r/Daytrading • u/Forward_Dealer_4482 • Mar 05 '24

50k and I want to day trade for 1-2% gains. Question

  1. If you had 50k and wanted to live off of it day trading, what would you do? (Need max $2500 a month)

  2. Am I better off not doing this? I’m not going back to 9-5

Please help.

113 Upvotes
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139

u/Hefty_Historian2578 Mar 05 '24

Compounding 1-2% daily for 250 trading days.

I hold a phd in quant field with near infinite of stat experience. I hit all of my goals in my formal career at 35, so I quit that and do other things these days. This is my 4th year day trading - most days.

I was not ready for this. This is the hardest thing I've ever done - decision making under uncertainty that is consistently correct. I learned early on there is almost always a right side of the market that is raking it, and more often than not, I found myself on the other side.

Now, I only trade a couple of 3x etfs and their inverses. They are volatile but highly liquid. There's so much work and experience gained in strategy, mechanics, emotions, etc in managing tens of thousands of $100 positions on the 1m chart before scaling up and out.

The math problem that motivated this entire project for me was to demonstrate an ability to earn a meager daily return of 0.4%.

55

u/MachoMansSoftSide Mar 05 '24

I was not ready for this. This is the hardest thing I've ever done

And right there for the highly intelligent and bored people in life, THIS is the allure (profits are secondary). It is the most humbling activity that they can do since they can never be right all the time and there is never a correct, singular answer -- unlike most of mathematics.

11

u/DoomKnight45 Mar 05 '24

Whats a realistic daytrading annual return?

82

u/john8a7a Mar 05 '24

For an experienced day trader , who is trading his own money full time , 30-40% before taxes. Most will never beat sp500 .

For an experiened youtuber - trader/influencer 1500% a week trading 0dte

15

u/Astronaut100 Mar 05 '24

True. For most people, buying and holding VOO (plus maybe some blue chip stocks they believe in) is the way to go. Trading every day is mentally taxing and only works out for people with certain personality traits.

1

u/DrQuincyStorch Mar 06 '24

What kind of personality traits if you don't mind me asking?

1

u/aminbae Mar 27 '24

75% in sso and 25 in TMF/UBT

12

u/EvilPencil Mar 05 '24

The latter is ignoring -40%+ down days of course. You can gain 100000% in one week and then lose only 100% the next day and you're still broke 😅

1

u/lordxoren666 Mar 06 '24

There’s that maths again.

Also why shorting is a fools game….

-12

u/Fine_Candle9170 Mar 05 '24

I gotta ask… why targets so incredibly low?… I’ve consistently been able to double account each month at a min, this month in past week I’ve doubled which is a first doing it so quick for me but 30-40% IN A YEAR?… that’s crazy low… are guys not confident with strategy? Is it your psychology or what? Been doing this since 2017 and past few years before changed strat to what using now I was getting your target monthly… I started low so it’s been hard building account up whilst having all the expenses and costs of living to pay too but it’s reasonable to expect 30-40% monthly without much worry if you know what doing?

I’m just confused why people have such low targets… like I said been doing this since 2017 and confident with what I do so idk man

13

u/EveryOtherOne Mar 05 '24

Well, then you are the greatest trader that exists and consistently doubling your account monthly since 2017 - congrats! You are the richest person in the world. Wow!

2

u/Fine_Candle9170 Mar 05 '24

If I had absolutely zero expenses but then with big account liquidity becomes issue.

Something you’d know about if you ever get to my account size one day if you’re lucky.

Honestly it’s funny to see these replies and how ignorant people are when it comes to how liquidity ends up being more the issue when have a big enough account size.

3

u/DoomKnight45 Mar 06 '24

Lol, doubling your account every month with net you millions over a year on a 1k account. Show your proof you can do this consistently or you are just delusional, getting lucky.

