Anybody know the biggest percentages ever?

[KillPhil08]

Let me google that for you

 

[mel_pub]

There is one guy in France called S.D. that is well known (especially by the taxman).
He won a national retail trading contest 2 years in a row.

in 2004 + 3035% in six months (long only)
in 2005 + 8400% in six months (shorts allowed)

With a starting capital of 1000€, on france 150 most liquid stocks, leverage of max 5x, including commissions, stamp...

Everybody could follow his trades as they were published with a 24hr delay. He wrote a book where he explains his strategy, which was mostly breakouts swings on volatile mid cap stocks.

Now he's a non-dom

If you start with a small capital and use leverage, returns can be big. If you consider that intra-day or FX trading don't really require capital but just a guarantee or collateral like T-bonds, the return over "capital employed" is either +∞ or -∞

 

[Shakone]

What is it with these infinities from mauzj and mel_pub? I come from a bit of a math background, so the usage makes me feel all weird

Of course if you made an infinite return, then your next trade say, where you risk 1% of your capital would have an infinite stop loss amount Sweaty palms anyone? Try explaining an infinite loss to the missus.

Thanks for the link KillPhil, that's a fantastic achievement from Magellan. I'm not sure I really understood it though, because many of those trades on the graphs would be losses given the spread, and if the 3 pt stop loss was true (somebody said this in the thread), then from the graphs shown on, he would get stopped out before the good move. Obviously he didn't though.

I'm not sure why you need such a close stop loss anyway, since if you're that intensely trading, you would exit immediately anyway without the need for stop loss wouldn't you?

 

[DaxDestroyer]

There is one guy in France called S.D. that is well known (especially by the taxman).
He won a national retail trading contest 2 years in a row.

in 2004 + 3035% in six months (long only)
in 2005 + 8400% in six months (shorts allowed)

With a starting capital of 1000€, on france 150 most liquid stocks, leverage of max 5x, including commissions, stamp...

Everybody could follow his trades as they were published with a 24hr delay. He wrote a book where he explains his strategy, which was mostly breakouts swings on volatile mid cap stocks.

Now he's a non-dom

If you start with a small capital and use leverage, returns can be big. If you consider that intra-day or FX trading don't really require capital but just a guarantee or collateral like T-bonds, the return over "capital employed" is either +∞ or -∞

And I thought, you were talking about Jerome Kerviel from SocGen

 

[mel_pub]

And I thought, you were talking about Jerome Kerviel from SocGen

No, this one is just a home trader with an accounting background, definitely not quantitative. They are the same age though.

What is it with these infinities from mauzj and mel_pub? I come from a bit of a math background, so the usage makes me feel all weird ?

+∞ or -∞ comes from the fact that the return is a ratio between gain and capital employed.

Sometimes, the denominator (ie capital employed) is zero. You don't commit capital into intraday trading, futures trading, fx trading... you just post a guarantee. The COST is 0 because hypothecated or not you're earning all the interest on your collateral

 

[Shakone]

You can't commit zero capital unless you don't trade. As soon as you have made a trade you have paid the spread and effectively some capital. The cost is never 0, and I'm not sure you understand infinities. But anyway, this is side-tracking the thread

 

[mauzj]

You can't commit zero capital unless you don't trade. As soon as you have made a trade you have paid the spread and effectively some capital. The cost is never 0, and I'm not sure you understand infinities. But anyway, this is side-tracking the thread

There are plenty of ways to commit zero capital.

You could work for a bank and get paid to trade their cash.

You could take out a loan and trade the bank's money.

You could get an arcade to train you for free.

etc...

 

[london88]

There seems to be a reliance on % returns as an indicator of performance. Yes in a relative world this may stand the test but this is a zero sum game.

Have absolute returns been forgotten?

 

[tar]

http://www.trade2win.com/boards/general-trading-chat/44624-55000-one-month.html

 

[moadib]

Some well known ones:

"Larry Williams is famous for his turning $10,000 into $1.15 million in one year. If you ever see the statements, he was under a margin call at one point during the first month on drawdown. He also ran the money up to over $2.5 million before settling at year-end at $1.15 million, meaning during that same period he lost over $1.35 million!"

which essentially agrees with what Rossini posted. If he was under a margin call, then he was riding his luck and probably taking too big a risk. He also had a draw down towards the end of over 50%.

Ed Seykota turned $5,000 into $15,000,000 over a 12 year time period in his model account.

And google also throws up some guy I have never heard of called Takashi Kotegawa.

Richard Dennis is also quite famous, and there are many others I read about in a book called Trend Following who have made big gains over several years although some individual years many of them lose.

_______________________________________________
Takashi Kotegawa had around 163 million dollars last year but I haven't heard any word of him since. He started out in 2000 with an estimated account of 13.600 USD. I was very interested in this story so I called a Reuters reporter in Tokyo to give me some extra information. Unfortunately, I haven't got anything new from him yet.
I will keep digging. You can find the interviews with him on youtube.

 

[montmorencyt2w]

There are plenty of ways to commit zero capital.

You could work for a bank and get paid to trade their cash.

You could take out a loan and trade the bank's money.

You could get an arcade to train you for free.

etc...

You could get an offer of ££ from a SB company to open an account. Some don't require matching capital from you.

 

[ezreddy]

There is always Dan Zanger. Here is part of his bio from investopedia:

When asked how he likes to trade, Dan Zanger responds using a race car analogy.

"I like to go 180 mph just inches from the wall. That means being margined 2 to 1 and either long or short a stock that is highly volatile and getting ready to make a big move," he says.

Zanger puts his money where his mouth is. He holds the unofficial record in trading stocks by turning $11,000 into more than $18 million in 18 months in 1999-2000. He grew that to an incredible $42 million in less than two years and has the tax receipts to prove it.