1,2,3,4,5% How much do you make a week

[mikeyk]

I was interested if anybody would share how much in percentage terms they make from their trading capital a week. E.g. If you had an account of £100,000 and made 1% during a week then you would have made £1000?

I realise that different people are going to make different amounts and that there isn't really anything such as an average week, but any thoughts would be appreciated.

What I'm really trying to do is get an idea whether £25,000 starting capital is really enough for a new trader to begin with? This is taking into consideration the hard learning period of the first 6-12 months and paying for your desk cost etc.

Cheers


Mike

 

[TWI]

A lot of STIR spread traders will only have 20-30k in their margin accounts and are able to make good returns with that. Think 30%/month+ is possible, not sure how returns will be if you are not a screen monkey however as directional views have a bit more of a variable return.
Actually this month the markets have been so illiquid I have had the lowest return for the last year, despite sitting at my screen for 10-12 hours/day....*******!
Taking holiday in protest and just hope things are a bit more volatile by the time I return.

 

[mikeyk]

Thanks for that, I guess you take the rough with the smooth although I like the sound of a holiday! You mentioned STIR spread trading I dont want to sound stupid but is this the same as what is mean't by the term scalping? Or can scalping be applied to this method. I get the impression it involves very short (timescale) trades?

Mike

 

[JonnyT]

You didn't include -5 -4 -3 -2 -1%

JonnyT

 

[Hittfeld]

And poor me, I don`t even know what STIR stands for. Any explanations possible?

Thanks

Hittfeld

 

[mikeyk]

Jonny,

That's exactly what I'm talking about, there are going to be more months than not when first starting out that I will loose money. Say if I started with £25,000 and it went down to £12,500-£15,000 thousand before I was reguarly making money can you survive with that little capital?

Hittfield, I could well be wrong but STIR stands for Short Term Interest Rate.

 

[TWI]

It would generally be considered scalping yes. Look to get on spread for a tick whether this is in same market or between different markets. Generally if you are disciplined you can get out of trades for a scratch (no loss only cost) otherwise take a tick. When you consider something like short sterling is £12.50 per tick then trading 50-100lot clip is enough to be able to build a reasonable PnL by taking a tick each time. Does rely on cheap costs, wouldn't want to pay more than 50p/side at most, I pay much less than this. Spread commisssions add up and I find that at the end of each month my total costs are nearly always higher than my net Profit.
It is the exchange and clearer who makes the real money, and for what risk?

 

[TWI]

Most people I have seen start to trade STIRS drop a considerable percentage of their account in the first 6 months due to costs of exchange links, trading platform, office space(if not at home) ,transaction costs and lack of discipline. Thing that then happens is that returns start to grow quite steeply as once you start to realise how to make you start to crank up the size.
Mike, STIR does stand for Short Term Interest Rate. Include, Euribor, Short Sterling, Eurodollar in this category, they are the most liquid exchange contracts.

 

[Mr. Charts]

I trade US shares intraday because I find them the easiest and most consistently reliable way of earning money day to day.
Most people I coach ask how much return on capital they can expect. This obviously depends very much on the individual, and how hard they work and learn and apply themselves, but 15%-20% per month is attainable for serious determined traders.
This may sound a lot, but is actually quite modest; for example, just one of the trades I did yesterday, AMZN.
It lasted just over a minute and produced a profit of 18c per share. That’s 0.44% profit on one quick “scalping” trade without any gearing whatsoever.
Use a direct access broker who will give you x 4 gearing and you
are straight into the market and can buy on the bid and sell on the ask so you get the spread, not the marketmaker.
Think about 20 trading days per month, the maths is easy and that’s on just one trade!
If you do a few trades per day and get only 70% right and use the correct position and money management, you can easily work out your likely returns just doing “scalps” in choppy markets like Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday this week
On good trading days like Wednesday with two clear no-brainer trends you are trading intra day swings for much, much larger profits than “scalping”. That’s the marzipan and icing on the day to day cake.
Hope that helps,
Richard

 

[Mr. Charts]

The other thing is that if you start trading small size and gradually work up from there as you gain vital hands-on experience, you will NEVER find yourself in a situation where you have lost more than a small percentage of your trading capital provided you exercise self discipline.
Safety and risk management are what it's about, NOT blow out losses.
Richard

 

[Salty Gibbon]

The other thing is that if you start trading small size and gradually work up from there as you gain vital hands-on experience, you will NEVER find yourself in a situation where you have lost more than a small percentage of your trading capital provided you exercise self discipline.

Absolutely correct.

I started 10 months ago with a US$ 50K pot but despite this I started trading 100 shares at a time. I have very slowly and very gradually increased the position size over time but even now I am still trading small size. Consequently I have not made much money but I certainly have not lost any money.

Over the past 10 months I have experienced what it is like to trade live and built up a reservoir of knowlege as I have gone along. I did not paper trade much as I consider this as very artificial and likely to give you a false sense of security.

I believe the next 10 months will see me achieving a steady and ever increasing return which will all be down to my initial steady and careful approach.

 

[Mr. Charts]

With that attitude, you don't need anything like $50k - you've already got what it takes.
Cool runnin', Salty, cool runnin'.
Richard

 

[wheezergeezer]

Mr.Charts & Salty, excellent post ,excellent advice, certainly less painful and less expensive to learn from
other people's experience, ( providing one is smart enough to take it on board )
Regards to you both

 

[Salty Gibbon]

Wheezer

Just keep reading the posts on T2W and you will gradually amass a lot of practical knowledge.

This site has helped me more than anything else.

 

[wheezergeezer]

Will do Salty, thanks and enjoy your weekend, regards

 

[TheBramble]

FWIW - When I started trading (way back) I kept a ridiculous amount of data and statistics on how I was doing per trading model (system) per time period by market etc. etc. etc.

I could analyse just about any slant I wanted on win/loss, percentage overall win/loss, win/loss by sector by market.

All very interesting and ultimately quite pointless, for me anyway.

I now no longer keep track. What I'm doing now works, consistently enough for me not to tinker with my core approach.

I do dabble in new systems and approaches (because that's what traders do!) and if they work - I include them in my toolbox. If not, I don't. More importantly, when they stop working - I drop them.

But I don't keep score overall. It doesn't mean anything.

 

[Buk]

same here Bramble, spent nearly as much time compiling stats as I did preparing for & actually trading lol......all it did was fill countless box files & take up space!!....now, I simply prepare a few key pre mkt notes & compile a post mkt analysis of trades/reasonings etc.....also keep a rolling week avg of trades/profit-loss (for early indications of possible strat weaknesses/overtrading/tweaking of entry & exit parameters)......much more beneficial & less time consuming!

 

[Salty Gibbon]

Wheezer

Here's another gem fwiw.

If you can achieve consistent profits and make, say £1,000 per month, then that £ 1,000 per month can quickly rise to £ 10,000 per month simply by increasing position size, continuing to apply your system / strategy consistently and maintaining discipline.

It is the first hurdle that is important imho, and that is MAKING CONSISTENT PROFITS.

Once you arrive at that point you are more or less home and dry.

 

[JonnyT]

Salty,

I think your view is over simple.

Doing size presents it's own problems. For example getting fills, your strategy being faded by software etc.

You have to be both making consistent profits and have plenty of margin for error and be trading very very liquid objects.

JonnyT

 

[Salty Gibbon]

Agreed