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$200 per day I spend more than that on average... Living in a low cost of living area is a nice advantage for those that have it.
A few people mentioned - "I don't want to get rich, I just want to be consistent"
Well, it's nice that one isn't greedy but the fact is:
If you are consistent in this business, you will get very wealthy - it's the power of compounding.
The problem with most profitable daytraders is that they take out monthly the money to live, so they don't compound. In compounding you will have to increase your size with every month.
example: You start with $25.000/$50.000 and you try to earn a living of let us say $5000 a month, they take out that 5k to live from and are happy that their account is staying the same. Not a lot of profitable day traders who trade for living use compounding.
Broker: Advantage, Trading Technologies, OptionsCity, IQ Feed
Trading: CL, NG
Posts: 1,038 since Jul 2010
Thanks Given: 1,713
Thanks Received: 3,863
Snoop, you're right on with that. Simple math will tell you that over time, the compounding will really add up. Let's say you've become consistent enough to net $200 per day on average with $4,000 per month net on average trading one contract. You withdraw $2,000 of your gains each month and keep the remaining $2,000. Once you've accumulated enough in gains, you add a second contract and your daily average has now doubled.
The trick in this is to figure out the proper amount to take out each month to meet your income needs without stumping your trading capital. Let's say $2,000 per month is all you would need. Well, it's pretty obvious how quickly you could grow your account based on a $200 per day net. The key factor in all of this of course is consistency which would include a sound trading strategy with good money management. Also, there are limitations to how many contracts one can trade relative to the market they are in. You can't just dump 100 cars on TF and expect to get a consistent fill. As your trade size grows, you have to fine tune how you enter and exit into positions relative to the market you are trading, which is another topic in itself.
For those who are just getting started in trading, establishing simple, attainable goals is a great first step to building consistency. You have a trading plan in place and you need to now build confidence. This is where it begins.
Broker: Advantage, Trading Technologies, OptionsCity, IQ Feed
Trading: CL, NG
Posts: 1,038 since Jul 2010
Thanks Given: 1,713
Thanks Received: 3,863
I'm sure there are a handful that subscribe to this but you're right, you're stuck in a box withdrawing all your gains.
From my experience, there's a few ways to address this. If you're looking to grow your account and your required monthly income is equal to what you are gaining through your trading, you'd better have an alternative source of income to supplement your trading income or have enough savings set aside to supplement your trading income to start. You have to leave some of your gains in your account to accumulate enough for additional contracts. This is the only way you will grow.
For those who withdraw all of their gains, you should have already grown your account to a level where you don't need to keep your gains for further leverage. This is very subjective based on a trader's needs/goals of course. Let's say you're pulling 30 ticks out of CL net on a daily basis trading 10 lots. You would obviously need to be well capitalized in your trading account and your gains are withdrawn for living expenses and passive investments. You're good to go at that point. You've most likely paid your dues and are in a good place now. This doesn't apply to the majority of traders out there however so, being in the "account growth" mode is what most should be doing.
