What Returns Are Actually Sustainable in Trading as Account Size Grows?
I'm new to serious trading and trying to evaluate it rationally — not whether money can be made, but whether the economics make sense long-term compared to other paths in life. I'm not looking for motivational answers or extreme success stories. I want to understand realistic long-term expectations around consistency, scalability, withdrawals, and wealth creation.
The appeal is obvious: independence, control over time, not having to depend on organizations or constantly deal with people. But I'm trying to think about this clearly, not emotionally.
I often read stories of people turning small accounts like $2.5k–$5k into much larger amounts, sometimes doubling them yearly. At the same time, I keep reading that even 20–40% annual returns are exceptional over long periods. I understand that very high returns are more achievable on small accounts because traders can take aggressive risk and scale more easily — and that as account size grows, returns probably compress because risk management, liquidity, and capital preservation start mattering more. But I'm still trying to understand where reality actually sits.
With that context, my questions are:
- What annual return range is realistically sustainable for a skilled independent trader over 10+ years?
- How does account size affect achievable returns?
- Is there a rough point where trading shifts from aggressive compounding to mainly stable income generation?
- To make this concrete: what account size would realistically be needed to generate around $20k monthly without taking unreasonable risk and be able to grow the account simultaneously.
The deeper issue for me is structural, not just about returns. If a business succeeds, it generates both income and long-term enterprise value. Trading feels different — income seems tied directly to continued performance. If a trader stops, the capital remains, but the income stops unless the account keeps growing.
That leads to what I think is the real question: is trading best viewed as a very high-income skill, or a true long-term wealth-building vehicle? The answer to that probably shapes everything else about how to evaluate it as a path.