From $5k to $50k

[FCXoptions]

@Visaria has had some pretty good calls. I guess a couple months ago or so you were nailing them in the S&P thread. I haven't seen any recent posts on the topic, but the consistency there leads me to believe you probably know what you are doing.

On a side note, I went to a CFA dinner last night, the main speaker (Rob Arnott) said to expect about 2.5% annual average returns over the next several years...not real promising. 20% a month sounds much better lol

 

[Visaria]

Yeah, i have made plenty of live calls/trades (probably hundreds) on this forum over the years, only some of which are on the S&P thread. As you pointed out, many have been very good. I don't really post live trades since very few others do, so i cba either.

chubby may have made live calls or not or just posted stuff after the fact, i have no interest either way. I would take take the claim of 5 figures to 7 figures with a pinch of salt. If someone cant tell the difference between making 20% on $5k and 20% on a million or billion, something is clearly wrong. Either way, chubby, u r on ignore...feel free to put me on ignore as well.

@Visaria has had some pretty good calls. I guess a couple months ago or so you were nailing them in the S&P thread. I haven't seen any recent posts on the topic, but the consistency there leads me to believe you probably know what you are doing.

On a side note, I went to a CFA dinner last night, the main speaker (Rob Arnott) said to expect about 2.5% annual average returns over the next several years...not real promising. 20% a month sounds much better lol

 

[VPhantom]

Forget it. I don't have time for you guys' BS and cynicism.

If this was a legitimate endeavor, just ignore the few assholes (who will then vanish) and do as you intended. Some of us are well-mannered. It looks like you've already left, but thought I should say it anyway.

he needs to increase this target to an average of $1k a day for the days he will be trading otherwise he's not being adequately compensated for his time and effort.

For some people, $300/day is already an upgrade, and this is on a single lot as a proof of concept, no scaling. As a demonstration, his thread serves a great purpose as-is in my opinion and any scaling would stray from the intent.

I'd love to try something like this in a journal here at ET (...) this thread itself is a perfect example of what one can expect from the audience.

Make it invite-only while it unfolds and only make it public after it's closed, then? I'd love to see that experiment!

 

[jsmacksem]

I'm going to take $5k (out of the profits I made last year) and see if I can turn it into $50k this year or better.

My method is a discretionary swing trading (1-4 days...sometimes longer for stocks) approach using pure price action. I don't use the news or any of the fundamental factors to make trading decisions. The instruments that I will be trading are futures and stocks. FYI: There won't be any hindsight trades. I will post a trade that I'm anticipating before it actually happens, and if I'm wrong....I'm wrong.

I will post as trades come available through my method. That being said, let's get it started.

P.S: I created this same thread last year, which you can view here: http://www.elitetrader.com/et/index.php?threads/from-3k-to-50k-in-2015.288703/

But, as I mentioned earlier, I was chickening out despite being right about nearly every single call.

Where'd you go?

 

[fon]

Yes, it can be done. But it takes large risk.

 

[Levels]

Alot of people have 'wasted' their life in their endeavors/dreams -- does that mean it's wrong, not necessarily. I myself have wasted alot of my time, so to speak...before my light bulb went off.

I had a similar light bulb moment after toiling away learning trading for years. Once I learned what I was doing wrong I have been making money consistently.

@lawrence-lugar @Chubbly

Out of curiosity, I wonder if you guys don't mind sharing what this light bulb was. I don't imagine that this will mean giving away an actual edge, so I hope that it is appropriate to ask.

 

[i am nobody]

@lawrence-lugar @Chubbly

Out of curiosity, I wonder if you guys don't mind sharing what this light bulb was. I don't imagine that this will mean giving away an actual edge, so I hope that it is appropriate to ask.

I think some traders who survive years of trying to make money will have the same experience. The light bulb is the piece that was the missing link in a system to make it profitable or consistent. It makes all the pieces to fall in place and clarify what they should do, and why. For each trader this light bulb is probably something else, and to understand this light bulb you should understand what the problem was. But to understand what the problem was, you should know all the details of the system that they were trying to create, if not you will never understand what the problem was.
In short: it will make no sense to you if they explain it and they will have to give away things to you to be able to understand what the light bulb was.

Like the light at the end of the tunnel (of studying and testing).

 

[i am nobody]

For some people, $300/day is already an upgrade,

The average american has a salary below this 300$ a day. Makes 6000$ a month for 20 working days. So many of them don't mind making just 300$ a day instead of going to work. Especially because you can make that money sitting on the beach if you want. And there is no annoying boss ( at least if you are lucky with your wife).

With 72k a year you are in the top 0.12% richest people in the world.

http://www.globalrichlist.com/

 

[d08]

I am not saying people shouldn't dream big but even at 2% a month you are beating 99% of hedge funds.

Ok, since you think it is realistic. Why don't you take this 5K to 50K challenge and show us it is possible.
I eagerly await your trading journal

You should not compare trading results to hedge fund results. They're dealing with hundreds of millions and billions, very different from a 50k to 1 million account. Hedge funds can earn 10% per year and live nicely off that, a trader can't. On the positive side, smaller positions are much easier to put on and off.

 

[bnaryle]

I have been in and out of trading for the last 7 years or so and have either tried to put my money in dividend value stocks or play swings I saw happening in stocks I've been following.

Lately I've been able to make consistent 5-7% returns in a day by playing durable stocks' 52-week lows. They can swing sometimes 20% in a day, like NOV just did opening 27% low on the day but finishing 8% from the previous day's close. On 3 February I went into NMM at $1.35 and sold at $1.45. I could have sold higher but I wanted to exit the position at 5%. That was an entrance at $1349.90 and a sell at $1450. I did the same thing with MTRX, SPSC, and TPUB when they recently hit their 52-week lows.

I pay attention to the actual news that caused them to decline so far and only enter if there's a massive decline, such as NOV's earnings release causing them to slide so far but come back because their EV:EBITDA ratio caused the dumb money to kick in and buy them. I don't go in to big names that have a big brand value like LGF or LNKD because their swings won't be that big.

RCII recently released their earnings and dropped to a 52-week low due to an impairment charge on their earnings release causing them to report a loss and I saw that it had nothing to do with their actual durability so I went in at $9.88 and sold at $10.50. I had to hold that stock for a couple of days for that to happen though. I trade on Robinhood so the trades are free, contributing to my margins.

I have had a lot of trades that have cost me money, the past couple of years I've experienced losses, especially because I was betting on oil's floor which never came to fruition. Anyone know of any constructive things to provide to the conversation as far as what I may not be looking at in these trades, or things that will expand my margins?