Is it easy to gain 1% profit every day for professional trader?

Hello,
I know it is not apropriate question since its none of my buisness to know "how much do you make etc" since everyone is different but I wonder is it normal avarage to gain at least 1% profit for every day of trading? I mean is it easily achivable for profesional trader who manage his risk properly and follow general rules of trading ?
I am not asking personally about YOUR daily profit but what you think is average, taking from your trading expirience etc.
If YES to above question would I be right by saying that I am not doing enough in terms of learning, or I am doing something wrong if I can't get that 1%? Or is that % increasing along with experience? Or I am not bright enough to do trading at all?
And how is your daily profit look like; is it steady rise or sort of "I have lost yesterday 2% but I got 4% today instead..wohoooo" up's and down's?
Thanks for sharing.

ipoppy said:

Hello,
I know it is not apropriate question since its none of my buisness to know "how much do you make etc" since everyone is different but I wonder is it normal avarage to gain at least 1% profit for every day of trading? I mean is it easily achivable for profesional trader who manage his risk properly and follow general rules of trading ?

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Hi ipoppy,
If you are to trading what Roger Federer is to tennis or Jensen Button is to F1, then it's probably fairly easy. For everyone else, what can I say - it's less easy and not very common! If you're new to trading, think small - think very small. Dr. Alexander Elder in his book 'Welcome to my Trading Room' advises a goal of breaking even in your first year. Trust me when I say that if you achieve this, you're doing better than most newbies. Year two, aim to equal or better the return you'd get from a basic bank or building society deposit account. Year three, aim for a multiple of two times (or more) the bank / BS rate. Apologies if that's not the answer you wanted or expected, but it's probably more realistic than thinking in terms of 1% per day. Of course it can be done and, doubtless, there will be those who will claim to make much more than this having only been trading a few months!

Tim.

ipoppy said:

Hello,
I know it is not apropriate question since its none of my buisness to know "how much do you make etc" since everyone is different but I wonder is it normal avarage to gain at least 1% profit for every day of trading? I mean is it easily achivable for profesional trader who manage his risk properly and follow general rules of trading ?

Click to expand...

No

don't think like this, think about how much NOT to lose....I have doubled small accounts easily then been wiped out the next week ! you need to stay in the game long term

timsk said:

Hi ipoppy,
If you are to trading what Roger Federer is to tennis or Jensen Button is to F1, then it's probably fairly easy. For everyone else, what can I say - it's less easy and not very common! If you're new to trading, think small - think very small. Dr. Alexander Elder in his book 'Welcome to my Trading Room' advises a goal of breaking even in your first year. Trust me when I say that if you achieve this, you're doing better than most newbies. Year two, aim to equal or better the return you'd get from a basic bank or building society deposit account. Year three, aim for a multiple of two times (or more) the bank / BS rate. Apologies if that's not the answer you wanted or expected, but it's probably more realistic than thinking in terms of 1% per day. Of course it can be done and, doubtless, there will be those who will claim to make much more than this having only been trading a few months!

Tim.

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Tim,
Thanks for replay.
I think small, very small as you put it and I am not in a hurry to trade for living. I got really good income for what I do and I have plenty of free time to learn how to trade. My capital to trade could be over £100 000 so there in no problem in that department neither. The reason I want to day trade is because I hate my job and people in it . Well...I guess thats why most of the people here joined this forum Anyway thats another story to tell.
All I wanted to know is what to expect in terms of returns for beginner and that what you said is very realistic for me and no, it didn't put me off from learning. I guess I got nothing to loose at this stage anyway. But yes...I am very committed to it.

ipoppy, find another job. & then demo trade until you can prove to yourself you can do it.

advfntrader said:

don't think like this, think about how much NOT to lose....I have doubled small accounts easily then been wiped out the next week ! you need to stay in the game long term

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Of course you are right and that is the stage which I am on now with my paper trading, but you need something to keep you going...like some small steady profits after a while :cheesy:

advfntrader said:

ipoppy, find another job. & then demo trade until you can prove to yourself you can do it.

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Adf, Its more to it really. I can't change my job because is really specific etc. I want day trade to being able to relocate and be my own boss. Money comes third here but of course I need to support my standard of living...and no I am not greedy.

ipoppy said:

Hello,
I know it is not apropriate question since its none of my buisness to know "how much do you make etc" since everyone is different but I wonder is it normal avarage to gain at least 1% profit for every day of trading? I mean is it easily achivable for profesional trader who manage his risk properly and follow general rules of trading ?
I am not asking personally about YOUR daily profit but what you think is average, taking from your trading expirience etc.
If YES to above question would I be right by saying that I am not doing enough in terms of learning, or I am doing something wrong if I can't get that 1%? Or is that % increasing along with experience? Or I am not bright enough to do trading at all?
And how is your daily profit look like; is it steady rise or sort of "I have lost yesterday 2% but I got 4% today instead..wohoooo" up's and down's?
Thanks for sharing.

Click to expand...

forget about risk/money management.. find wheres your 'edge' is more important. sure there are people can do 1% every day, but personally i think this is wrong mentality, dont ever think trading as fixed income, its a business. in my opinion professional is the one might have drawdown some days, like continuous drawdown for entire week, but next week 1 trade might cover it all back.

I hope you have most of that £100 000 safely invested in risk-free places.

If and when you start trading for real money, take a very small proportion of your capital (say no more than £1000 - some would say less), trade small stakes, and see if you can make it grow; don't worry about percentages. Demo trade by all means as well, but it is not the same as trading real money, even small stakes.

