Just my two cents on all the ego in this thread & the 570% return (2280% annualized!). That is an improbable, and definitely unsustainable, yet *possible* return.

Even for a larger account (1M), assuming your trading very liquid securities (e.g. SPY which can trade 1-2 million shares a *minute*, 1M will buy ~7500 shares, so that level of capitalization won’t move the market). Of course, to make 570% in ETF’s in 3 months would be almost impossible.

The real question is how much risk did someone take to get such a high return? Assuming our friend did indeed get 570% return (wink wink), he would’ve had to trade derivatives, single securities, or use a foolish amount of leverage. I’m sure Chris, our resident futures expert, has seen gamblers rack up spectacular gains in a short timeframe using 20:1 leverage, only to end up completely ruined later.

There *are* more opportunities in volatile markets, especially the strongly trending intraday markets that have occurred, but with the added volatility comes additional risk…

One last point, it seems everyone loves to post how ignorant everyone else is, yet I’ve seen incorrect information posted from novices as well as the pros on this board, (and I’m sure I have as well). Over confidence & arrogance are not traits that play well with investing/trading. They will lead to poor results and frustration.