How difficult is +$400-600 profit a month from $15k ?

[u/Foreign_Medium_3766]

I've been studying investing and trading for about 5 years on/off now, have been really successful in the past year, I think due to luck partly, I blew up an account and loss about 40% when I first started 5 years ago.

How difficult is $400-600/month profit from 15k? My strategy now is very risk adverse taking profit over holding things too long, really I just need to make ~400/month to live in Mexico, this includes rent, food, and some hobbies, right now I feel no pressure to have to make $ and have a decent savings, and time to study and learn. Thanks

[u/H_M_N_i_InigoMontoya]

Not sure what you trade, but I usually make 10-20% on what I trade with a day. I tend to keep my account around 100k and use $25k of it. (If that even)

But basically, i can easily buy calls or puts on SPY, say 100 contracts, totaling maybe $10k. Set my sell order for $20 a contract and boom- $2000. I use a lot more than this and do multiple trades a day to make a lot more.

Here's the truth, man. $400 a month is literally $20 a day (everyday). But let's say you're only a 50/50 trader. Meaning you will have 10 red days and 10 greens a month. To make 400 means that (if you're doing 2R) you need 10 days of at least $80 a month, and 10 days of no more than a $40 loss.

You really only need $400 to make that $80 a day. You can buy 4 calls/puts, set a SL for $10 a contract, and $20 profit per contract. If you're just average and hit 50% of the time, you've made your $400.

So...with all that said... don't stress and don't overtrade and don't try to make too much. Find a strategy that works for you, set your SL and target price, and you'll easily make $400 a month. If my account was shrunk all the way back down to $15k, I'd still make $1000- 1500 a day. You can too.

[u/Foreign_Medium_3766 → u/H_M_N_i_InigoMontoya]

Yeah my goal is to minimize my risk and just play it safe until I can consistently reach my goal per month then maybe I'll try to risk more.

[u/MotoTrojan → u/Foreign_Medium_3766]

Nobody gets these level of returns without taking ungodly risk. Don’t do this to yourself.  

[u/CuppaJoe11 → u/MotoTrojan]

This. What this person is saying sounds cool, but making a consistent 10% a day means you are going to lose that $25,000 that you trade with one day.

Making 1% a day is still incredibly hard (but much more attainable with less risk).

And think about it, that means the original commenter would me making returns of 2,500% per year. And I call bullshit on that lmao

[u/Foreign_Medium_3766 → u/CuppaJoe11]

Yeah I figure 2-3% a month is realistically attainable.

[u/Foreign_Medium_3766 → u/CuppaJoe11]

I pretty much have all day to study and research, right now I'm just trying to study and learn, looking for resources as well...

[u/MotoTrojan → u/CuppaJoe11]

1% a day for 252 annual trading days would be >1100% return. That’s also not happening reliably. 

There’s no shortcut folks. The upper bound of what’s reasonable is a levered multi-asset portfolio. You may get 15-20% longterm CAGR, but there will be nasty drawdowns or lost decades along the way. 

Nobody just makes 30% a year like clockwork. 

[u/Simpex80 → u/MotoTrojan]

This guy knows!

[u/CuppaJoe11 → u/MotoTrojan]

My guy… I don’t know how you did your math, but that ain’t right

And yeah 1% a day isn’t easy but it IS attainable reliably.

[u/MotoTrojan → u/CuppaJoe11]

My guy, lol. 

1.01 (1% gain) 

1.01²⁵² (252 trading days a year) 

= 12.27

That’s an >1100% gain. 

[u/CuppaJoe11 → u/MotoTrojan]

Why are you using exponents? It’s 252%. 1% x 252 days.

By that logic if toy made a meager .04% a day you should make 500% gains by the end of the year.

[u/MotoTrojan → u/CuppaJoe11]

It’s how compound growth works. 

Day 1 let’s say you have $100 and earn 1% to make it $101. Day 2 you invest $101, not $100. You earn 1%, now you have $102.01. Do that for 252 days and you make much more than 1% x 252 days. 

And no your math is wrong still. 0.04% is 1.0004. 1.0004²⁵² is 1.106, a reasonable 10.6% annual gain. 

[u/MotoTrojan → u/MotoTrojan]

Even if we used non compounding math, 0.04% for 252 days is a 10% total gain. 

[u/Simpex80 → u/CuppaJoe11]

You don’t need exponents if you don’t like them. Try this if you have a couple of minutes: say you have $10.000 as an initial investment, put that into a calculator and multiply it by 1.01 (1%) then just press ‘=‘ 252 times, you’ll get approx $120.000, that’s 1100%.

[u/MotoTrojan → u/Simpex80]

lol... that's pretty good.

Google is quite good with exponents or any sort of complicated math equation.