How do famous swing traders like Dan Zanger size up so fast?

[semperfrosty]

The winning formula for Qullamagie & Zanger are trading mainly or entirely from the long side of the strongest stocks in the strongest bull markets in history. Right place, right time, right idea.

A stock position of 25% that makes a 400% gain doubles the acct size. These guys got plenty of trades like that, some way bigger.

Qullamagie said he may risk -4% up to -8% on the trade, on his equity curve he is risking typically less than 0.50% It is the huge asymmetrical R/R on a small number of winners - like 5%-15% of all his trades is the lions share of gains.

And balls of steel.

 

[moskvich]

Trading high octane/meme stocks long and adding

 

[newwurldmn]

Lol someones clearly new to trading if you dont know these names. Thanks for adding meta related commentary. Always helpful.

of all the posters in this thread, longandshort has produced returns closest to those traders mentioned in the OP.

 

[tomkat22]

Yea Ive followed KK in depth for years. Hes actually who got me into swing from Daytrading.
I think hes for real.

I also followed KK for 2 or 3 years. Would you mind stating what you think his account balance was time-wise,over the years? Most people would agree he fully exploited the greatest bull market in history(2010-2021).

 

[ironchef]

The magic of compounding.

By compounding, a 0.5% average daily gain, which most day traders claimed is doable, will produce 12.35x the original invested capital within two years (24 months).

He started with $10K, it will be $1.235M in 24 months.

Is 0.5% gain a day reasonable? I have only been day trading for two months so I don't know. Many of you on ET are very successful, professional day traders, so you know if that is a doable do.

 

[zghorner]

Bet more when you have pocket aces.

 

[nursebee]

I have tried to follow how all these (Kristian Kullamaggie is another) massive traders took sub $10k accounts to $1mm+ all while keeping good R:R? I hear the whole trading community arguing to keep your risk <1% of your total account. If thats say a $5000 account then thats $50 risk per trade. No matter how I try to extrapolate an insanely profitable trade (lets say buy stock at $20 and sell at $180 risk $50 and buy 25 shares for $2 stop=$3989 profit) its still hardly any money (in relation to time and traders like Zanger doing it in 23 months). Now the above outlined fringe case is exactly that. Super hard for most people to land a stock like that once let alone multiple times. My question is, is it more likely that guys like him are far exceeding 1% and going closer to a kelly,half kelly,optimal f etc. to attain these gains? Anything im missing?

Please refrain from commenting that the gains possibly weren't audited, that CANSLIM/momo swing trading doesnt work,that your trading system is far better blah blah blah. Above is just an example of these kind of traders saying they do it in this short amt of time and how they do it.

Thanks and godspeed for some tendies fellow netizens

If you can't figure this out, you ought likely not try it.

IT IS NOT A 1% loss scenario!

https://roppelreport.com/

If you are truly new and searching, signing up for this service, then going back and watching everything on the site should help you understand.

For convincing bull market, but 10 leaders. Sift. Rotate money into leaders. I bet most of the big money in this whole crowd was swing trading in and out, quite different than the books makes it seem.

 

[Concinnity]

I have tried to follow how all these (Kristian Kullamaggie is another) massive traders took sub $10k accounts to $1mm+ all while keeping good R:R? I hear the whole trading community arguing to keep your risk <1% of your total account. If thats say a $5000 account then thats $50 risk per trade. No matter how I try to extrapolate an insanely profitable trade (lets say buy stock at $20 and sell at $180 risk $50 and buy 25 shares for $2 stop=$3989 profit) its still hardly any money (in relation to time and traders like Zanger doing it in 23 months). Now the above outlined fringe case is exactly that. Super hard for most people to land a stock like that once let alone multiple times. My question is, is it more likely that guys like him are far exceeding 1% and going closer to a kelly,half kelly,optimal f etc. to attain these gains? Anything im missing?

Please refrain from commenting that the gains possibly weren't audited, that CANSLIM/momo swing trading doesnt work,that your trading system is far better blah blah blah. Above is just an example of these kind of traders saying they do it in this short amt of time and how they do it.

Thanks and godspeed for some tendies fellow netizens

Just my two cents:

Because they got to the point mentally where they knew what they were doing and believed in it, based on all the data they have. At some point it just all clicks for you and when you see what you're looking for you jump on it.

That's why people can give others their exact strategy and they still lose money. A lot of them are just copying someone else and expecting when you put in the trade for it to work and now you're rich. When the people using it likely lack the over all market understanding of when to actually size up and use it, like others here stated. Plus for above mentioned reasons they either have an underlining fear when taking the setup or blissful ignorance when taking it. So in either scenario once you take that first loss or a few losses in a row your mental game is now shot and you've not only lost those individual battles, but also the war. Where as the creators of the strategy keep moving forward knowing that big winner is most likely to come over time due to probability.

 

[padutrader]

I hear the whole trading community arguing to keep your risk <1% of your total account

yes i have heard it for 30 years.

what i have NOT heard but i have personally believed is that the market can be 'solved' and that market movements are rational extensions of what traders do.

this may be off topic but i choose to comment on it since you mentioned risk.

what no one is telling you is that ignorance is not bliss but the most risky thing ever.

what i am trying to say is why 1 % is such a magic figure.

knowledge reduces risk and increases win rate .

this is not explained often enough. or talked about.

you cannot size up without increasing your understanding of markets

 

[smallfil]

I have tried to follow how all these (Kristian Kullamaggie is another) massive traders took sub $10k accounts to $1mm+ all while keeping good R:R? I hear the whole trading community arguing to keep your risk <1% of your total account. If thats say a $5000 account then thats $50 risk per trade. No matter how I try to extrapolate an insanely profitable trade (lets say buy stock at $20 and sell at $180 risk $50 and buy 25 shares for $2 stop=$3989 profit) its still hardly any money (in relation to time and traders like Zanger doing it in 23 months). Now the above outlined fringe case is exactly that. Super hard for most people to land a stock like that once let alone multiple times. My question is, is it more likely that guys like him are far exceeding 1% and going closer to a kelly,half kelly,optimal f etc. to attain these gains? Anything im missing?

Please refrain from commenting that the gains possibly weren't audited, that CANSLIM/momo swing trading doesnt work,that your trading system is far better blah blah blah. Above is just an example of these kind of traders saying they do it in this short amt of time and how they do it.

Thanks and godspeed for some tendies fellow netizens

Kristian Kullamaggie is a swing trader who uses breakouts. His stop losses are near the breakout so that, he has a lot of small losses. However, his gains are huge relative to the losses making for a nice reward to risk ratio and gives him a huge trading edge. He also, takes profits the first 3 days his positions go in his favor, he sells some of his shares. As for the pyramiding on any stock, you should realize that you are increasing your risk too on the stock. What you have going for you is momentum as you pyramid on a winning stock. Never average down because you are pyramiding into a losing stock. A losing stock can always go lower.