1%\day average trading USD/CAD over the next year.

S

SimpleTrades

I decided to take the risk and stick my neck out. I'm going to add myself to the list of people who believe 1%\day average on a smallish account is very doable.

1) I'm not a beginner. I've been at this for a few years.
2) I'm far from broke, not living off my credit cards, and not dependent upon my trading for my living expenses.
3) Earlier in the year, I did run into financial difficulty and i consequently chickened out of a rather expensive trade, costing me 2K. In other words, I agree with the assessment that scared money is lost money. I'm therefore starting $2K in the hole.

Goal: recover the $2K plus achieve an average 1%/trading day.

Method: Pure discretionary trading. No indicators or other crap. What you see below is all I trade with, together with a 3 year understanding of how the USDCAD behaves.

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I trade this pair because I have a much better understanding of US and Canadian economies at the macro level. I can more comfortably make some longer term calls on the direction of the currency pair, and select shorter term trades within that longer term trend. I am almost exclusively shorting this pair.
 
Do these threads never end? Unrealistic trading goals lead to failure. Best to just try to be profitable and compound your account over time.
 
CBancroft said:
Do these threads never end? Unrealistic trading goals lead to failure. Best to just try to be profitable and compound your account over time.
More...

Yes, but that's boring and defeats the purpose of day trading. Modest, long-term compounding gains are a part of my investment portfolio. Relying on compounding in a high risk trading account, is a disaster waiting to happen. Save that for your investments.
 
I decided to make my $ starting point a little higher. Oanda has my maximum loss tolerance set at 10K. Since I've lost a little over 2K already this year, they would not let me deposit more than I just did.

So, below is the new starting point.

This means that since I've promised 1%/trading day + what I've already lost, the 1%/day is based on $10K. The 1% is NOT compounded. So, with 250 trading days in a year, I need an average of $100/day or $25,000. Goal balance for August 17, 2017: $35,000. Current balance: $7814.80. Probable balance: ??? $0 o_O

Furthermore, just to torment another poster in another thread who was complaining about trading with borrowed money, I just made these deposits with my credit card, and will be paying off the balance with a balance transfer at 2% for 12 months.

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When accounts are small, 1% on average is doable but have to understand=both ways.

For whatever the reason is, currencies that are $10 bucks a tick often have worked better for me in futures markets when my skills were not experienced enough

In my youth, I used credit cards to fund account, but also had good paying job working nights for mortgage, food, wife/son, vacations, as quitting to pursue trading was not an option, in other words, had backup in place so it wasn't going to make us homeless for all the times I blew out my accounts.

I wish you much luck.
 
I hear your, Handle123.

Many moons ago, I attempted to trade with a small $2000 account, convinced that I could get $2000/month out of that. I had no job. Fortunately, I also had no kids as well. Of course, I lost it all. I think I posted about it back in 2011(?)!

OK, I'm laughing at my former self. I wonder if I'll still be laughing 5 years from now?
https://www.elitetrader.com/et/threads/what-is-wrong-with-this-way-of-thinking.230118/


My circumstances are quite different now. This trading account is only a small percentage of my total and I'm self-employed earning enough to cover my living expenses and service as much as 50K of credit card debt. I'm only choosing to use the balance transfer on my credit card because I just made the effort to get myself fully invested for the long term. I don't want to withdraw it now to trade.

I agree that $10/tick would help me to achieve my goal more quickly, however this would require me to buy full lots (100K). I would be using 50% of my available margin, and would have little room to buy more deeply into any given trade. I think this pair has enough volatility to generate sufficient reward with amounts less than 50K.
 
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Slow first day, but creeping forward. Would have been further ahead if I'd just held the first trade. Oh well, hindsight is always 20/20.

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