Is it possible to net $100K a year

D

Dominic

trading equities? I have been trading full time for approx 4 years in the equities with a PDT account, but have taken some losses last year (-$65K on one trade) and cant seem to get my edge back. I was doing approx $15K a month with $100K buying power, but seemed to tire/burn out and then made a huge mistake. I'm sure if you had $10 million in an account netting $100K wouldn't be a problem, but with $100K BP is it possible to net $100K?

I tried the E Minis for a while and got my a$$ handed to me so I have returned to equities. Its almost like I have lost that carefree trading attitude that I once had and have replaced it with fear and almost being too overly protective with capital. I read somewhere that a very successful futures trader netted $500K a year for the last 5 years. If thats about as high as you can go on the futures, then maybe setting a goal of $100K off of the equities is a little too optimistic?

Anyone care to post their REAL p&l for the last year; not a hypo trading program or system. Thanks
 
Quote from Dominic:

trading equities? I have been trading full time for approx 4 years in the equities with a PDT account, but have taken some losses last year (-$65K on one trade).....
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Bro, how in the heeeellllll did you lose sixty-five thousand dollars on ONE trade? Seriously, please explain, if you care to do so. Just curious and it could help some other trader.
 
If you aren't making at least 40%+ off your money consistently every year, then something is wrong - this is not your line of business. Who cares what other people are making. You need to focus on getting the job done, consistently, year over year.

Some food for thought for your $100,000 account:

Compounding
Starting Equity: $100,000
Year over year % gain: 40.00%

Year Dollar Gain Balance
==========================
0 $100,000
1 $40,000 $140,000
2 $56,000 $196,000
3 $78,400 $274,400
4 $109,760 $384,160
5 $153,664 $537,824
6 $215,130 $752,954
7 $301,181 $1,054,135
8 $421,654 $1,475,789
9 $590,316 $2,066,105
10 $826,442 $2,892,547

What is it, clearly, you are trying to achieve?
 
I have learned that depending any kind of lagging indicator is a big mistake. Indicators can be used for confirmation, but not for actual trading signals. Breakouts still work very well if you know where to look. I have been papertrading something with amazing results. I have been testing 2 strategies. One breakout and one pullback. I don't use any indicators. I simply look at price and apply fib confluence (3 or more levels), and confirm the trade with a candlechart signal.
 
Quote from BSAM:

Bro, how in the heeeellllll did you lose sixty-five thousand dollars on ONE trade? Seriously, please explain, if you care to do so. Just curious and it could help some other trader.
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The stock still haunts me: PGTV!!! I had 3K shares and didn't apply discipline to the trade. Take a look at the chart over the last year. I was on a roll and got a little to cocky. :(
 
You can't really expect to pull more than 30-100% out of the market in a year on your buying power day trading year in and year out. So in my opinion you are wasting your time if you are trading less than 250k. 100k buying power is certainly unacceptable. If you don't have this much money you need to go to a professional firm and get some professional leverage.

The thing is if you are profitable trading 100k buying power you will be profitable trading 1 million. So why not make 10 times as much money. So go to a prop firm. Most liquidity bottlenecks aren't hit until you are talking greater than 1 million buying power.

I'm up about 17% on my buying power this year. In 2002 I was up perhaps 50%. Last year I was up maybe 4%. This is on three to 6 million in buying power. My life would be much different had i tried to use my own money back in 2002. 50% return on 4 million is much better than 50% return on 25k.
 
Quote from Dominic:

The stock still haunts me: PGTV!!! I had 3K shares and didn't apply discipline to the trade. Take a look at the chart over the last year. I was on a roll and got a little to cocky. :(
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Wow, that's painful; really. Probably doesn't make you feel any better, but you're to be admired for relating your indiscretion. I don't feel as bad about the two-thousand dollar loss I had several years ago, now.
 
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