Is it possible to net $100K a year

Oh my god, leave the poor guy alone.

WTF yo it's like you guys are having orgasms over lecturing and criticising this guys loss. I'm pretty sure he stated the loss situation and fully acknowledged his mistake in letting his ego take control and not exercising discipline. Take a look at a daily, PGTV dropped almost 20 points in one day. Apparently if you held it a few more months you would have made some money.

Man that stock used to be over 700.
 
If you look at larger time frames (daily chart) to keep perspective on general direction. Then daytrade the pull backs with small size using patience and flexibility trying not to take a stop except in extreme situations when Time has failed you. Trading small is the key.

IMO people focus to greatly on stops because they are in too large.. HOlding a good stock for a few days or weeks to gain a profit rather than taking a loss will demonstrate the power of longer time frames and how to use them to spot day trade set ups. just my opinion and part of my style
 
Everybody has some big losses imo. If you learn from them they are not a loss and you will someday make more than that back with knowledge to boot.

You can stop your self to death just as easy as taking one big hit. I normally make my 1st entry small., holding open the option to add large for a quick scalp to even things up if needs be. I don't stay large though. and I keep an ultimate stop. I rarely , rarely take a stop. 20 -1 is my average or better. But to acheive that i sometimes make multiple entries of varied size.
Not recomending my style to anyone, but I make money, bottom line.
 
Dominic

For trading that I am familiar with, you don't have enough capital to make 100K per year.

I trade for the first 30-60 minutes of the market, then go to work.(Westcoast) My results are 1% on capital per day. Thats capital, not buying power. I also have 2 days per month where I lose a total of 5%. That means 18 days @ 1% minus 2 days at -2.5% for a net monthly return of 13%. This last year I have been doing better, but I think this is a fair rate of return for several of my trading friends as well as myself.

I personally find if I trade all day, I usually make less than if I trade only in the first hour.

Anyway from my personal experience, I'm saying you need about 80K of capital with the ability to use 320K of buying power when needed.

I'm not sure why these dipsticks would berate you for losing 65K. You made a series of errors, but I've lost lots more than that, like the time I figured NT was at the bottom when it dropped to $20. Its part of your learning experience. Keep trying, I havn't had a losing week in over 2 years, and in years prior I have lost staggering amounts of money. Made it all back and plenty to boot. You can beat that loss.

If you want more specific info, you can PM me.

Best of luck.
Peter
 
I actually started this thread asking about others P&L (Is 100K possible with $100K BP per year) and have been beat down over a $65K loss on one stock that I included in the post. So many have been quick to judge and point the finger without knowing all the facts on the trade, even though that wasn't even the main question, just a remark.

I had 3K of PGTV and was holding overnight. News came out pre market (40 per share) and the stock dropped close to 20 points in 1 day. Only 3.5 million shares and 60% short float. Needless to say I, among many other longs got taken too the cleaners.

I'm the only one to blame on that trade. For the record, before that trade I was averaging $13K-$15K per month off of 100K BP. I was getting too cocky and got set straight. The reason I mentioned that trade was to try and gain some wisdom from other traders on how to get back in the saddle after having a large loss like that (for me it was terrible with my account balance). Needless to say majority of posts that I received have had zero insight and depth. Oh well, I'm a much better trader from that trade, 34 with 4 years fulltime trading, and believe that TIME AND CHANCE HAPPEN TO ALL.
 
Just so someone can give you a response to the original question, I have averaged over $200k/year the last 5 years, and have traded nasdaq almost exclusively (hate the specialist system). And rarely do I ever use over $150k of buying power. I trade at a prop firm and at times may have $200-250k being used, but it more likely will be $50-100k. So it can be done, as long as you have access to the bp, which may prove difficult in a retail account if you are losing.. Just remember small winners (not scalping though, for me at least) add up... Hope you can pull it off.
 
Quote from Dominic:

I'm the only one to blame on that trade. For the record, before that trade I was averaging $13K-$15K per month off of 100K BP. I was getting too cocky and got set straight.
More...

no, you were trading with a very volatile approach. what many others here are saying is that this isn't how you trade for a career. its kind of like comparing a skilled north sea fisherman who has to do it right, every day, every second, or he knows he better go do something else -- to a deep-sea fishing tourist. the tourist basically can go for the homerun because its really not that important...he just is out there for a different reason.

there isn't some secret way of increasing your reward/risk ratio in the markets. for the most part, its very linear. this is what most (including i) believe when they are new traders.

approach the markets statistically, and you will see how to prevent such things. but you will also see what that prevention does to your expectations. one of the markets that my system is trading had a huge (30%) loss just a few weeks ago, but the overall system hardly (i did though!) noticed.

good luck and hopefully you will change your ways.....:D
 
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