refusing to hire any trader with any prior interest or experience with trading. They only want virgin sheep they can mind control. But at 1 point a day starting with 5k: "It will take you approximately 656 trading days (917 calendar days) to become a millionare. Your target date to have at least $Million in your trading account is 10-Feb-2011" http://www.mypivots.com/calculators/day-trader-millionaire-calculator.aspx