My goal is to make at least 30% per month

[Visaria]

Very good! Go for it. Try to treat the real account as if it were the simulator acct.

My goal is to make at least 30% profit per month.
I started this adventure 2016-07-05 with an IB Paper Account that is funded with $1 million USD.
It uses realtime data, and is very realistic. The orders sent thru that account go somehow directly to the orderbook (!).
I don't know how the IB folks have done it, but it's very realistic; kudos to the IB team!

I'm trading primarily options, mostly short spreads. And timeframe is just 1 to 3 weeks.

In the following postings I'll post all my trades so far.

I have still a week to go for finishing the 1st month.
I've not yet achieved my set monthly goal, but I'm hopefully that before the month ends I'll be over the 30%.

Besides TWS and API, I'm also using some additional programs of mine for analysis etc.

I'm using only limit orders.

Wish me luck!

 

[gkishot]

There is nothing wrong with my maths.
Just take a look at the account. If I don't do any trades next week and the currently open short positions expire worthless on Friday then I'll have made 26.8% profit.
But since there is still a week to go, I'm sure I can fill the gap by doing some new trades next week...

Regarding your annual perpective of 50 to 100%: let's take the middle value of it, 75%. That means about 4.77% profit per month compounded. That's for me peanuts. I can make more than that in only a week...

ok, what security do you trade & how many contracts?

 

[1245]

My goal is to make at least 30% profit per month.
I started this adventure 2016-07-05 with an IB Paper Account that is funded with $1 million USD.
It uses realtime data, and is very realistic. The orders sent thru that account go somehow directly to the orderbook (!).
I don't know how the IB folks have done it, but it's very realistic; kudos to the IB team!

I'm trading primarily options, mostly short spreads. And timeframe is just 1 to 3 weeks.

In the following postings I'll post all my trades so far.

I have still a week to go for finishing the 1st month.
I've not yet achieved my set monthly goal, but I'm hopefully that before the month ends I'll be over the 30%.

Besides TWS and API, I'm also using some additional programs of mine for analysis etc.

I'm using only limit orders.

Wish me luck!

I have traded options for over 30 years. You can't get a realistic P/L from what I expect are midpoint executions in a paper trading account. 30%/month is not a realistic goal for you. I guess you will find that out soon. The option market does not provide that type of Vig for even a professional MM. If you can get 30%/year on a $1mm account, net of all expenses in a retail account, that would put you in the top 5% of all traders today.

Good luck....time for real trading.

 

[marsman]

ok, what security do you trade & how many contracts?

At this time I won't disclose the instruments I trade, because finding them is part of my edge.
I can post them only some weeks later.
I trade mainly equity options, primarily weeklys (there are about 500 underlyings of them, and once in a month, ie. a week long, about 4000).

Regarding number of contracts: there is not a limit (I think the highest was about 180 contracts, but accumulated by multiple trades over multiple days); I just try to use many strikes if it makes sense....

 

[marsman]

@1245 Yes exactly, that action serves as preparation and as training for real trading, for gaining confidence etc.
It is scalable to a smaller account size.

Regarding mid-point fills: you are right, it of course doesn't work all the time, but in about 1/3 of the cases one gets a fill. I'm nerving the MM by "frontrunning"...
It's like a sport and fun for me to beat the MM (pun intended )

 

[gkishot]

and once in a month, ie. a week long, about 4000).

What does that mean?

 

[1245]

BTW, if you can make 30% to 50% in real trading per year, you will be able to raise many millions from investors as long as your draw downs are appropriate for that P&L. I've raised money for portfolio managers with 12% returns net of all fees.

 

[gkishot]

BTW, if you can make 30% to 50% in real trading per year, you will be able to raise many millions from investors as long as your draw downs are appropriate for that P&L.

Is that your experience, you were able to raise millions from investors? I think it takes more than just your great performance.

 

[1245]

Is that your experience, you were able to raise millions from investors? I think it takes more than just your great performance.

Correct, but it all starts with performance. Without performance they don't look at your strategy, your team, your background or your potential. And, it's not just real performance but risk-adjusted performance. The last manager I raise money for, the investor wanted to see daily P&L so they could run their own risk metrics.

 

[gkishot]

Correct, but it all starts with performance. Without performance they don't look at your strategy, your team, your background or your potential. And, it's not just real performance but risk-adjusted performance. The last manager I raise money for, the investor wanted to see daily P&L so they could run their own risk metrics.

I can give them my daily pnl. Is there any way for you to help me find investors?