What kind of returns are possible?

What's the highest practical long-run compound annual return, keeping drawdowns <20%?

  • 10% - you can't beat stocks

    Votes: 4 5.3%
  • 10-20%

    Votes: 9 12.0%
  • 20-30%

    Votes: 14 18.7%
  • 30-40%

    Votes: 7 9.3%
  • 40-50%

    Votes: 4 5.3%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 1 1.3%
  • 100%+

    Votes: 36 48.0%

  • Total voters
    75
Cutten, would you reveal what's the point of this, or you'd rather wait for some more opinions :confused: I really miss to see the point of this question, unless you are setting up your pension plan or something :) Or is it just a theoretical question...
 
So very true Cutten.

As my account size has increased, I have deliberately reduced the amount of risk I take.

Although it's quite obvious, most people forget that it's much harder to make $100,000 profit when starting with $25,000, than it is to make that some profit when starting with $2.5 million.

(Assuming inflation below 10%), If I had $1 billion, I probably wouldn't be too concerned about making 100% per year for the next 10 years, in order to reach $1 trillion. A return of 1% (government bonds and/or government insured bank accounts anyone?) would provide an income of $10 million.


Quote from Cutten:

I notice almost half the votes are for 100%+. If you can compound at a 'mere' 100%, that would take a 1 million account to 1 billion in 10 years, and 1 trillion in 20. A tad optimistic!
 
Quote from Cutten:
(on whether profits are periodically withdrawn)
Keeps going. Otherwise, it's not compound returns.

Technically, this is untrue. All of the funds still in the account are compounding as before. The original account value needs to be adjusted downward in the manner of a Present Value/Future Value calculation to reflect the periodic disposition of funds.
 
Quote from neutrino:

Cutten, would you reveal what's the point of this, or you'd rather wait for some more opinions :confused: I really miss to see the point of this question, unless you are setting up your pension plan or something :) Or is it just a theoretical question...

To find out what people's return expectations are.
 
Quote from Cutten:

So I am talking about someone making say 30% and growing 1 mill to 190 mill over 20 years by compounding the return each year.

What are our scalability assumptions?
 
Quote from Cutten:

To find out what people's return expectations are.
I see :)

I really wonder if the people who voted "100%+" know even one investor/speculator who has achieved such spectacular risk adjusted returns. I don't think that there is such person. In fact I don't think that any person has ever achieved to increase his capital 1,000,000 times from speculation or investment for a period of 20 years, regardless of drawdown. I am sure that even in private equity there is no one with such record.
 
Quote from Cutten:

Assuming a reasonable size account (7 figures), what are the maximum feasible compound returns possible over a 10-20 year period through trading, whilst keeping drawdowns below 20%?

This just reminds me of an expected growth in equity I drew up long ago (when still unprofitable!). The expected annual return is dependent on capital under management. Here is something similar to what I drew up. At the end it should be asymptotic to expected natural growth in world asset prices /inflation (which I pinned at 3%)

Code:
Under Management	Expected Return(%)

10,000				912
100,000				458
1,000,000			231
10,000,000			117
100,000,000			60
1,000,000,000			32
10,000,000,000			17
100,000,000,000			10
1,000,000,000,000		7
10,000,000,000,000		5
 
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