The average return of professional day traders might surprise you. The pros are not the ones who constantly make 100% returns overnight but seek to have small victories over time.
The average return of processional day traders with $10,000 or more is between 2-6% per day. Taking steps to consistently hit this return is hard, and is what separates the professionals from the average retail trader.
The trick is to manage risk in all investments and trades. A professional trader will only take on the bare minimum amount of risk to accomplish a return. If you take the time to learn the skill of risk management then you.
By taking the necessary steps to only achieve small returns every day over time you can snowball an account into a value several times larger than what you started with.
In this article I am going to show you how to match those 2-6% returns per day with little risk. I will outline why other people can’t do this, what tools you should learn to accomplish this goal, and how to manage your risk so you don’t lose money.
The goal here at Chronohistoria is to give you all the tools you need to successfully trade and invest in capital markets. I teach and help people across the globe learn how to achieve returns several times larger than the normal 10% per year.
Without further ado, let’s jump right in.
Why Not Everyone Can Do This
Ok, so I know you can do math. A return of 2-6% per day will compound like crazy over time. If this is possible, why aren’t more people turning $10,000 into $1 million within a decade?
The answer is two fold. For the average retail investor it’s too complex and takes a bit of time and skill to learn properly. Luckily for you, you came to the right place.
Also for the larger hedge funds their portfolio sizes are just large to seek returns in the range of 2-6% per day outside some crazy situations.
Basically, professional traders with a portfolio size of $10,000 or more can return 2-6% per day because they exist in the gray area between hedge fund and retail investor.
So how can we get you out of the retail trader camp and into the professional trader zone? Well the answer is to help you develop a reputable strategy that can guarantee you results over time. We are going to game the system in your favor.
What Tools and Skills you Have to Learn
Ok, like any professional you are going to need to have the right tools for the job.
To get started you really only need one tool and one skill. The tool is the professional trading platform, and the skill is how to spot trading opportunities
Trading Platform
Probably the best tool that you will need to master is a professional trading terminal. The best one that you can start off in is Think or Swim. (Source)
I have two professional trading platforms. The one that I learned on and is by far my favorite is Think or Swim. It offers an insane amount of options and is easily approachable. My other platform is a Bloomberg terminal, and that costs a monthly subscription fee. Once you are making decent returns you can switch. I don’t want you to do this before then however. Learn on the free product and then switch.
Here is what an average stock chart on Think or Swim looks like.
This might seem pretty complex, but like any other skill just trust the process and learn a bit at a time. Below is an article on a full rundown on how to read these charts.
Reading Stock Charts: The Absolute Best Guide for Beginners
Spend some time learning how to navigate around the Think or Swim pages. In total it might only take you around 2-3 hours to do this properly. Once you get this part down it’s time to learn how to spot trading opportunities.
How to Spot Trading Opportunities
Ok, so your goal here is to find an opportunity and buy and sell the stock in a fast manner to get your 1-2% return per trade.
This is going to take you some time and is the secret weapon on how professional traders with an account size of $10,000 make 2-6% return per day. It only takes a couple round trip trades to hit that number.
So how do we spot good investment opportunities? The easiest way is to follow the money by creating a stock scanner in think or swim. Here is an image showing you one of my favorites.
As the above image demonstrates I have created a stock screener called “8%.” The goal of this screener is to scan the entire stock market for stocks trading between $0.25 and $10 dollars with a volume above 200,000 shares and a percentage change of more than 8 percent.
You can simply set up your scanner to mimic mine.
What this is going to do is scan all stocks in the market at that moment to see what stocks in the penny stock range are exploding. Then you simply need to invest and only take a 1% gain from your investment.
I have to be clear however there is more than one way to do this. I have just found that by chasing the volume and money in the market I simply have to be a faster trader then the next guy to scalp prices before he gets in.
Because of this it’s possible to return around 2% per day on a $10,000 portfolio or around $200.
How to Manage Risk
This is the biggest secret to your potential success in the market is the sole reason professional traders exist. Risk management should be on every breath you take while trading.
This is because the market itself is designed by brokers to make you forget about risk. When you make your first $20,000 in one trade you feel on top of the world and are willing to go again to make $100,000. I know….like many of you, this used to be me.
The secret however is to practice risk management. Keep telling yourself you are only here to get 2-6% per day. Once you hit that number, walk away. Don’t go back into the market.
Eventually you will become a professional and then it’s ok to trade all day long. I have some colleagues who do this and can make $50,000 or more in one day consistently.
That’s not me. I am lucky if I make $10,000 in a day from trading. Nowadays I am more of an investor, which you will find happens to professional traders. Eventually they become investors because the portfolio size becomes too large to trade accurately with without taking on insane amounts of risk.
One of the easiest ways to practice risk management is to simply set a sell point for yourself. You should say that ” I am only willing to lose 5% on this trade.” That way you know that if you invest $10,000 then at most you are going to walk away with a max loss of -$500.
Learning to manage your risk in the market is absolutely key to understanding how to make money trading. Never risk more than you would feel comfortable losing in a given day. The key is to keep yourself in the game instead of losing so much you are forced out.
For some helpful hints on how to keep yourself in the ‘game’ and not lose all of your money check out the below article.
5 Reasons Why you Lose Money in the Market: With Pictures.
Conclusion
The average return of professional day traders with an account value of $10,000 is between 2-6% per day. It’s not the 100-200% gains that you will see on social media. It’s all about baby steps with well managed risk to get to your endgame goal.
Here at Chronohistoria I am all about helping you get to that goal. If you like content like this then you should subscribe to the newsletter and share on social media. Every share helps me help others, so it’s much appreciated.
