Stanford
I have known traders doing 125% to 200% regularly. Only a few sure. They use the money earned to pay the bills and live on. So you don´t get ahead that way. It is sort of a small business with a nest egg capital, that you churn.
Before this gets out of hand, it is not possible to trade options I don´t think, to get in the hundreds of millions of dollars from a small start in a short time. The average trader is making less than a $100,000 a year.
Most make and lose. I got up to a million trading stocks twice and lost it again. That was decades ago.
I´d say GREED and OVERTRADING are the culprits from my experiences with stocks.
Fast forward to my new venture into options, after a decade and a half out of the market, then there is going to be a limit to what one can earn on an annual basis. Perhaps I´m wrong? I´m going on the theory based a bit on past experiences when a much younger man, that fewer trades are better. Selecting trades carefully the prime consideration. TJ explains it as to RISK quantification.
The philosphy is the easy part. The DOING it the harder part. Lots of articles on pyschology and emotions, letting profits run, close stops and so forth. Doesn´t help you though in real money trading. There is a euphoria feel when you start winning regularly and you quickly lose it all again. Your head swells and you feel like your feces doesn´t stink.
Can you make a $100,000 trading options. I think so, on a regular basis. Getting there psyched up and set up to do it on a mechanical basis, is the SOMETHING ELSE. Lots of people can talk the game, but few can play the game. You dont find GOLD MEDAL OLYMPIC WINNERS on every village soccer field, or College track field either.
Am I, or you going to turn $5000 into a hundred million dollars? I doubt that VERY MUCH. Can you beat the returns on BANK C.D. interest rates? You betcha!
Lets say there is a situation TWICE a YEAR, in which you can do better than 100% in options. Happens EVERY YEAR. Can you have the strength of WILL and CHARACTER to trade ONLY those TWO TIMES and leave the market alone in between? For most people that is impossible.