Can Day Traders make a good living.
- Thread starter Kastro_316
- Start date
rs7: previously wrote:
Haven't you ever gotten a 1099 from a brokerage? Your tax liability is only on your net (after commission) profits.
yes, of course, that was a silly mistake in my calculation.
It would appear that the general consensus of the replies so far indicate that the hypothetical examples of what people 'make' have commissions and some modest expenses factored into the equation, which is encouraging.
thanks,
keop
Haven't you ever gotten a 1099 from a brokerage? Your tax liability is only on your net (after commission) profits.
yes, of course, that was a silly mistake in my calculation.
It would appear that the general consensus of the replies so far indicate that the hypothetical examples of what people 'make' have commissions and some modest expenses factored into the equation, which is encouraging.
thanks,
keop
you are right on the money arbtrader. Survivorship bias is a big part of the problem that causes people to have unrealistic expectations and to judge themselves way too harshly.
Thanx for all the replys, its more than i expected. Im 17, and iv been learning from a REALLY good mentor for about 3 months now. And im going to continue to live at home with no expenses. Do i have a good chance since imonly 17.???
Lol, yea i know you cant have and account when your only 17.lol
No what im doing is just Learning and paper trading and working right now to make a lot of money, so when i so start, i have good money to trade with. im thinking of starting when im about 21
No what im doing is just Learning and paper trading and working right now to make a lot of money, so when i so start, i have good money to trade with. im thinking of starting when im about 21
Hey, Do you think i have a good chance at becomming a good day trader, since im so young.
Well, I can say that my trading profits alone would amount to what most folks would call a very good living: The disclaimer here is that I trade with adequate capital. That is I can take on positions of size that allow me to make a decent amount on winning trades.
Now some real numbers - not current and not mine but this will give you an idea of realistic returns for an experienced trader.
In the 80's I worked on the floor of the CME. At that time the CME had various markets: The IMM, IOM: Eurodollars futures were big and getting bigger and the S&P 500 futures were king. Foreign currency futures like the Yen and DMark as well as their options were doing well.
I worked on the IOM primarily as well as the S&P futures and options and I often watched the commission checks roll in to various brokers adn I talked quite a bit with independent brokers trading their own accounts. I worked along side people like Scott Gordon - Ex chairman - Larry Rosenberg, and others whose names you would recognize from the futures game.
In a particular market - Canadian Dollar Futures which did not have exceptionaly large trading volumes relative to other markets, nor did it have exceptional volativity - the floor broker executing customer paper who was the designated member pit representative received on average of about 3 K per week in commissions. This individual was primarily (or solely) executing customer orders. Other independent traders trading their own accounts did this well (if they had enough capital) but many did much less. A few did expcetionally well and traded multiple markets on the CME and CBOT.
Extrapolate to todays dollars and markets in the futures and for these markets you can at least approximate what you might be able to make. Stocks are a bit different ....
Now some real numbers - not current and not mine but this will give you an idea of realistic returns for an experienced trader.
In the 80's I worked on the floor of the CME. At that time the CME had various markets: The IMM, IOM: Eurodollars futures were big and getting bigger and the S&P 500 futures were king. Foreign currency futures like the Yen and DMark as well as their options were doing well.
I worked on the IOM primarily as well as the S&P futures and options and I often watched the commission checks roll in to various brokers adn I talked quite a bit with independent brokers trading their own accounts. I worked along side people like Scott Gordon - Ex chairman - Larry Rosenberg, and others whose names you would recognize from the futures game.
In a particular market - Canadian Dollar Futures which did not have exceptionaly large trading volumes relative to other markets, nor did it have exceptional volativity - the floor broker executing customer paper who was the designated member pit representative received on average of about 3 K per week in commissions. This individual was primarily (or solely) executing customer orders. Other independent traders trading their own accounts did this well (if they had enough capital) but many did much less. A few did expcetionally well and traded multiple markets on the CME and CBOT.
Extrapolate to todays dollars and markets in the futures and for these markets you can at least approximate what you might be able to make. Stocks are a bit different ....