Quote from trade4dollars:
Then axeman what is a large account size? Is it 500k 1million 10 million. I'm talking in terms for a retail trading. Not a hedge fund group or a person who has 10 grand but access to capital that far exceeds that aka prop. I mean would you say 500K is alot for a retail trader to have as a base capital amount? Excuse me for being persistent but I'm trying like heck to get a guage here.
In fact maybe the guy should wait until he gets his account up to 500k then he would need 50% a year to make 250k gross. 50% a year is roughly in the rate of return this guy has over the 8 years anyway. Is 50% a year too high on a 500k account or does he need to start with 1M?
Quote from Fast_Trader:
$250K is a very decent size account for trading. I don't know if Futures traders really measure their success based on percentage return on account size though. I mean, a guy with $250K could be trading 10-lots on ES and make the same amount of cash as the guy with a $25K account.
-Fast
Quote from axeman:
This guy has been averaging 42% return (according to another poster).
So 42% of 250K is 105K a year.
He is currently making 75K a year.
But now will have new expenses, such as insurance, etc...
Not to mention the additional pressure.
Even if he continues at a rate of 42% a year, he is BARELY
moving ahead in terms of total wealth.
I would adivse that he waits a little longer so he has more
padding and can actually SAVE money with this winnings instead
of merely paying the bills.
peace
axeman
Quote from Harry123:
Hi all let me throw my hat into the ring for a spin. Yes 250k is a very large account size for trading purposes. In fact its huge when and if your only going to trade futures we all know that because of the leverage your getting in the first place. Its huge for daytrading because your can get 1 million intraday buying power. Its also huge for swing trading cause you can have 2-1 overnight and carry alot of swing trades with 500k overnight bp.
Now I say this with the experience that my account size is now at 500K+. I simply do no use all the capital. Let me repeat that. [B} I DO NOT USE ALL THE CAPITAL.
Sorry about the caps but it was for necessary for effect. Listen I swingtrade for the most part. I will hold stocks for a month at a time.
Example I will hold 2000 AMAT, 1500 SMH, 1000 IBM, 4000 QQQ, ALL LONG THEN maybe also be short 1000 ryl 500 hov 1000 S. Put all that together and it still does not = 1 million in overnight buying power. Not to mention how much money I get released in daytrading buying power to jerk around with intraday when stocks like JNPR, CIEN , RIMM etc are making good trending moves during the day. I also have futures that I trade but they dont tie up anything in terms of capital. In fact if I decided to not hold the QQQ at all and just hold NQ I would be smarter, but I am old school and just sometimes feel better in QQQ, dont laugh it just is.
Bottom line a bunch of positions held such as those above, for a month and cherry picked using techniques that I have blah blah would usually gross me a good 20-30k per month without all the hassel of staring at the monitor like a maniac. (Which I do anyway lol).
So in a nut shell 250k is a huge account for a retail trader. Thats my opinion and furthermore, just for reference I dont think many retail traders can come close to even saying they have 100k in their accounts. [/B]
Quote from trade4dollars:
Axeman what you said above has validity, however its still very perplexing to me at the same time. You saying that based on his return of 42% avg. per year he might earn 105K trading full time with more focus. However the drawback is that he wont be increasing his total wealth after taxes and bills. Ok correct me if I am wrong. Axeman dont you, I and the rest of the planet have expenses and taxes to pay as well? Are you saying that a guy with 250k is not able to have a decent shot at starting full time trading after doing it for 8 years already. Do you increase your total wealth after taxes and bills? If so by how much? Is that acceptable for you? If not how come you dont have a full time job then? If you have lower bills then this guy Anthony does that mean you dont plan on getting married in the future and having kids one day yourself. Will that mean at that time you will give up trading because you wont be able to build up your total wealth.
Should we tell people who are working for "the man" for a living that they should quit if they are only living paycheck to paycheck because its not acceptable! They should be paid more to build up their total wealth. This guy Anthony may be miserable doing what he is doing doesnt his job happiness (full time trading) mean anything? Does it mean something for you? Listen sorry about the tough attitude here but what your saying about wealth creation has merit but how do you it apply it to yourself is the question?
Quote from axeman:
Interesting Harry....
But this truly begs the question..... many of the stocks you
listed do NOT have any kind of liquidity problems associated
with the sizes you are using.
So WHY are you leaving so much money on the table?
Unless you have 50% drawdowns and need THAT much
reserve capital so you don't blow out, it seems you are
making a huge error.
Can you explain further?
peace
axeman
Quote from Speakingout:
Truthfully Mecro can I ask you too elaborate on why its a b.s. thread? Do you have more than just curse words to throw out or is there something you really have to say? Thanks.