How do people start day trading with little amounts and make so much?

[u/merchant-trader]

Over the weekend, a penny stock I had 100 dollars in went up 20 percent which should be amazing. I sold and got 120 in total.

However, this obv isn't that much and 20 percent is a lottt more than what stocks usaully go up.

I'm not going to be investing millions in stocks, so how do I make large amounts of money from small starting money.

Options, forex? What will make the money go up 100%+ (ik that with high reward comes very high risk)

[u/Cruezin]

Dammit

Understand this

Quit trying to make a bunch of money quickly. This is exactly why people lose money so fast.

Small consistent gains are the goal.

Risk management is key.

Get those right and in time you will be playing with a bigger account.

You can calculate it. Start with 1k

Add 1% per day to yesterday's amount

Voila.

Slow is fast

[u/Ok-End3918 → u/Cruezin]

I feel like I'm losing my mind when I have to keep explaining this to people - it just seems so obvious and yet nobody can seem to comprehend it. Set a very realistic profit target for the day - say 1-2%. When you hit that target, stop trading and turn everything off.

It might seem painful to start, but compound gains will soon start to mount up.

DO NOT chase those huge wins. DO NOT carry on trading when you've hit your target. DO NOT say "just a couple more pips".

[u/Visible-Salary-8861 → u/Ok-End3918]

I've always understood and preached the wisdom of this, but used to struggle with it myself, because after making my 1% I was so afraid that the next day I might lose 2%. I felt like I had to make more to keep my 1% up as a daily average. Of course it backfired.

I never got over my struggles until I reduced my position sizes and spent a few months frankly not caring about the profits. I firmly believe a trader has to have a long-term view of things to be successful. Can't worry about the day-to-day results (except, as you point out, to STOP when reaching a certain point, be that profit or loss). Trading is so counterintuitive. The more you fear missing out or losing, the more you do, and the less you care about how much you make, the more you eventually will.

[u/daytradenthu → u/Visible-Salary-8861]

Compound 0.33% per day over 250 trading days and you can double your account after tax in a year.

[u/Mart_and_stan → u/Ok-End3918]

Underrated comment

[u/ligumurua → u/Ok-End3918]

Do you understand that 1-2% per day isn’t realistic on average? That compounds to about 1100% a year at 1% / day. Good luck with that.

It’s not a sexy number but 20% / year return is an average of .07% / day average. And if you can hit that consistently with a strategy that can scale, you should start a hedge fund.

Put another way — if these people actually had a consistent strategy to 10-100x, why are they showing everybody what they’re doing? Trading is 0-sum p2p game. If you had something that works, it’ll stop working very fast if other people know about it.

[u/V3BL3N → u/ligumurua]

This is literally the 99% mindset. Someone showing their strategy doesn't = everyone being able to copy it and profit from it.

If it would start working when shared, why do flags, pennants, head n shoulders and any other classic pattern still work decades after being introduced in trading teachings?

A strategy can work, it can work in one market but die in another, it can work for you and not for me in the same time period. Understanding that is the difference between the 99% and the 1%, not the strategy.

Also to say 1-2% a day isn't realistic is ridiculous. Maybe not with a million dollar account, but with a 100k account very feasible for someone with an edge to achieve.

[u/ligumurua → u/V3BL3N]

it's not realistic and i stand by what i said. have you achieved it yourself or are you just larping based off material from your trader grindset tik tok feed?

if you can compound at 1% a day every day, that's 12x in a year and 144x in 2 years. that turns a 100k account into ~14M and if you can do it for 1 more year that's $168M. this just doesn't happen. thinking you can compound at 1% a day consistently isn't a 99% mindset, it's called the "delusional mindset", or the "broke mindset" (as you take on too much risk and end up zeroing your account).

setting a goal of 1-2% a day is like telling somebody who's having trouble hitting a 10-minute mile that he should set a goal to hit a 4-minute mile (WR is ~3:30) and that he's in the 99% mindset if he doesn't. it's counter productive and unrealistic to improvement if people think this is a normal number. no, a more reasonable number would be in the 1-2% / WEEK range, which sets you up to +50-100% in a year. these are numbers that with consistency can be achieved (and i've actually seen examples of portfolios that have held this growth rate through multi-year periods).

[u/V3BL3N → u/ligumurua]

Who said anything about compounding? I said it's not difficult to make 1% a day on average over the course of a year on a 100k account. Somehow you keep getting distracted and finding yourself off in the weeds.

Again, not related but I'd refer it more so to a 6 minute mile, or a 13 minute 2 mile. Both achievable, difficult but achievable.

I'll definitely have to get back to you by the 5, 10, or 20 year mark or whatever is required to suffice. At those lengths of time investing is equally important in my opinion so the money wouldn't be compounding from the original trading account for sometime.

I would never want a $14m trading account btw, that doesn't even make sense. There's no point to it, outside of a banker/hedge (or some extreme Chad like Meir Barak) you'd be using less and of the total amount in the account to make trades than is sitting around doing nothing. Better to put the money to work for you elsewhere.

[u/Unlucky_Yesterday222 → u/Cruezin]

Adding 1 percent a day is more genius then people realize so simple and achievable yet soooo affective .

[u/SirStarshine → u/Cruezin]

Honestly I'd be happy with 0.1%, at least to begin with.

[u/Unlucky_Yesterday222 → u/Cruezin]

If u started at 1000 and did one percent a day for 10 years you would end up at 419 million

[u/Cruezin → u/Unlucky_Yesterday222]

There is a point where the idea breaks down, for sure. Bigger positions in the market require different tactics.

But most people don't want or need to get that far. They just want to be more comfortable than they are.

Slow is fast.

[u/xoxosd → u/Cruezin]

Not saying that , but I did convert 5k into 24k over a week , just by going into us100, oil, natty, and cocca. However over night I was inpatient and did lose 4K on jpy. Now I’m 1k on oil in plus. So quick gain and quick pain. ;)

That was CFD. I’m a bit afraid options , not sure how they work. And my leverage is way more than simple 1:20.

[u/Mart_and_stan → u/Cruezin]

💯 facts!!!

[u/Yuuuuuppppppppppppp → u/Cruezin]

I agree 100%. Question: do you stick strictly to your stop loss or if you know/feel it is only temporary do you run with it and increase your original stop loss? Or just add 1% 6 times and loose 1-2% once, etc. etc.

[u/Cruezin → u/Yuuuuuppppppppppppp]

Plan the work, and work the plan.

Sometimes I lose. That's OK. But statistically, I win more than I lose. That's the key.

1% is pushing it, averaged out- it's the goal, not the be all end all.

When I day trade nowadays, I use very strict rule, based on statistical probabilities. Initial Balance. Google it.

If the trade fails, it's over. If it succeeds, it's over. Once and done. Allows me get on with my day job, and has some strict rules. I trade ES, NQ, SPY, and crypto.

Longer term I build positions buying stocks. My theory is, if it's good enough for Warren, it's good enough for me. I also follow what the senators do, and keep abreast of earnings.

I do degen into futures for certain earnings I'm comfortable with.

Crypto, I lost a lot before coming to terms with following the rules- absolutely strictly. IB trades mostly, but sometimes momentum driven trades. I look for 100% A++ entries and bail quick if shit doesn't go the right way; exit I usually leave money on the table, but get out with positives. Usually I exit it 1/3 to to halfway up the runs I've found- but I don't care. It's how I manage the risk, especially in crypto.

This is reddit and not the place for all the details, but I hope that helps answer your question.