In other words, trading. Of course, you would have to adjust these percents for different types of stocks, but I say it's better to find stocks that do work well with the 2.5 percent system than trying to find stocks which fit a different model. And greed is bad. In other words, more than you need to be successful at trading. You know the old saying, pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered.
Many people work all week for that.
Keep in mind, if you reduce your risk by not using margin, your returns will be less. The chart below was generated using a little compounding program that simulates a series of profitable trades. It's simply to give you an idea of the power of compounding and routine profit taking. This could be done over several months, or even a full year and the results would still be outstanding. Again, this is only an example and does not take into account the very real possibility of losses, but you get the idea.