How did you grow your account into a big one?

oldtime · May 18, 2013

Quote from MrN:

To clarify, My comment was within the context of the comment I was responding to, It was not meant to be taken to mean, "learning what you are doing" is an inevitability.

I hear ya, about everytime you think you have something figured out, something changes

But I've been around long enough that I would never put some of my serious money with a trader

trading is something you do for yourself, not for others

how could it be otherwise?

mark_mm · May 19, 2013

Assuming you have a/some strategies that are profitable to some degree. Starting with a smaller account and growing it requires compounding or raising the risk levels on the profits that you can ring fence as "house money", as others have already said.

If trading your strategy requires you to be in front of a screen all day and therefore no other income I would think it would be incredibly difficult to compound and the pressure to make sure you have enought to live on could interfere with your trading too much.

I would suggest automation or partial automation, along with a job that you could do from home/or a spouse who earns well and is willing to support you.

chasinfla · May 19, 2013

Quote from mark_mm:

a spouse who earns well and is willing to support you.

That's the "recipe for success" for most people.

tradewiz50 · May 21, 2013

intervention · May 21, 2013

You need 3 things to grow your account into big one. The first is the determination and then you need patience. Most importantly you need compounding, otherwise the account will not grow in good time.

Ghost of Cutten · May 26, 2013

Quote from oldtime:

maybe so, but if I was going to do that, I would just open a restaurant, or a car repair place

"once you learn what you are doing"?

man, this is trading, it isn't business 101

Could you make 100 times as much per day if you had 100 times as much capital? If so, then why not do it? There are many places that would give someone a shot if they can prove 25% per annum with <20% drawdowns over a 3 year period, for example.

oldtime · May 26, 2013

Quote from Ghost of Cutten:

Could you make 100 times as much per day if you had 100 times as much capital? If so, then why not do it? There are many places that would give someone a shot if they can prove 25% per annum with <20% drawdowns over a 3 year period, for example.

man, I have more than a 20% drawdown in the first few hours of trading!

wouldn't it be nice if you could make 25% with less than 20% drawdown?

deaddog · May 26, 2013

Quote from careless:

Through saving and trading I have build up my trading account to 50k. With my current performance (20-30% per year part time position trading) it takes a long time to grow it into something meaningful, like 500k.
For those that where at this point in their past, how did you make your account grow substantially. Are you just grow it by small steps? Took you greater that usual risks? Got you lucky with a trade? Became you better at trading and realized higher yearly returns? Switched you to trading shorter time frames?...

Would be interested in hearing your stories.

By increasing size.
Once I developed an edge I increased my risk on each trade. I started risking less than 1/2% of account size per trade and slowly increased it to 2%.
This has quadrupled my return.
I swing trade stocks, usually make 100 to 150 trades per year.(2 to 3 trades per week)
Win rate=37%; Risk/Reward= 2.6 to 1;
I don't compound as I spend what I make, but by compounding you should increase returns even more.

Peter brandley · May 27, 2013

I think this is depend on every traders abilities . because one professional trader can really make fast money with forex and one new cant make weekly money from forex .

So just people need know more about forex for earn .

justrading · May 27, 2013

Quote from deaddog:

By increasing size.
Once I developed an edge I increased my risk on each trade. I started risking less than 1/2% of account size per trade and slowly increased it to 2%.
This has quadrupled my return.
I swing trade stocks, usually make 100 to 150 trades per year.(2 to 3 trades per week)
Win rate=37%; Risk/Reward= 2.6 to 1;
I don't compound as I spend what I make, but by compounding you should increase returns even more.

Good numbers.