How much do you aspire to make per year trading
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That you say you made money on both Thursday and Friday is very impressive.
Thursday had a 100 point move in ES from the low to high.
But Friday was very choppy, ES moved in 20 and 30 point ranges for the whole day.
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Yep. First trade was off the fake numbers catalyst. That was the big one. Then small scalps to get the total up.
I was quite proud of myself.
Interesting Thread. There are just 2 questions that need to be answered.
1. Can you trade successfully and do it consistently. Someone on this forum once said that a day trader should be profitable virtually every day. I believe that to be true.
I just trade as a retirement hobby and now I am using a Sierra Charts ES chart but actually overlay the TOS entry box for SPY onto the chart using the "keep window on top feature" and trade a few shares. With no commissions the exchange fee is roughly equivalent percentage wise to the AMP futures commission so it is a great way to start small will almost zero risk. This is true because the exchange fee is a percentage of stock sales so it scales up with your size.
2. Can you scale up your trading size successfully mentally. I keep a detailed spreadsheet on my trading results and convert daily profits down to a "per share" profit so results are standardized as I add shares. Right now I am averaging $1.043 profit per share per day.
Trading 500 shares of SPY is the equivalent of trading 1 ES contract. So doing the math (500 shares times $1.043 = $521.50 a day) or the equivalent of approximately 10 ES points per contract per day.
Assuming you trade 240 days a year at $500 daily average profit, that is an annual profit of $120,000 per ES contract traded. If you then traded 50 ES contracts that would be 6 Million per year.
Let me use an illustration. Say you have a steel beam that is 1 foot wide and 15 feet long. Put it on two concrete blocks in your backyard and you could walk across it 1000 times in a row without even thinking of falling off. Then put that beam in the catwalk of a large atrium 300 feet off the ground with no net below. Could you even make in one time across the beam?
Trading my small position I think I can trade for years without having a losing week. It is so fun and relaxed it is like mastering a video game. I was bragging to my wife that even though the market was choppy Friday I made $12. But how fast and how far can I scale up. It will be fun to find out.
I think that is why almost all traders fail, at least in the beginning, they start out trading 300 feet off the ground.
1. Can you trade successfully and do it consistently. Someone on this forum once said that a day trader should be profitable virtually every day. I believe that to be true.
I just trade as a retirement hobby and now I am using a Sierra Charts ES chart but actually overlay the TOS entry box for SPY onto the chart using the "keep window on top feature" and trade a few shares. With no commissions the exchange fee is roughly equivalent percentage wise to the AMP futures commission so it is a great way to start small will almost zero risk. This is true because the exchange fee is a percentage of stock sales so it scales up with your size.
2. Can you scale up your trading size successfully mentally. I keep a detailed spreadsheet on my trading results and convert daily profits down to a "per share" profit so results are standardized as I add shares. Right now I am averaging $1.043 profit per share per day.
Trading 500 shares of SPY is the equivalent of trading 1 ES contract. So doing the math (500 shares times $1.043 = $521.50 a day) or the equivalent of approximately 10 ES points per contract per day.
Assuming you trade 240 days a year at $500 daily average profit, that is an annual profit of $120,000 per ES contract traded. If you then traded 50 ES contracts that would be 6 Million per year.
Let me use an illustration. Say you have a steel beam that is 1 foot wide and 15 feet long. Put it on two concrete blocks in your backyard and you could walk across it 1000 times in a row without even thinking of falling off. Then put that beam in the catwalk of a large atrium 300 feet off the ground with no net below. Could you even make in one time across the beam?
Trading my small position I think I can trade for years without having a losing week. It is so fun and relaxed it is like mastering a video game. I was bragging to my wife that even though the market was choppy Friday I made $12. But how fast and how far can I scale up. It will be fun to find out.
I think that is why almost all traders fail, at least in the beginning, they start out trading 300 feet off the ground.
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Just a few anecdotes:
CONCLUSION:
- I was always intrigued by trading, but did not spend a lot of time in it. But one day I discovered that I had more pleasure sitting in front of my PC and screen then in sitting (or lying) with my wife. She was like an iceberg. I mean cold, not big sized.
- During our marriage she never worked, had a cleaning woman, a gardener and her own car. I made the money.
- One day she wanted to go in therapy to save our marriage. For more than 1 year we went weekly to some psychologist. Then suddenly this psychologist proposed my to spent less time in trading. For me that was strange. Why did this proposal come suddenly out of the blue?
- I started to review the therapy and found out that this psychologist was specialized in therapy for gambling addicted people. So the aim was not to save the marriage but to stop the trading. I chose instantly for the trading and divorced. As we were married with a prenuptial contract, she left with no money.
- My ex had to find a job, but had no education. So she had to start working in an elderly home changing diapers on old people and washing them.
- As she had no money she immediately started to look for a man who could support her financially. In 2 years time she had relations with 5 different men. But each time it went wrong after a few weeks. I found out that money was the problem. Her best friend was married with a very close friend from me. He told that she first tried to catch a man with sex. This started successfully till she asked the man to pay part of a flat for her. They all ran away one after another. In the end the first candidate came back and agreed to pay.
- I am now married again for 10 years with a Ukrainian woman, 16 years younger than me. She is... Psychologist.
While my first wife is washing old people and putting them new diapers on, my second wife is chilling in the Italian sun on the border of our swimming pool. The first one had problems with the opportunity cost of trading, the second one not. So it shows clearly that you should always make the right choice, or trust me as I made the choice not they.
Did you make the second wife sign a prenup. ?
Yes everyone does that calculation. I too have a spreadsheet that tracks every single trade (automatically updated) with stats I am interested in.
The secret is really to get consistent first, then learn to ignore absolute magnitude of PnL swings.
(And keep your max drawdown below the amount that affects the margin needed for your trading)
No, it is going to be absolute hell on earth in your mind. Be prepared for it.
Would you share a sample of your trades? With such consistent profits, I'm curious about how it adds ups with the wins and losses.
I'm not sure why people keep asking. I didn't see a single person's trades before becoming good at this.
It is a simple question: is it possible to make money in the market every day. The answer is yes. You can deduce how using whatever theory of the market you prefer. This is more or less what I did.
I can tell you to trade one direction (long) with one setup only and you still won't do it. Even in this bear market there are more than enough long only setups m
So what difference will my list of trades make???
None.
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