Originally posted by Rigel
"But for the average trader who trades 400 shares at a time x 100 trades per day..."
I can't imagine trading like that. The commissions would eat me alive, bones and all. Trading like that reminds me of a gambler sitting in front of a slot all day pulling a handle and watching their pile of quarters slowly disapear. Exciting but not profitable. I usually take a maximum of 4 or 5 trades a day and sometimes will go several days without taking a single one if I don't spot an opportunity. Why trade for no reason?
I think the idea of those traders who go 100 trades a day is that they are not concerned with commission and they see a hundred opportunities a day. For instance, you can be a retail trader, and make a few good trades one day, make a few thousand and pay up less than 50 bux or so in commission, but you are taking significantly less shots. Your profit to commission ratio will look nice, but prop/and professional traders rather give up commission so as to have greater coverage and higher net at the end of the day.
I've seen prop trader's P&L's where they pay up to $5,000 in commission in one day, but net $30,000 after. The idea is, if I can make 20g's paying up $5,000 I don't care if it is $5,000. What's more important to them is the bottom line. Same applies to the guy making $20,000 net, but end up paying $10,000 in commission.
These guys will be like, "If I make $50,000 and I had to pay $20,000 in commission, i don't give a f*&k"
Also, in prop and professional trading, multiple positions like this can actually serve as a hedge, and is often used to defense against a single catastrophic loss.
Now, there's the idea, that to make size, you must go size.
One can make $20,000 net retail trading, trading a few times a day and make it on say, $50 commission.. but that would assume that you would have to buy/sell one or two stocks, 10,000 shares each and hope for a one or two point swing. If you're daytrading like this in a retail sense, the risk to reward would be enormous. Tho in Swing trading, I think you'd have some more success as I've seen some people do it.
Point is, alot of successful professional traders simply don't give a hoot about commissions. To them, it's just a vehicle or rather a requirement to get to their millions.
stone roses