I ran a simulation with 10,000 traders each starting with an account balance of $10,000 and a normal distribution (std=5%) of random daily gains and losses.

Guess how many traders ended up with a positive ROI after 4 years...the same number that lost everything.

📈📉😳

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After 4 years of trading...

average balance = $9,067.52

balances above $10k = 1,605

balances below $10k = 8,395

balances of $0 = 1,600

Without an edge, the trading odds are not in your favor.

O inside edge*/*

What am I missing here? Seems it would be flat ev with a symmetric gain/loss distribution

Guess I’d need to know more about the betting strategy assumed. Shouldn’t be able to lose more than your bet too, and I understand the risk of ruin component can “smush” the bottom since no free spins 😆

An initial 5% loss will reduce a balance more than a subsequent 5% gain so there's an inherent bias towards losing money when trading.

$10,000 * 0.95 = $9,500

$9,500 * 1.05 = $9,975

Think I see what you did. I was assuming something like 1% stack bet daily and run simulation daily, do again. Where the return is normally distributed (except floor of -100%/total loss) and put back in stack. Still prob need to think on it more

Thank God for Bitcoin.

Makes sense😆