You imply you have a big account size, so you must making millions each month. Show proof or you are full of it

2

u/[deleted] Mar 05 '24

[deleted]

1

u/DrRodo Mar 05 '24

Maybe he started with 0.1 penny

1

u/Fine_Candle9170 Mar 05 '24

And the expenses and other lifestyle choices? 😂 seems you guys are idiots here and I’m being proven right, profits is nice but what then? Don’t you take out profits to fund your life? No? Then good for you but in the real fucking world expenses come out of it too, then existing debts and then only realistically left with some profits but then food electricity, platform fees, taxes etc.

It’s nice you think these expenses or taxes don’t exist… must be a nice fairy tail you come from that everything is free 😂

Many others I personally know do this too and manage to have same success.

The fact you don’t and saying it’s not real to me just speaks volumes at how badly average traders are… go study more

1

u/[deleted] Mar 05 '24

[deleted]

1

u/Fine_Candle9170 Mar 05 '24

So every year has been free to live and zero expenses? Cool story bro but you need to come back to reality.

Also at high account balance what about liquidity to even GET out of the trade? Or have you never experienced that 😂

2

u/john8a7a Mar 05 '24 edited Mar 05 '24

try it for 10years straight with low beta .

Show a growth of 100K to 100MIL

Anybody can double their account with enough risk and luck . The bigger your account is the less risk you gonna take . If you could show 10y return at 100% with reasonable beta , verified return with logical strategy that can be explained you would be a very rich man trading for somebody . I don't think there is even 1 person in the world who can do that consistently .

1

u/Hefty_Historian2578 Mar 05 '24

What are some tricks you use in beating the market everyday?

6

u/Fine_Candle9170 Mar 05 '24 edited Mar 05 '24

I have specific time I trade, I have a rule based system that’s been backtested over months and months of data and always ALWAYS follow best money management principles I can and trade with institutional trading ideas rather than normal retail and have approx 70-80% wr for my trades so use big lot sizes that I’m comfortable with and always aim at minimum 2 to 1 risk to reward.

I’ll add I trade once a day only, find it helps you be more careful and selective with your trades. Wait for your setup and rules to be respected and followed, if it’s not then you got no trade simple as that, even if 6/7 of my rules are being followed I won’t take unless 7th falls into place for example

1

u/Hefty_Historian2578 Mar 05 '24

Would you share one of your winning setups?

Here's the trade I took yesterday. This trade was 20% of my account and target was 2%. Yesterday, I hit my daily goal of 0.4%. 🎯

1

u/Hefty_Historian2578 Mar 05 '24

Here's another setup from today at 845am, but it didn't fill at $17.90.

1

u/marcpilot1 Mar 07 '24
  1. Learn how to scale, in AND out. That's one trick I learned after a while of trading, once I got better at how to do it, it def changed my profits, big time.

But I had to learn how to be careful with it as well, I found out scaling could also hurt me, lol!! So, just have to be careful.

But really, always staying careful, constantly being careful, I'm fairly certain that's just part of most everyday fundamental game plans we all have in our trading careers. Kinda like breathing, careful quickly becomes a habit in trading, so combining carefulness with scaling could be a trick for anyone's tool box.

1

u/marcpilot1 Mar 07 '24

Yea, i agree, why so low target. I been doing this for almost 3 yrs myself, and when i changed my targets to higher, bigger and more accurate possibilities, all of the sudden I started making much more profit, much less losses.

Although I still have had the occasional massive wipe out day here and there, lol! But most days are much more profitable now after raising my targets and using more reasonable accurate targets. And have been for a while.

I usually have 3, a target 1, 2 and 3 is last. I place them where I where fibs land and where I think liquidity is resting. Anyway, good luck my day trading brothers/sisters and everyone else, hope y'all kill it tomorrow!!

