From the newbie desk: returns expectations

[newwurldmn]

No offense taken. I was on a low 6 figure income and multiplied it by 7.3. Again, lottery ticket bull market win and fully aware that this year is much more difficult. I will be happy to get 6 figure this year!

Growing wealth is rarely a linear line. If your process is good you will do well over time but will have some bad years, lots of good years and some great years.

if your process isn’t good you will have fluke good years and bad years.

make sure your process is good.

 

[SunTrader]

I think I've been putting a lot of pressure on myself to make my daily numbers, based on 2020 achievements. Since I didn't know better because I started trading in 2020, I sort of expected to do as well in 2021, despite warnings from friends who have been trading for years. My thinking was if I apply myself the same way, I should get the same results.
Of course, when 2021 rolled and the market dipped, I had no methodology to work through it. I tried swing trading, only to find that I was way off the timing and took months to accept taking losses, which were as exciting as the wins. I learned that I have no patience for months or even weeks long trades. I learned that for me it's not about the money as much as figuring out how to enjoy the game. It's addictive and, for those prone to addictions, it's a monster to always stay on top of. I have been spending most of my time since the beginning of the year absorbing basic stock trading techniques (hello shorts...) and hope to squeeze a profit this year, provided the market holds.
I'm not as methodical as some of you are, but I'm intuitive and try to frame intuition into method, if that makes any sense.

Sorry to say you have the makings of a losing trader from everything you have openly discussed in this topic.

Though I wish you well/prove me wrong, but believe anything else I post here will be counterproductive after what I said in first sentence.

 

[Zithiel89]

Percentage and dollars are the measurements of different aspects of trading.
Absolute and relative success both have the right to exist but you answer different questions when you measure your success/failure in percents or dollars. Percents are used in order to measure the trader's skills. If we compare skills of two traders and want to learn who is better, we should compare their returns in percents because their absolute profits may be different only due to the difference of the budget. Like, the first trader may have $1000000 and the second trader has only $10000. The absolute profit of the first trader may be more than of the second trader but he still may be not as efficient in trading as the second trader.
Absolute values can be used in order to determine whether you can live on forex trading. A trader with low budget may make crazy percents during a single trading session but the absolute return may reach only $1 per day. So, there is no practical value of the fact that he is so good at trading because he is aclually not capable of making money on trading.

 

[Kalanim]

As for me, it depends on what kind of questions I ask myself and answer by trading results.
If I ask myself how successful my trading is, I use percents in order to describe my success or failure. If there is failure, I start analysing it and the reasons which caused it. Was it my fault, and which mistake I did while analysing the market and which led me to the loss? that the following questions after learning how many percents I did.
However, if I ask myself whether it is possible for me to make trading forex full time, I look at the absolute values and calculate whether this sum is enough for me to live on. In this situations you cannot measure success in percents because it is not interesting how successful you are as a trader, but it is interesting whether you can pay for food and for everything to provide yourself.