To make a living you need at least 300k in your account?

mksummny · Oct 24, 2008

corey, we dont believe you. your canadian and my mom and dad taught me to never trust anyone who says, eh' while guzzling beer and watching hockey.

CasperCRF · Oct 24, 2008

This guy posted his results from when he started. He didn't mention what his starting amount was but i don't think it was that much.

http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&postid=1135766#post1135766

increasenow · Oct 25, 2008

Quote from Bigpipn:

I've taken $1K to over $20k 4 times. This is the 4th time and I'm up over $50k after taking a $10k DD this week on a stupid mistake (GBP/USD short straddle).

I will have this account over $100k by the end of November.

Hey Bigpipn...WOW!!...can you break it down a little on how you took $1k to over $20k 4 times...what did you trade?how long did it take you?how many trades per day?you must have increased your contracts traded on the way up to $20k?....also, what does it mean to "taking a $10k DD this week"?...do not know what DD is

Tide31 · Oct 25, 2008

I don't need to see Lescor's #'s, mine are simliar. With 50 (as much as 75) to 1 leverage u don't need to put down a lot. They have to keep it for 1 year anyway according to some day trader/SEC rules or something. Lost the 1st $10k put dn $15k more and have made fortune off it. Leverage can be great, but it can also be like giving liquor to the Indians. make 200, then risk 50. Get it up to 2000 then risk 500, so on and so on . . .

antincedo · Oct 26, 2008

the threads on here suck lately but i wanna say..

just take those little losses, gotta take those little losses.. thats what you do

just take those little losses, gotta take those little losses... thats what you do

thats how you make money

eat those little losses like happy meals! hmmm, little cheeseburgers mcnuggets all that

milktruck · Oct 26, 2008

Quote from antincedo:

the threads on here suck lately but i wanna say..

just take those little losses, gotta take those little losses.. thats what you do

just take those little losses, gotta take those little losses... thats what you do

thats how you make money

eat those little losses like happy meals! hmmm, little cheeseburgers mcnuggets all that

Haha thats a really great reframe of taking losses. I want to take a small loss right now reading it.

antincedo · Oct 26, 2008

ah yes.. it didnt dawn on me that i was reframing the loss till you said that. but yeah, i guess its necessary to success, taking the bad and making it look good. been doing it all my life, comes naturally at this point.

gotta take those little losses! take em take em little losses!

trackstar · Oct 26, 2008

Quote from increasenow:

Hey Bigpipn...WOW!!...can you break it down a little on how you took $1k to over $20k 4 times...what did you trade?how long did it take you?how many trades per day?you must have increased your contracts traded on the way up to $20k?....also, what does it mean to "taking a $10k DD this week"?...do not know what DD is

draw down...

crgarcia · Oct 27, 2008

Quote from bwolinsky:

This whole thread is a repeat of all threads starting with "How Much do you Need to make?" or "How Much do you make per day"? or any other thing that brings on all manner of bullshit claims.

Anyway. I think a buffet style 20% per year is a very respectable goal. All you got to do is keep it going for 40 years, though.

I doubt any of the day traders claiming 200% or 450% in a day can keep that going over 40 years. A blowup is going to happen with near 99.9% certainty for people attempting to trade like that.

Excellent post.

Even if it's 200-450% per year, they can't keep it for 40 years.

This performances only happen during very specific (and temporary) market conditions.

And taking a lot of risk.
And yeah, those who attempt those performances end up blowing-up accounts.

JScott · Oct 27, 2008

Quote from lpchad:

Lescor - statements or method for us to audit, please.

Thanks,

ET Community

I have no doubt Lescor does well (and I think he's on record plenty) because he has the two essential ingredients:

1) successful strategy
2) stomach for handling losses and wins (emotional requirement applies to both sides)

Don't know specifically, but if he's 'pair trading', then he can have a million dollars "in use" - maybe 10, 20, 30x his initial account. So, this is relatively low risk for the amount of money in his positions if he's both long and short. But, his strategy on the pair could yield very good returns - ie, his strategy is successful.

A successful daytrader could make 20% return in a year on an account (ie, make $20k on $100k) or he/she could easily double it over a year's time. Anything beyond 100% return dollar for dollar is left for the rarest of rare (imo). 100% return per annum in daytrading is not comparable in the least to 100% return on say, a mutual fund or your 401k. It's an apples/oranges comparison.

So, how much you start with is immaterial if you have those two essential ingredients. It's just that most people need more money to 1)find a successful strategy and 2)minimize the emotional factor. But, if you have a great strategy and can handle it emotionally, then it shouldn't be much different trading on full allowable leverage (eg, ~$3k per index futures contract) vs a "more conservative" ratio (eg, $10k per index futures contract).

It's just that reality doesn't play out like this all that often for most of us (which is why Lescor mentioned that scaling up is much harder than most people think), so the more money starting out the better.