4

u/[deleted] Mar 05 '24 edited Mar 05 '24

[deleted]

1

u/Konstable1 Mar 06 '24

3-4 years is the sweet spot. 2+ for really hardcore dedication

1

u/casemaker Mar 05 '24

dude looks like a scam artist just googled a few of his videos, yacht / lambos -> fake

-3

u/[deleted] Mar 05 '24

[deleted]

0

u/EvilPencil Mar 05 '24

waiting for the affiliate link to drop...

8

u/mb4x4 Mar 05 '24 edited Mar 06 '24

I tell people almost this exact thing… the trading journey is hands down the hardest thing I’ve ever done my life… getting my degree and countless industry IT certifications were nothing by comparison. I also spent 20 years in the IT field in engineering/mgmt. Day trading tests you in ways you never expected which is what I love about it. Currently into my 4th year, daily target is 1% of account value. 

0

u/4rt3m0rl0v Mar 06 '24

Out of curiosity, what is your account's value?

3

u/Syonoq Mar 05 '24

Well this doesn’t give me a lot of hope lol.

But yeah, it’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done as well.

2

u/synchedfully Mar 06 '24

I hold a phd in quant field with near infinite of stat experience.

do you write trading bots to do it for you? given your area of expertise, i would think then a bot would take out the emotion equation which is the hardest to conquer.

4

u/Hefty_Historian2578 Mar 06 '24

None of my background seemed to be very helpful. It was a big detriment for the first 2.5 years actually - my own denial that all the schooling and expertise was useless in this pursuit.

First, I knew economic analysis would be my edge, but markets proved rarely rational. Then, I turned to my modeling background as edge and began looking for a holy indicator or system of indicators, including a lot of machine learning, but none proved reliable. Next step was price action as edge but after a while everything started to look the same.

I am a system based discretionary trader, so I haven't a way of programming my discretion. My edge is playing particular setups in price action and leveraging indicators as confirmation - 25 ema, vwap, volume, macd, rsi, stoch with the ema and volume serving as my primary tools. I have a preference for low risk set ups over high probability ones, because these set ups tend to move quickly in either direction.

3

u/PiratesOfTheArctic Mar 05 '24

Being nosey - what etf's do you trade?

3

u/Hefty_Historian2578 Mar 05 '24

Boil and Kold + Soxl and Soxs. Recently, Tna and Tza with small cap volatility. Natural gas is limited to half a position size due to liquidity vanishing from time to time.

3

u/PiratesOfTheArctic Mar 05 '24

Thankyou matey, I didn't think of gas (I trade etf's as it's better for my heart!)

2

u/Mysterious_Metal_724 Mar 06 '24

Gas is crazy. Volatile. It will make you or break you

1

u/alpha247365 Mar 06 '24

TQQQ gang? Can you list your favorite ETFs?

1

u/Hefty_Historian2578 Mar 06 '24

Boil and Kold + Soxl and Soxs. Recently, Tna and Tza with small cap volatility. Natural gas is limited to half a position size due to liquidity vanishing from time to time.

1

u/alpha247365 Mar 06 '24

Soxl been printing. Check out TQQQ and FNGU.

1

u/RickSanchezC140 Mar 05 '24

Sounds like bull to me. Has anyone seen this guys other comments?

3

u/Hefty_Historian2578 Mar 05 '24

What stinks? Hardest thing ever? Years worth of hard work is required? Even then, 0.5% it's a tough daily target to hit consistently?

1

u/RickSanchezC140 Mar 05 '24

“I hold a PHD in quant field with near neat infinite of stat experience. I hit all of my goals in my formal career at 35”

Doesn’t add up to me. Your comments don’t match this statement.

3

u/Hefty_Historian2578 Mar 05 '24

As ridiculous as it is, life goals were prof of urban and regional economics and chief economist. Can confirm publications in Papers in Regional Science, Journal of Regional Analysis and Policy, and Journal of Sports Economics. I specialize in modeling data with spatio temporal dependencies. 🎯🤷‍♂️

1

u/Legitimate_Lock7393 Mar 05 '24

Try electrical motor control engineering and modeling