From Micros to Millions: 2% per day

[sstheo]

Are the profit numbers after commissions and exchange fees ?
Were you able to negotiate a low commission rate with AMP ?
What is the percentage of the gross profits that are reduced by commish and fees ?
BTW: Your table has an incorrect date....Monday is the 19th, not the 18th.

Profit numbers are all NET.

AMP has a set volume discount. If I get to 1000 contracts in a month (I could get there), then my Round Trip turn all-in pricing drops from $.78 to $.76, LOL. Next tier is 5000.

My current fee average is 21% of profits going to fees at day 9.

>>> Final Net gain average is $142. Average trades per day is 50. 50x $.78 RT is $39. $142 + $39 = $181 gross profit per day average. 39/181 = 21%.

This 21% should drop to 14% or less once I get on the Mini's.

 

[Overnight]

Profit numbers are all NET.

AMP has a set volume discount. If I get to 1000 contracts in a month (I could get there), then my Round Trip turn all-in pricing drops from $.78 to $.76, LOL. Next tier is 5000.

View attachment 242378

My current fee average is 21% of profits going to fees at day 9.

>>> Final Net gain average is $142. Average trades per day is 50. 50x $.78 RT is $39. $142 + $39 = $181 gross profit per day average. 39/181 = 21%.

This 21% should drop to 14% or less once I get on the Mini's.

Compare it to the flat rate.

 

[sstheo]

Obviously, in Livermore's time, there were no HFT bots. Overtrading (scalping for ticks) is a known downfall to traders and a major incentive to make a trading bot of which obviously, a few on ET have managed to achieve.
(HFTs do not pay the same commission as you pay on AMP! They trade hundreds of thousands RT every day! They do not get sleepy, emotional, or need coffee)
Manual trading and overtrading(scalping for ticks) are like smoking crack and trading. Your chance (as a non-programmer) to make a bot successful might be lower than learning to swing trade ES properly!

P.S. just announcement to contradict myself, I have enrolled in the free algotrading course and learning Python for the IB gateway. I am an old fart (semi retired), ex programmer, so this is doable albeit will not easy.

No question the bots are a formidable foe. But I like to think of myself as trading against Robinhood's band of Merry Men. Yes, I am fighting the other retail traders, for sure.

But I know there are still some inefficiencies in the HFT programming. I have much more screen time than most programmers training the bots. I may not be able to spell any more at age 56, but I can pick out excellent entries.

Let's talk again in a few weeks. The crack is working great so far with 21% gain on my account in 9 days. ($1,276 net gain on $6,000.)

 

[sstheo]

Better to aim for the stars and fall short than to aim for a cow pie and hit your target.

Thanks @Scataphagos.

Aiming for Alpha Centauri here... the closest know star to home...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha_Centauri

 

[sstheo]

This statement from JL is extremely poignant & accurate and one of the best observations in ROSO!!!

“The desire for constant action irrespective of underlying conditions is responsible for many losses in Wall Street even among the professionals, who feel that they must take home some money every day, as though they were working for regular wages.”

@Spooz Top 2 I may have replied before, but I have been cleaned out before many times. I know that SOH (sitting on hands) is sometimes the very best trade of all. FLAT is good. FLAT is paramount if I don't see a clear trade.

I am not afraid to walk away with zero trades on a day. I don't need 2%. The most important thing is to protect what I have. The public pressure I feel here is to keep my rules and be sane. There is no public pressure to make 2% per day. Of course I want to say "See I did it!" But I won't overreach to get there. To do so would be a recipe for disaster.

 

[sstheo]

I don't like to be negative and the OP can dream of making his millions, like the rest of us, but aiming to make $187,000 a year trading 1 ES lot is not a good business plan. Yes you can make $187,000 a year but perhaps aiming to do that with 10 or 20 lots.

So aim for big profits, but do it through trading size instead of aiming to make lots of points. It is much easier that way.

@Millionaire I think by now you have seen that I will be adding contracts in a sane fashion of 1 micro per $1000 and 1 mini per $10,000. I will be trading with at least 10 micros or 1 ES at the $10k mark.

 

[sstheo]

OP claims to have made 131 ES points in 4 days.

Had he been trading 100 ES lots instead of 1 micro lot, he would have made $650K in just four days

OP could be one of the best traders in the world

Hopefully you have seen my toe or index finger emerge from behind the curtain my now... I just hope I can turn myself into a real wizard before the dog pulls back the curtain and reveals me to be a fraud.

Oh, it's just little ol' me after all....

Seriously. I will do my best. If I fail, it was FUN. If I make a few bucks then I will have succeeded.

 

[DevBru]

Profit numbers are all NET.

AMP has a set volume discount. If I get to 1000 contracts in a month (I could get there), then my Round Trip turn all-in pricing drops from $.78 to $.76, LOL. Next tier is 5000.

View attachment 242378

My current fee average is 21% of profits going to fees at day 9.

>>> Final Net gain average is $142. Average trades per day is 50. 50x $.78 RT is $39. $142 + $39 = $181 gross profit per day average. 39/181 = 21%.

This 21% should drop to 14% or less once I get on the Mini's.

Flat rate is cheaper at $0.74.

 

[CALLumbus]

When i said you will be paying a fortune i was not refering to the micros.

Even with 1 emini lot per trade you will pay a small fortune if are taking 500 trades per month.

500x$4 = $2,000 on a 10K account.

On a 50K account (assume you trade 5 lots) you will pay 500x5x$4 = $10,000 per month

I am very happy to pay 10,000 in commission per month if I make 100,000 or 50,000 or even 20,000 per month. And you broker will invite you to the best parties

 

[CALLumbus]

Profit numbers are all NET.

AMP has a set volume discount. If I get to 1000 contracts in a month (I could get there), then my Round Trip turn all-in pricing drops from $.78 to $.76, LOL. Next tier is 5000.

View attachment 242378

My current fee average is 21% of profits going to fees at day 9.

>>> Final Net gain average is $142. Average trades per day is 50. 50x $.78 RT is $39. $142 + $39 = $181 gross profit per day average. 39/181 = 21%.

This 21% should drop to 14% or less once I get on the Mini's.

sstheo, dont worry too much about the commissions. If you keep up your work, trading high volume in a consistent way, you will be able too netotiate completly different rates with your broker, especially once you move from the micros to the minis. And when you make the switch to the minis, it will make total sense to lease a CME seat. With commission rates dropping and the discount on the exchange fees, you will cut your cost per trade by something like 50%, which makes a huge difference when you pay something like 10,000 USD per month to your broker. More change for girls and black jack !