Anyone actually make living from trading?

ironchef said:
I did a back test of SPY from Feb 2007 to Feb 2017 on the above. First column is buy and sell once a day 100 shares of SPY, second column is buy and sell once a month, third column is once a year and the forth column is buy and hold. I assumed a round trip commission of $14 (Typical commission) First row is total profit over 10 years for 100 shares of SPY. Second row is commission costs. Third row is total profit of the different trade strategy. First of all, if you trade without commission, day trading was profitable, probably because of the upward bias of SPY. However once commission was subtracted, random day trading was unprofitable. Notice that swing traders had an easier time.

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Of course no one day trade randomly but for most inexperience day traders (I was one) random trading may not be too far off reality. And, 100 shares of SPY is ~$20,000 unless you go on margins. In my opinion the hurdles are substantial and my hat's off to the professional day traders on ET that can consistently make money month after month, year after year.

Best to all.
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Trading single candlesticks has never worked once spreads, commissions are taken into account over the long run. Brokers love candlestick traders.
 
ironchef said:
I did a back test of SPY from Feb 2007 to Feb 2017 on the above. First column is buy and sell once a day 100 shares of SPY, second column is buy and sell once a month, third column is once a year and the forth column is buy and hold. I assumed a round trip commission of $14 (Typical commission) First row is total profit over 10 years for 100 shares of SPY. Second row is commission costs. Third row is total profit of the different trade strategy. First of all, if you trade without commission, day trading was profitable, probably because of the upward bias of SPY. However once commission was subtracted, random day trading was unprofitable. Notice that swing traders had an easier time.

View attachment 171005

Of course no one day trade randomly but for most inexperience day traders (I was one) random trading may not be too far off reality. And, 100 shares of SPY is ~$20,000 unless you go on margins. In my opinion the hurdles are substantial and my hat's off to the professional day traders on ET that can consistently make money month after month, year after year.

Best to all.
More...

$14 commission costs roundtrip for 100 shares of spy?

i think interactive brokers would charge $2.
 
Visaria said:
$14 commission costs roundtrip for 100 shares of spy?

i think interactive brokers would charge $2.
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I think those traing 300 000 shares a month pay .02. Smaller volume would pay .05.

So IB would be 4 or 10 dollars round trip, depending.

Best to double check.

IB is a top pick of many pros as thet have cheap commissions and many other perks.

However, yes, 14 dollars per thousand shares is for suckers.
 
Half a cent per share, minimum $1. So buying 100 shares is gonna be 50 cents, but it will be $1 due to the minimum. If you now sell these shares, it's another $1. Therefore roundtrip is $2.
 
Visaria said:
No, it's $2 round trip or lower if doing volume.
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Was going by 1000 shares and still think I am correct.

.05 a share or 5 dollars one way on 1000 shares with normal monthly volume (but a 1 dollar minimum for those only trading 100 shares at a time, or less).

.02 a share or 2 dollars one way on 1000 shares if doing 300,000 shares a month.

They have insanely low rates for whales, like if you do 100,000,000 a month- but well...
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I will look it up to be sure.

Normally traders talk about how much per share they pay, or what their fixed ticket cost is.
 
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Visaria said:
$14 commission costs roundtrip for 100 shares of spy?

i think interactive brokers would charge $2.
More...
$14 round trip whether 1 share, 10 shares, 100 shares, 1,000 shares or 10,000 shares.... I have not traded more than 20,000 shares, so don't what they charge beyond that #. Also, if you are a frequent trader, they have special low rate for you.
 
To make a living, you mean replace salary. It requires capital, imho 250k minimal. Trade conservatively to preserve capital to return 25% +-, using option premium, cap gains and dividends.
 
lylec305 said:
To make a living, you mean replace salary. It requires capital, imho 250k minimal. Trade conservatively to preserve capital to return 25% +-, using option premium, cap gains and dividends.
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Depends on too many factors, like how much you earn and how good you are, you can do 25% week on a small 5k account trading futures.

I've got 3k currently, plan to run it upto 10k+ by end March (tax year), 20% per month ie 2k is enough for me to live off, initially atleast.

I've ran from less than 3k to 10k in less time.
 
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