My 10% Best Days Account For 50% Of Profits

Last Updated on March 6, 2021 by Hakan Samuelsson

I had a brief look at the distribution of my trading profits over the last four years. I simply ranked my net profit per day in descending order and got the following result:

% best days
5% 10% 15% 20% 25%
% of P/L 0.32 0.53 0.70 0.83 0.96

The number 0.32 means that the 5% best trading days make 32% of my total profits over the four year period. Also, the 25% best days make 96% of all my profits. In other words, 75% of my trading days are basically just a waste of time and I better stay in bed. Unfortunately, I don’t know the result when I wake up, so I need to grind out every day no matter what.

This also emphasizes the need for discipline: you have to be at your desk every day. The minority of the days make all your money.