Day/Active trading annual return stats

[Roller_1]

There seems to be a few people around ASF that are day traders on either equities, futures, FX etc also guys who may not be day traders but are doing a fair bit of active EOD trading. I am not a day trader nor do i really want to be at this stage, its seems like a tough job.

My question is are those of you who are day trading getting your bang for buck when in comes to annual return? What are you aiming for 20, 30, 40, 60, 100% returns? obviously some people like Minwa are making serious returns for a retail trader, what about others if you wouldn't mind sharing. Or active EOD traders too?

 

[VSntchr]

A difficult question to answer as many people measure their returns differently.

For example. I have an total pool of funds that I use to trade with, however I don't have the entire amount with the broker as it is not required unless I was to really ramp up position sizes or the total positions held.
I also have a notional value that I use for position sizing separate strategies which may be different than my actual total funds. To further explain the issue, day-trading often involves the use of leverage through the use of derivatives. Whilst a trader might be position sizing based on an account of $100k for example, this doesn't mean that they are restricted to having their total exposure to be below $100k. Obviously, this is what allows some traders to achieve eye-popping results.

If everyone can agree on a simple way to measure their returns, then it is relatively straightforward question.

For me, I like to use the total pool of funds (funds with broker and funds held in separate bank account). Then take total profit less all normal costs like comm., funding etc to give a net PnL figure.

I target between 30-50%, although it isn't really a metric that I am looking at and trying to hone. It is a byproduct of the smaller metrics that I track on individual strategies and setups. If I am hitting those, then the annual return will be taking care of itself.

 

[Roller_1]

Thanks for that, yeah i understand it can be a difficult thing to measure for people with multiple accounts, strategies etc. What market are you day trading?

 

[VSntchr]

Thanks for that, yeah i understand it can be a difficult thing to measure for people with multiple accounts, strategies etc. What market are you day trading?

ASX equities.