I personally know the profits of 3, though I know many more that trade CL each day. One sits in my office 2 or 3 days a week and averages $5K a week trading a few CL contracts. He's retired so he doesn't need a bundle. One owns a local oil and lubrication company and he hedges oil to help his clients, swings it to increase his company's profit margin and daytrades it a couple days a week so get a better feel on the market as a whole. His daytrading netted him high mid 6 figures last year and again he doesn't need it. Most of that money went to his church. The last one owns a manufacturing company in the mid-west and trades a large group of ag, livestock and energy futures on a daily basis. He swings CL but likes daytrading it better. He's the most profitable of the 3. Now you've heard of some.
Trying to daytrade when you are more of a position trader is really hard. Don't feel bad, if you are profitable . . . that is what counts. The nasty rapid oscillations created on intraday charts usually drives position or swing traders nuts.
All three will be getting together this spring for a big barbeque if you want to stop by break bread.
Sounds good! I've got all the East Coast ETers loaded in my truck. See you soon!... http://i54.tinypic.com/2lu6oow.jpg
I was not seeking your advice; I was giving advice. My previous post used precise figures to point out the obvious. The 2 questions at the end are a tease. They're rhetorical; of course you can make a lot of money from CL. That post was in support of those making money from CL and an encouragement to any who have sufficient savvy (along with a few other necessary strengths) and want to get down to making some serious money. Since you mention not having heard of anyone making money in CL I wouldn't expect you to know much. Still less would I expect you to know that investment banks lift immense amounts of money from markets per day in their trading activities. So pal, whatever you're doing, good luck.
Not a huge sum by any standards, £600.00 (1 year subscription) was freely given by myself and many other more 'savy' traders to a very eloquent 'guru' on a different site, this guy also traded live accounts for other people and lost them huge sums, he has now vanished. For at least three years, with a huge following, not many had negative things to say etc. Of the four, I did not trade any of his trade calls because they did not make sense at the time. Of the very few that spoke in negative terms, they were either banned by the site moderators or panned by the many (some were seeds) supporters. Many noobs are/were not afforded the protection by what should have been the insight of the many other more ethical and experienced traders within the forums of that site. I realise now, aside from one or two members, the reluctance to demonstrate a conflict of interest or question the plausibility of an individual and his/her methods, was primarily due to the fact they would have been 'banned' in one way or another from doing so. I have found ET , this and other threads within ET not only hilarious but very insightful. I hope, a safe haven for this and other noobs from being ripped off. One thing I feel for sure, this guy would simply never have got away with ripping off so many for so long had he posted here on ET and this is because of people like you; I can't list all of you because happily there are too many but my sincere thanks to many of you, my only regret is that I did not find ET first. His name was Jacko over at FF. Thanks tradewon,trademetal,kentraderstar,handle123,locutus,blotto,BSAM,samsara,ArthurDeco...............................
The retail trading portion of the market is not large enough for the banks to lift immense amounts of money from them - They mostly lift money from each other and speculative funds or hedging parties. It's a zero-sum game so it's mostly impossible to "lift immense amounts money from the markets" (if you take the term immense relative to the total size of the market) on a consistent basis. If you take the term immense relative to capital risked thne yes it's possible but not likely by taking pure directional risk. Also, I said I didn't know anyone, I do expect there to be some professional traders who are able to trade CL with positive expectancy without it being luck, but even in the professional world they must be rare-ish. And to conclude, I generally think people who state the irrelevant obvious and then have a holier-than-thou tone about it are morons. This is a forum, people talk to each other and I wasn't giving you advice, just contributing to the thread. The thread happens to be about the choice of some people to become retail daytraders and the topic couldn't be further removed from professionals at investment banks who are able to lift huge amounts of money from the markets. Your statement is "of course YOU (emphasis mine) can make a lot of money from CL". Who is 'you'? How do you think a starting-out retail trader compares to your professional's example?