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I will risk anywhere from about 1-2% on any one idea, and my stops are about 1 1/2 standard deviations out. I prefer using SD rather than a fixed %, as it constantly allows for flexibility with shifting volatility. Jessie

As to getting rich starting with $7500, yes, it can be (and has been) done. But not if you have to live off of your trading. I started not much bigger, traded and worked another job (or two) for about 5 years while I slowly built my equity up to the point where it was a real income to trade...

It's true that big institutions use it, but most of the floor traders I know (and off floor traders) who trade for a living and who keep maybe 50-100K in their trading accounts use it as well. I suppose that with a $7500 account that might be difficult (depending on trading methodology and...

Good point. Most of the folks I know talk about committing 1-2% to any one "idea", taking into account intermarket correlations, which is even more restrictive, e.g. for risk management purposes, going long corn and long wheat would really only be one "idea", not two, as the two are at least...

In Chicago, trader-trainees generally start as clerks or runners at one of the exchanges. Nobody is going to hire you without at least that background, because there are plenty of people there who are registered and experienced who want those jobs. As a clerk, you will make the contacts you are...

Actually, lots of big houses (and many small traders too) arrived at the 1-2% figure empirically, but the work is generally proprietary, as it relies on proprietary models of the kurtosis in market price distributions. That back testing and empirical work is why the figures are so generally used...

"At least that way, I will always be in the market." I wonder why you would always want to be in the market? Being able to be out whenever I want is the single greatest advantage I have now over when I was on the floor making markets. Now, I can simply stand aside and watch when things get...

I risk about 1 or 2%, but that is more than just money management (although it is certainly a key factor in my risk management parameters). For me, it is as much psychological, in that I don't worry much as to what happens with any one trade, so my head stays clearer. When I started trading I...

As I see it, (and for God's sake, take everything I say with a grain of salt and realize that no two statisticians will ever agree on anything) the problem with the time frame you propose isn't necessarily the time-of-day issue, that might be fine, it is the brief 60 days of history. One 60 day...

Re. 20 samples being enough to achieve statistical significance. That is nearly true (a bit small for robustness in most circumstances) but the key is that it has to be REPRESENTATIVE data. If you have 60 days and 10,000,000 intraday data points, if it is a particularly quiet or particularly...

Another thing to keep in mind is that there is no such thing as "THE" quant approach, any more than there is "THE" technical or fundamental approach. All "quant" means is typically statistically based exploitation of inefficiencies, and it covers a huge range of different techniques. The...

I know a number of scalpers at the CBOT in the futures biz that make 7 figures (yes, this year too) and a very, very few who regularly make 8. But that really has nothing to do with what a new trader (or most experienced traders) can expect to make. I also know scalpers on the floor who are...

But the really good quants, like Hull and Hanley and other privately held firms that you never hear about unless you are in the industry, make huge amounts of money year after year. The statistical techniques are not unlike those that insurance companies use, and are actuarially driven. They...

I try to be at least somewhat profitable every week, but the answer to this depends largely on your specific trading methodology. I have friends who are profitable every day, and others who are flat for months, then make their annual income in a couple of big trades. In my experience, setting...

www.autumngold.com www.barclaygrp.com

Statistically, this strategy, when properly implemented, will theoretically assure that, after doubling and redoubling and redoubling and redoubling...... your losing positions, you will ultimately, eventually, never have a loss. The downside is that it also theoretically requires an infinite...

If your CPA doesn't give you cost-benefit analyses of stuff like that, you need a new CPA. That's exactly the kind of thing that I am paying mine for, to tell me what is to my best advantage from a tax perspective. I can't begin to guess how much money and trouble a good accountant has saved me...

Futures margins are not borrowed money, they are a performance bond, so there is no restriction on futures trading, long, short, options, whatever. Some of the trusts are flexible enough to allow you to place real estate and other alternative investments in your IRA as well. I work with...

The numbers for this are nearly OK, assuming the underlying stays above $30, but the "annualized" returns are meaningless unless you think you can do this every 8 days with no losses. Also, unless you want to own the stock, just selling a naked put will give you exactly the same risk/reward...

If you are already managing a "big fund" with it, how can you not know whether your own strategy works or not? Jessie