:eek:
Seriously can a moderator put this into the elitetrader hall of fame. You actually think there is an inverse relationship in return % relative in difficulty to account size?
Leverage? Haha you're talking to the wrong guy, i've received quite the accolades for having 'big balls' in terms of large positions sizes relative to my account and the subsequent equity swings. I have 10% daily equity swings in my account all the time, but I keep positions on overnight all the time and in many cases some very large positions spread across many stocks. I started this year at 20K in my account and have compounded it up to over 200K, my profit on the year is about 260K NET (factoring all expenses) but i'm made periodic withdrawals for living expenses, debt, ect. So if i didn't make any withdrawals my gain on the year would be around 1300% YTD (of course this varies).
When i first started trading this account and style back in late 06 I had less than 10K and i very gradually built it up to 20K...I always was leveraged overnight, anywhere from 12-30 times. Nowadays because i trade fewer instruments and my size is already pretty big for my account (not that long ago i held 15/10K in a pair, in otherwords i was long 15K shares of a stock and short 10K overnight) my leverage is closer to the 6-15 times leverage on overnight. Since i can get up to 6 times hedged for free (not paying any haircut) i like to always hold some positions...i'm not saying i'm a trading superstar, there is a shitload i need to work on and i've also made a good number of mistakes. I've been trading full-time for about 4 years now and part-time on the side for about 1.
My goal is 500K next year and 1 mill the year after that...even if i achieved those goals I still wouldn't be looking at taking on clients because there are several aspects of my trading i need ironed out and i think it still isn't a long enough track record. I'm only now starting to gradually learn other styles but little techniques that are kinda subsidiaries that complement what i'm already doing...i'm also looking at doing some options, but that would be just something small and light on the side - there's no way in hell i could manage to learn a completely different instrument (e.g. futures) and maintain the edge i currently have trading pairs; my focus would be too diluted. If you really think you got this 'all figured out' after a couple of months you're about to get your head handed to you on a plate.