Michael
That's a good question as I hadn´t thought of it in that viewpoint.
Since my plan was to start with $5000 and kind of feel my way along and keep adding in $5000 increments assuming I am winning, then would probably go up to $100,000. Whether that would happen in one or two years I don´t know.
It would all depend on the account balance improvement. Say add every 50% gain or something.
Nobody is telling how they are doing, which I find disconcerting, so assume they are losing?
It´s alright to be braggadocious on here and other forums with technical advice. The bottom line is how are you doing with your account balance?
My little weekend puzzle on how to decide to trade, highlights that. My impression is that the professionals on here with lots of jargon, expertise and references to millions of dollars they are managing, or trading in other peoples money, are more likely losing money. I notice ROSS I think his name is on the web who has been trading for more than 40 years that I know about, admits in his returns that in many years he hardly makes 3%. At least he is honest, but heck the guy is sharp and knows stuff backwards, forwards and sideways.
So expertise is not the answer. Ross writes books, I read some of them decades ago. Still use one of his tricks. He also sells advice, but apparently cannot follow it himself. There are hundreds like that.
My rather simplistic amateurish outsider observations feel they are simply gamblng, having fun, and trading is an addiction. My studies show that if you can only trade reasonably sure thing setups, few and far between, even say 2 to 6 times a year, you will make a whole lot more money. Whether I can do that myself is another story, as I´m in it for the fun and challenge. My wife is quite right to keep me low budget for now. Overtrading is the bane of many professionals. That word bane sounds good, don´t know what it means?
The thing is the bottom line. I believe you should do between 60% and 200% a year trading options. Apparently the Market Wizards cannot do that. Yet they know a lot and very expert. So what is the problem? TJ says it is quantifying RISK. I think it is avoiding any trade that is not a sure thing, or very high in probabilities of winning. It´s no fun trading like that though. Who would trade 3 trades a year deliberately? Weeeeell! I have a friend who does that and made 84% last year. Meaning he built his vacation house here in the Belize Alps with his money.
I'm deliberating that problem myself right now. How and what will I trade? What is my goal? Well my goal is about $120,000 a year, but I'm obviously not going to make that with $5000. I´m still puzzling, if anybody has an answer I'd like to hear it.
In the meantime, I think I´m going to research some commodities that go up and down 20% each year. Not to trade commodities but to do LEAP options maybe?
