What is a good trader's % annual return?

[simonfudge]

as a local on screens it took me about 6 moths to break even and after that I was returning about 35-40% per month profit (before tax and after costs). that was conservative trading in my opinion.

Hi Gooseman

I appologise if my amazement came accross as disbelief.
Your results seem to me to be astounding. I would love to spend a day with you and to be able to absorb some of your knowledge, style of trading, set up ect.

Simon

 

[gooseman]

don't do it any more mate but yes-those figs are accurate. made a fair bit of money doing it but i couldn't do that for a living for the rest of my days. plus that was in the really low volatility conditions. i susepct if i was trading now i'd be in a box 6 feet under. too easy to have a major error or just get completely massacred on someone buying 87,000 front euribor futures! You may or may not remember that...

 

[TheBramble]

or just get completely massacred on someone buying 87,000 front euribor futures!

So it was you on the other side of my trade...Sorry goose, had no choice....

 

[simonfudge]

don't do it any more mate but yes-those figs are accurate. made a fair bit of money doing it but i couldn't do that for a living for the rest of my days. plus that was in the really low volatility conditions. i susepct if i was trading now i'd be in a box 6 feet under. too easy to have a major error or just get completely massacred on someone buying 87,000 front euribor futures! You may or may not remember that...

I am no spring chicken (47), but I have absolutely no idea of what you are talking about.
Still, I am grateful that you have shown me what might be possible. What time frame were you talking about, was it over several years or a shorter period?

What do you do now if making 500 to 600 % p.a. on capital did not ring your bells?
Simon

 

[dhstein]

My 2 cents

I would love to hear the answer to this question as well. I see this is an older thread, but I just joined this forum today. Here is my 2 cents on the subject based on dabbling with day trading over the last 10 months. I made a number of mistakes and learned a little bit - I have much more to learn. But by (mostly) luck I have managed to make a small return. I am just dabbling right now with a small stake ($25,000). My annualized return at this point is 20% based on just over 100 trades and a win/loss ratio of 67%. I believe I have learned enough to understand what the parameters of trading are for me. That is, I believe that with diligence and patience, I could possibly get to about a 40% annual return. So based on that, it isn't likely that I'll make this a full time job, because chances are I won't be willing to make the kind of sizeable trades that I would need to make a living. But here's what I've learned - probably trading 101 for most of you. It is much much more important to make the right trades than to make a lot of trades. If I could be right 70% of the time and executed 12 trades per month that is about a 40% return. So that's my plan and time will tell if I can succeed.

 

[gooseman]

someone hedged against a ECB cut and lifted 87k futures about an hour before the decision. front month so there were loads of locals jobbing around and spoofing-got run over.

less stress and less money but i knew at those returns the gravy train wouldn't last. the low vol conditions were great for trading but i couldn't scale up my returns with my account. trading the same style in these markets is impossible and i saw too many people carted out.