Another day trader bites the dust

My friend day trading for 8 years. Quit his job and started with $500k capital. Oh yes he had great days like most day traders, like most poker players and roulette players but guess what? He lost in the long term and after 8 years closed his account. Why? Because day traders think short term, they see short term and have short term memories.

The most successful traders of all time are not day traders.

The only famous day traders are shills who sold the dream. Guy like Larry Williams who was more of a sales man than a trader.

The reason why selling the day trading dream is because it is instanct cash and people are greedy and attracted to quick riches.

If you told people they will have to wait 2 months to make a trade and read all the analytics, they wont bother with trading. If you told people to emulate the most successful; traders of all time they wont bother.

But as a position trader I love day traders, these suckers provide liquidity so they do have a use.


Can't fathom why one trader would revel in another trader's demise

Can't fathom why one person.., calling another person their friend - would revel in their friend's demise

Sad..., pathetic..., or fucked up

Yup

RN
 
Can't fathom why one trader would revel in another trader's demise

Can't fathom why one person.., calling another person their friend - would revel in their friend's demise

Sad..., pathetic..., or fucked up

Yup

RN
Serious case of Schadenfreude. I'm glad I don't have any "friends" like this guy.
 
My friend day trading for 8 years. Quit his job and started with $500k capital. Oh yes he had great days like most day traders, like most poker players and roulette players but guess what? He lost in the long term and after 8 years closed his account. Why? Because day traders think short term, they see short term and have short term memories.

The most successful traders of all time are not day traders.

The only famous day traders are shills who sold the dream. Guy like Larry Williams who was more of a sales man than a trader.

The reason why selling the day trading dream is because it is instanct cash and people are greedy and attracted to quick riches.

If you told people they will have to wait 2 months to make a trade and read all the analytics, they wont bother with trading. If you told people to emulate the most successful; traders of all time they wont bother.

But as a position trader I love day traders, these suckers provide liquidity so they do have a use.

What a load of BS. Utter dribble.
 
With my trading it is true I think short term. It is true I see the market from a short term perspective. The "short term memory" thing is B.S.

Why would I pretend to know what the market is going to do long term? Why would I care what the long term outlook is? I am looking to get 10 to 20 ticks off a short term move; how would a long term bias aid me?
 
With my trading it is true I think short term. It is true I see the market from a short term perspective. The "short term memory" thing is B.S.

Why would I pretend to know what the market is going to do long term? Why would I care what the long term outlook is? I am looking to get 10 to 20 ticks off a short term move; how would a long term bias aid me?
Are you a consistent profitable trader?
 
My friend day trading for 8 years. Quit his job and started with $500k capital. Oh yes he had great days like most day traders, like most poker players and roulette players but guess what? He lost in the long term and after 8 years closed his account. Why? Because day traders think short term, they see short term and have short term memories.

We are not getting the whole story here. How much did he have in his account when he closed it? What was his lifestyle? If he made nothing trading he was only spending $62,500 a year to live. Not that much in today’s economy.

You also failed to mention what might be helpful to other traders. Why did your friend not succeed? Did his edge fail, was he a gambler rather than a trader, or was he semi successful then went on tilt.


Anecdotally I went from day trading to swing and position trading not because I couldn’t make any money but because I achieved about the same returns, and left my days free to pursue other activities. Did I mention less stress?:)
 
IMO the only time it pays to make more intraday trades than swing/position trades is when volatility and range rises such that there are legitimately more opportunities within a session. It's also important that the volatility is good volatility and not toxic volatility where price is volatile but irrational and untradable. If volatility is just ho-hum then your TIME is worth more. This is also why some day traders stick to specific parts of the session (like the open) and then go do something else for the rest of the day.

As a real world example, take Crude back in Jan-Mar vs now. I'd rather be day trading the former and swing trading the latter.

Also remember that every trade put on is an opportunity to lose money.
 
Had you considered (a) day traders become longer term traders and (b) day trading as we know it is relatively new?

Once you get good at day trading you transition to swing-trading and position-trading as your stock or options continually behave. It's a craving for action and stupidity that blow's up peoples accounts. If your buddy survived eight years, as asked by others, how much did he spend on living expenses or taking care of his family. He lasted eight years is great, there's more that loose $250k less than a year than survive eight years off $500k

Smart Traders transition back to Day or Overnight Trading once the Market becomes less visible like it's acting now. Short Sellers holding positions in Oil MLPs might consider changing up after having made a killing.
 
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