What if you made one percent a day?
Starting capital, return rate, number of periods → final value and growth curve.
INPUTS
$
%
Be honest. 1% a day = 1,800% a year, which no one does sustainably.
252 trading days/year, 52 weeks, 12 months.
CADENCE
TRY ONE
RESULT
Final value$122,740
Total gain$112,740
Return+1127.4%
252 days@ 1%/period
ALSO USEFUL
HOW IT WORKS
Compounding is the engine. FV = PV × (1 + r)n. The catch: the rate has to be net of every cost — fees, taxes, slippage, drawdowns. The seductive "1% a day" math gets quoted constantly; what no one mentions is that compounding losses are symmetric, so a 10% drawdown demands 11.1%, a 30% demands 43%, and a 50% needs 100% to get back to even. Real-money compounding works when the per-period rate is small enough to actually hit consistently.
FAQ
Why does 1% / day not equal 365% / year?
Compounding. 1% compounded daily over 252 trading days = (1.01)^252 ≈ 12.55, or about 1,155% — but the catch is that 1% / day net of fees, taxes, and slippage is not something anyone sustains in real markets.
Should I use trading days or calendar days?
Trading days (~252/year) for active strategies. Calendar days for buy-and-hold or weekly cadences. The math doesn't care; you just need to be consistent with what your rate represents.
Is this realistic?
Per-period rates that look small (0.1% / day) compound to extraordinary numbers (28% / year). That's what makes a real edge so valuable — and so rare. Use realistic rates, not aspirational ones.
NEXT
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