From Micros to Millions: 2% per day

Very good words CALLumbus !!!

It is known that at the Robbins worldchampionship the "professionell" tradercoaches start with many many accounts and they try, that one of it is sucessfull ...... everyone can think which possibilties they have !

And for a scalper (like sstheo, or CALLumbus, or myself) ist is not possible to participate, because they charge an extra 5 USD per halfturn for the competition !

And as CALLumbus (by the way thank you for your warm welcome !) already said, there are some really sucessfull scalpers around, just sitting at home and trade and enjoy life !

sstheo I thank for your work here to show your project ! I think that is vey helpfull for many people here ! Thanks. GO ON !

wow 5 dollars a side? That’s borderline criminal. Do you have a source for that? If so their competition loses all credibility (they were already questionable without that) in my eyes.
 
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'@Snuskpelle i liked the first paragraph but not the second. Dudes been at this for over 15 years I seriously doubt that’s the reason he’s a salesman (his growth is too slow cause he doesn’t use leverage).

It's a hypothesis among others. As for a guy like this not getting hired by quant funds, I think when they are able to trade factors 'properly' with statistical arbitrage, doing things the way Davey (and e.g. Connors, Alvarez just to put in a few more names there) with entry/exit rules is unnecessary and inferior.

Rarely people in that context like to talk about Sharpe ratios of their strategies' performance, presumably for a reason.
 
The best traders do not compete in Robbins World Cup so calling it the the world championships of trading is a joke. Imagine that scenario for any other competitive field. If Kevin Davey’s performance was so impressive why wasn’t he headhunted by the top algorithmic trading firms where he could end up making 7 figures a year with full benefits? Instead he’s selling books and courses. Why? Altruism? Lol no


Exactly, I had the same thoughts when reading here.
 
just to show, that others operate in a similar way than sstheo
Here are my last days, also with AMP :

Last 5 values of : NET LIQUIDATING VALUE (USD)
18,469.07 CR 0.00
19,040.56 CR 571.49
19,129.04 CR 88.48
20,066.39 CR 937.35
20,777.17 CR 710.78 (today)

also today was around 700
 
107 percent on 10,000 in a year? That’s about 44.5 dollars a trading day with trading one lots in the NQ (or any futures contract of your choosing). Futures are leveraged so talking about gains in terms of percentages is misleading (it also is for talking about day trading returns on a small account). Even with 1 lots in the ES in a 10,000 account you’re leveraged over 10x (over 20x leveraged in the NQ). Id bet dollars to donuts that CALLumbus could top that performance no problem.

“My first year of manual trading I took that $150K to $50K (broker theft) and on to 800K by the end of the year. I traded almost exclusively illiquid futures contracts at a time when there was absolutely no automation on those contracts. It was a golden era. Still, it's not too different from what I'd expect today. I've generally found that when I hire a new person with no trading experience I should expect them to make about $1K/day using max 25K margin after about 3 months of floundering. Of course everyone can't pull this off. During the interview process I pretty heavily screen for personality traits that I think are important for trading so I end up with people who can resonate with my particular, very risk averse, style.“ -garachen 2013 owner of a real trading company (not trading arcade, traders contribute no capital and pay no desk fees. They make their money trading)

“Strategies you can employ with <$1M vs $100M vs $1B are 100% completely different. Some of the same skills overlap just a little bit. Comparing 'return' from a small trader scalping vs someone doing stat arb with $100M or capital structure arb with $1B is completely meaningless.

....

Outsize 'returns' on small accounts are possible because you are correctly identifying sloppy trading from larger players. Unless you are throwing around 100M+ it doesn't even make sense to measure return.“ - garachen

“Except under very specific circumstances traders don't talk in terms of return. The reason is that until you have lots of capital, $100M or so, your capital and risk are very disconnected.

I've never ever had a trader discuss their profitability in terms of return. It would be a huge tip off that they are hiding something.” - garachen

The best traders do not compete in Robbins World Cup so calling it the the world championships of trading is a joke. Imagine that scenario for any other competitive field. If Kevin Davey’s performance was so impressive why wasn’t he headhunted by the top algorithmic trading firms where he could end up making 7 figures a year with full benefits? Instead he’s selling books and courses. Why? Altruism? Lol no

@Snuskpelle i liked the first paragraph but not the second. Dudes been at this for at least 15 years (probably more like 20) I seriously doubt that’s the reason he’s a salesman (his growth is too slow cause he doesn’t use leverage).


Excellent post, eternaldelight. And thanks for the kind words :):thumbsup:

But it is exactly how you say (and garachen also agrees with us): in leveraged trading, scalping, trading futures on margin, it makes little sense to me to talk in percentages. Percent profit on what ? And does it matter at all ?
I make my money scalping futures, but I take a good part of the profits each month and put them into a boring buy-and-hold-forever stock investment account. That account is a cash account, no leverage. On that account, at the end of a month, at the end of the year, I like to have a look, how did my investments perform, did I make +5%, +8% or -30% this year ?

But in my futures trading account(s), first of all those numbers would not make any sense. How should the return be calculated, based on what ? And second, and more important to me: I just dont care. What does it matter if I make 208% this year, if those 208% are only 1700 USD ? I prefer to have a solid positive cash flow each month, thats what counts to me, thats what matters. Even if it would be only 4% based on some strange calculation, I could still not be happier, if it pays the house, car(s), bills and all the other things I need.
 
just to show, that others operate in a similar way than sstheo
Here are my last days, also with AMP :

Last 5 values of : NET LIQUIDATING VALUE (USD)
18,469.07 CR 0.00
19,040.56 CR 571.49
19,129.04 CR 88.48
20,066.39 CR 937.35
20,777.17 CR 710.78 (today)

also today was around 700

Very nice scalpi. Was this mostly in the FDAX ?
 
Yesterday was Losing Day #1. Yesterday was a chop fest and I ended the day down $27 after commissions. I was actually slightly positive at the end of the day, but then the statement came out and showed me the true impact of micro commission. LOL.

Usually balanced or big range days like yesterday are my favorite and most profitable days, but the wild swings were something to behold!

upload_2020-10-22_10-42-43.png


Today, in contrast, may be my Best Day So Far. After 7 days of mostly bearish action, I decided to focus on longs as part of a relief rally. I was spot on. I still scalped it to death, and I did take some shorts, but longs ruled the day.

I crossed the $7000 threshold today, and I can now trade with up to 7 micros at a time.

While I am a scalping maniac, I have learned to mostly trade in the direction of the 50 and 10 SMA's. I can fade the action along with the best of them for 1, 2, or 3+ ticks on the MES, but I have been bit hard a lot recently because of failed counter-trend trades in this highly charged stimulus-driven market. When prices want to MOVE then I should get out of the way so I don't get crushed. My solution? Don't fight the 10 SMA (much). EASY.

Yesterday's update:

upload_2020-10-22_11-11-58.png
 
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