My goal is to make at least 30% per month
- Thread starter marsman
- Start date
- Status
That sentence was all I needed to read.
This book will help you enormously, both with setting realistic targets and with understanding why they're realistic: Profitability & Systematic Trading, by Michael Harris (publ. Wiley, 2007).
But only if you're willing to read it.
It might also help you to think about why the top professionals in this industry (the ones with a couple of math degrees from Cambridge or Harvard, all the high-powered professional trading, the 10,000+ hours of screen-time, and a risk-manager standing over their shoulder) are generally aiming to average out at something like 6-7% per month over the year, to earn their 7-figure year-end bonuses. And perhaps to think about why your target is five times the size of theirs. Yes, I know it's not a completely accurate analogy because you're a retail trader and they're not, but it illustrates the point I'm trying to make about your current perceptions, beliefs and attitudes. Take it how you wish, but I intend it helpfully.
As we all know, short trading means limited profit and unlimited risk.
And long trading means unlimited profit and limited risk.
I've so far done not a single long trade in this acct...
Meaning: if I were specialised on long trading then I could probably make even much more.
But no, my current method is more than enough for me...
And long trading means unlimited profit and limited risk.
I've so far done not a single long trade in this acct...
Meaning: if I were specialised on long trading then I could probably make even much more.
But no, my current method is more than enough for me...
Last edited:
I look fwd to reading about your incredible success in the papers very soon...
Some stats:
made about 584 trades in the last 3 weeks. Commission was $3278, meaning there were about 3000 contracts traded...
I'll trade even more contracts to get the next cheaper commission structure...
No, that's just a silly joke...
Have you ever traded equity option with real money?
Why 1 million dollars paper account ?
Lets pretend you really only have 30k in your real money account. Wouldn't it be "realistic" to paper trade only with 30k ?
Sure, I lost about 10k with long options, and then made a pause of more than a year to study the options field throughly.
Now I'm coming back, this time specialised on short trading...
I can also claim that I'm a quant, although I learned everything myself without any mentor or attending any courses, but of course with the help of some literature and the internet.
I'm good in maths/statistics/probability and of course programming (C++).
I'm a Linux guy, working much in the console as opposed to GUI... Ie. I'm more a low-level guy...
Of course in the past I've also worked many years under Window environment. But the last Windows OS I have installed here is XP (installed inside VirtualBox in Linux).
Last edited:
I do believe it is possible to make 30%/month or more. But that said i also think it is extremely hard to do so because of the human mindset.
If one can make 6-7% per month he could also make 30% per month, the only thing is the drawdowns will be much more difficult to handle mentally and that is where traders fuck up.
With a 1M account a drawdown of 30% or 300K will be much more difficult to handle and recover than a drawdown of 4-5%.
Also, why would you want to take so much risk with a 1M account ... 5% per month would make you more than enough to live off.
I think that there are plenty of traders out there making 30%/month or more, but i also believe those traders have much and much more money left in their bank account, so if he deposits 10% of his total cash amount he isn't really making 30% but only 3%, very different than a trader who has his live savings in a brokerage account and tries to aim for 30% return.
Professional traders aim for lower returns because of their clients not accepting more risk.
If they wanted they could also take more risk and possibly more reward, but of course with the risk of more downside as well.
If one can make 6-7% per month he could also make 30% per month, the only thing is the drawdowns will be much more difficult to handle mentally and that is where traders fuck up.
With a 1M account a drawdown of 30% or 300K will be much more difficult to handle and recover than a drawdown of 4-5%.
Also, why would you want to take so much risk with a 1M account ... 5% per month would make you more than enough to live off.
I think that there are plenty of traders out there making 30%/month or more, but i also believe those traders have much and much more money left in their bank account, so if he deposits 10% of his total cash amount he isn't really making 30% but only 3%, very different than a trader who has his live savings in a brokerage account and tries to aim for 30% return.
Professional traders aim for lower returns because of their clients not accepting more risk.
If they wanted they could also take more risk and possibly more reward, but of course with the risk of more downside as well.
Last edited:
Hmm. I can't confirm that. The way I now trade is the most comfortable I ever had in the past.
Because: I'm no more doing any daytrading, I just concentrate myself on the expiration Friday.
And: short options are "Like Ice in the Sunshine"...
Ie. time is your friend: you profit even if the underlying doesn't make any move...
Say you are in the negatives, then just wait some hours and you will see a better result.
Of course it's not that simple, I'm also doing some scale-in, ie. averaging...
Regarding the motive: just taking the max possible that is easily doable, ie. a kind of optimization.
If a position of mine is say 10% in the negatives then I don't close it, I rather make use of the time decay, and increase the position even more to come nearer to the center line...
But that's me... Like every trader I have my own risk and comfort level...
Of course in reality it's not that simple, one has to use some hedging...
Last edited:
- Status