Say, the initial 1M money is that of a prop firm (or a fund to manage). Only the best trader/manager who demonstrates how to make the highest profit will say get a 5 yr contract with very good conditions for a top job at the prop firm. The task is profit maximizing and risk minimizing by using the best method which seems to work over a longer timeframe. How much does the best result of not biased, realistic, backtests give for an initial capital of 1M? You have to take care for comission (say $0.0015 per share), slippage, bad data/spikes etc. Choose the best daytrading method which seems to work. Positions must not become greater than than 5% of the avg daily volume (say of the past x days; x about 9 to 30). No position can be held overnight. Chose any market you wish. You don't need to go 1 year back but at least 2 month's data should be used for the testing, and this then annualized in a realistic way (ie. multiplied).