There may come a time when you are ready to draw on a larger amount of that capital, but it will almost certainly be at a much later stage in your development. For now don't even dream about it.

ipoppy said:

Hello,
I know it is not apropriate question since its none of my buisness to know "how much do you make etc" since everyone is different but I wonder is it normal avarage to gain at least 1% profit for every day of trading? I mean is it easily achivable for profesional trader who manage his risk properly and follow general rules of trading ?
I am not asking personally about YOUR daily profit but what you think is average, taking from your trading expirience etc.
If YES to above question would I be right by saying that I am not doing enough in terms of learning, or I am doing something wrong if I can't get that 1%? Or is that % increasing along with experience? Or I am not bright enough to do trading at all?
And how is your daily profit look like; is it steady rise or sort of "I have lost yesterday 2% but I got 4% today instead..wohoooo" up's and down's?
Thanks for sharing.

Click to expand...

I disagree with timsk, aiming low means achieving low.

Aim high, 1 percent per day is possible for a skilled trader that has a large edge over most others, but its not too common. It also depends on the size of the account, and the risk taken. Gains are only relative to risk and this is the important point to note. Aim big while keeping risk small. Once you are getting results which are big then you can take more risk, but the key to staying in the game to get to this point is minimising risk.

The end.

No, not 'easily' achievable at all. Also if this is your eventual aim, you could consider how much you are risking to make that 1%. Making 1% a day risking 0.2% per trade is quite phenomenal, but if you're risking 5% per trade and coming out with 1% per day, that's not quite as impressive.

Also I agree with Rossini. Aim for mediocrity and you might achieve it, as they say. Nothing wrong with aiming for 1% a day. Just don't expect it to come easily.

everyonerich said:

forget about risk/money management.

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Hi everyonerich,
I do hope you suffered from fat finger syndrome when typing your post and it meant to kick off with a big bold Don't at the start? If, by chance, it's deliberate, then it's worth pointing out to the OP that your view is extremely controversial and, if taken literally, is potentially deadly to his P&L.

Tim.

Rossini said:

I disagree with timsk, aiming low means achieving low.

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Fair point Ross.
I guess I'm a 'my glass is half empty' kind of guy! I'd rather start small and build on my successes than aim high and fail. Horses for courses I suppose.
Tim.

I would like to completely echo Timsk in his earlier post.

Don't worry about 1% per day, the first thing to do is not get wiped out.

My approach, was to find a teacher and work with him to learn. I can't stress how difficult this business is and on your own, you will really find it difficult.

Wisdom behind looking for a teacher, is analogous to learning how to run a business after completing your mba. A simpler comparison could be for those who have studied martial arts, would you try and enter a professional fight after a training course or a few lessons ?

Hopefully, the answer is no - and you realise that to learn either of the above you need to work with a teacher.

Ofcourse, there are some that make it on their own - with no help required. These are the very few though.

Best of luck,

timsk said:

Fair point Ross.
I guess I'm a 'my glass is half empty' kind of guy! I'd rather start small and build on my successes than aim high and fail. Horses for courses I suppose.
Tim.

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timsk said:

Fair point Ross.
I guess I'm a 'my glass is half empty' kind of guy! I'd rather start small and build on my successes than aim high and fail. Horses for courses I suppose.
Tim.

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I can see where your coming from but I think that approach is categorically wrong.

I would always argue that if 'your' aim is too low, even if you just fall short from your goals you are bound to fail. In other words, if the margin between your goal and failure is too small then any shortfall will inevitably lead to failure.

However, if you aim high and you don't quite achieve your ambition you may very well be left with something worth while.

i think you should open an account right away and start trading ............the sooner you start making mistakes the sooner you will learn !
and your first goal should be to double your account .......second goal double it again .

what you're doing is thinking how much money you could make, and then build false hope, compounding calculators, turning £5 into millions, the lot .

stop asking questions like these and focus on setups

Unfortunately for what its worth I would say no. I'm sure there will be some that disagree with my point of view and will talk of greater returns but the key here is consistency. Is it possible to consistently turn 1 % daily and continue that for the duration of your trading career.

To put it in context think about the rate of growth that your account would experience. 1% compounded over just 365 days assuming that all profits are retained within the account would lead an account of £10,000 to be worth £377,834 in just one year! I'm sure that there will be those in the world that can claim to have done this at some time but if your thinking about starting out in trading then the key is to set your expectations accordingly. Hey - you could be that guy who will be the next guy to turn 1% on your account daily and I sure don't want to to stop you being optimistic however the problem is that if you trade on this expectation then as time goes on then you will start to take greater and greater risks to try and achieve this, and ultimately that's what kills a trader and will kill your trading account. Trust me I have the scars to prove it!Know your strategy and then your realise that the rest is a personal battle about sticking to your trading rules and having iron disciple without being emotionally driven in any trading situation. I believe that even for the very best traders they battle with this constantly.

As stated earlier if you can keep your trading account level after the first year then you've done really well. Going on from there the professionals consistent consider a 20% return on any sizeable money on a year on year basis to be stellar performance.

Good luck and enjoy the ride!

sun_wants said:

As stated earlier if you can keep your trading account level after the first year then you've done really well. Going on from there the professionals consistent consider a 20% return on any sizeable money on a year on year basis to be stellar performance.

Good luck and enjoy the ride!

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"sizeable money" being the operative phrase I think.

After all, 1% of ****all is still ****all, whereas 20% of a shed load is still a small shed load, and if you could do that consistently, year on year, people would be queuing up to meet you.