Consistently Profitable Day Traders

Quote from brokerboy:

Norm

I am going to tell you the truth. You are not cut out to trade. You think life is pure luck it seems. Ted Williams was lucky by your standards right. You’re a sucker who spent money and time looking for the holly grail. Hard work in trading is figuring it out for your self and not looking for answers from other people. There are a lot of profitable traders but for everyone 1 you meet 50 might fail.
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The general population is not cut out to trade our psychological makeup keeps us from succeeding. All traders must and will fail, but only these who fail forward and learn from past mistakes succeed.

You are quick to offer your criticism, instead of putting down and critiquing your fellow trader offer up some proof from your end to show how successful you are in trading otherwise you are nothing more than a shrill. If it were easy everyone would be doing it.
 
Quote from Kastro_316:

I don't get why people always ask this! If your asking JUST because you are unsure you can make it, then you already failed.

Day trading, and making a living out of it is a really hard thing to do, so are a lot of career's, but the people who make it, and do it for a living are those who follow there dreams, no matter what the odds!
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I don't know why folks get so upset when people post questions like this. If I learned the real odds of a being a successful long-term daytrader was 1 out of 1,000,000 then I wouldn't even try.

All this talk about following your dreams is great and all but you need to be realistic and practical too. That means trying to gather all information before embarking on something so that you are making an informed decision.
 
You should check out profitabletraders.com

I am part of the live trading room and a student. They post results with screen caps of p&l with charts and order breakdowns. I know they are going to do 1-2 months of live recorded trading and then post on the website. I am not promoting these guys. I have been around and these guys are genuine traders
 
Quote from mschey:

Why don't you stop by and see me some time...spend a few days...and judge for yourself if I am or am not consistently profitable. I am in San Diego.

Mike
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Mike

The man makes a valid point 4 months or 4 years makes no difference.

He ask's a legitimate question, I mean think about it even a professional football player has a 10 year lifespan if he is GOOD so where are the 10 year DAYTRADING guys.

I do not know of one that has gone past 5 and even then they went broke soon after.

So come on all you DAYTRADING hero's anti up with the truth!
 
theres nothing wrong with somebody new asking can i make it. he jsut wants to get the confidence it can be done. odds are most will fail but who am i are anyone to squash ones dreams. he also could do very well
 
I've been daytrading successfully since 1998. It is a difficult career to be successful in, but it can definitely be done and the rewards are great for the successful. As another poster pointed out, most people are NOT well suited to be daytraders, and it can become costly in terms of time and money trying to determine if you can be a successful trader.

The thread was about "Consistently Profitable Day Traders." Without going much into specific profit numbers, let me provide some of my stats for the last three years.

Profitable months: 34
Average monthly profit: +9%
Largest monthly profit: +26% (April 2004)

Losing months: 2 (July 2003, Jan 2004)
Average losing month: -0.7%
Largest losing month: -1.3%

Average trade duration: ~2 hours
Number of trades (executions): 500,000

Percentage of days profitable: 72%
Average Daily Profit:Loss ratio: 1.22
Daily Profit Factor: 3.23

Percentage of weeks (5-day rolling avg) profitable: 80%
Average weekly Profit:Loss ratio: 2.09
Weekly Profit Factor: 8.28

Percentage of months (20-day rolling avg) profitable: 91%
Average weekly Profit:Loss ratio: 3.75
Monthly Profit Factor: 39.49

Percentage of quarters (60-day rolling avg) profitable: 100%

Annual returns............Max DD
2002: 105%.................5%
2003: 120%.................8%
2004: 118%.................4%

Systems traded: Varies, but currently roughly 7
Method: Automated
Markets: Stocks mostly, futures

The biggest challenge for me is to continue finding profitable edges in the markets. I realize that one or more of my best strategies could stop working tomorrow, and that I have to continually be looking for new systems to add to my 'porfolio' of strategies.

I have found trading to the best career I could ever hope for. I truly look forward to starting 'work' the next day, and eagerly await for the market to open each day. It is extremely rewarding to work for yourself and make a great income independent from a company, bosses, office politics, etc.

Surprisingly, one of the challenges I have is with vacations. I really don't have a great interest in going on vacations, because of the lost trading income will be much higher than the vacation cost. As a result, I typically only take one week for vacation per year, and regret not taking more time off. This is one goal for 2005, to take as many as 3 weeks of vacation during the year. But, when you love your 'job,' you don't really feel such a need for vacations anyway.

Well, I hope this post was helpful for some. Trading is definitely a very difficult endeavor, but it can be done successfully and it is a great career for those that are well suited for it, IMO.

Best of luck,
-Eric

P.S. I hope to see some of you at the Expo tomorrow night in NYC.
 
Eric

Congratulations well done but I have to tell you that working 2 hours per day I can average 8-11% per month with my swing trades and options writing combined and have done so for 17 years also.

So it seems like a lot of work for your returns.... so where's the advantage of all the extra hours?
 
Quote from Samson77:

Mike

The man makes a valid point 4 months or 4 years makes no difference.

He ask's a legitimate question, I mean think about it even a professional football player has a 10 year lifespan if he is GOOD so where are the 10 year DAYTRADING guys.

I do not know of one that has gone past 5 and even then they went broke soon after.

So come on all you DAYTRADING hero's anti up with the truth!
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I have traded in markets that are a 40 vol....and traded in markets that are a 12 vol....and made great money trading in both types of markets. The key to longevity in this business IMO is to be flexible and adaptive. This is a game of getting base hits....not hitting the long ball. I am constantly researching new strategies, creating my own systems, and conducting post mortems to improve my game. I have a business plan that is constantly being revised and adjusted for the current market, and have a powerful toolbox of trading strategies. I also have a focus on anticipating changes in the marketplace, proactively seeking solutions, rather than being reactive after the change occurs. This is probably the most important element of my trading plan and is absolutely critical to long term trading success.
I do anticipate trading profitably in this my fith year of trading.

As for the traders that make it past 5 years...there have been many. In fact, there are traders who make money every year. Just because you don't know them...doesn't mean they arn't there. :)

I will be entering my fith year of trading come may of this year....and I fully anticipate trading profitably, and perhaps having my best year ever! Only time will tell!

Congrats on getting back to scratch on your trading investment...you have had a long learning curve, but my guess is that as long as you continue to follow your trading plan you will have continued success.

Good trading to all!

Mike
 
Quote from Samson77:

Eric

Congratulations well done but I have to tell you that working 2 hours per day I can average 8-11% per month with my swing trades and options writing combined and have done so for 17 years also.

So it seems like a lot of work for your returns.... so where's the advantage of all the extra hours?
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So what options strategy to you favor? 8% month is a fantastic number....but think about this....what if you added on a few other strategies...intraday strategies...perhaps a couple of "grey box" type strategies...that would allow you to make enough money to cover your living expenses, and then allow your swing trading and options strategies to compound for a few years without any withdrawals. In just a few short years....you would be in a very powerful financial position!

Good trading to al!
Mike
 
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