My friend who has been trading for profitably for 6 years moved from position trading to day trading. He got sucked into day trading
Trading profitably for the past 6 years? WTF does that mean? Just about anyone who has bought anything and has held that position has been trading profitably for the last 6 years. The last 11 years to be exact.
This is a guy I spent hundreds of hours a year teaching him the ropes about position trading. He made very good money trading 8 - 10 times a year but he wanted more - he wanted the $10k+ a day big trades. Thanks to falling for the flashy trading literature and false promises doing the rounds everywhere
Well, obviously there is one thing you could not teach your friend in all those hundreds of hours of tutelage, and that is discipline. Discipline is required in all styles of trading and you either have it or you don't.
Besides not having discipline it sounds like your friend has an issue with greed as well. As the saying goes "It's easy to cheat a greedy man" - 'sucked into day trading' - 'falling for the flashy trading literature' - You make it out that he was victimized by something other than his own greed.
And with $450K positioned how did he not have $10K days? That's only a 2.2% day, there have been plenty of them in the last 6 years.
And so he took the plunge Jan 2019 with his account size of $450k. Less than 18 months everything has gone. Vanished not a dime!
Well, that sucks. I'm sorry to hear that but it could have happened in any high risk business. He could have invested in a restaurant in January 2020 and lost it even faster.
I said it guys no one on this planet and consistently make money day trading. You might have a few lucky years but the market is going to take it all back.
This statement is not true. Some guys make it and get out, and then there is Jim Simmons.
As an ex-floor trader, if you want to be in the day-to-day action, you might as well take the lesser evil and start scalping provided you have the right exchange fees, broker agreements etc. Scalpers don't have to worry about overtrading (The number 1 killer for day traders) and just trade the spread. I only know of 2 former colleagues who were still scalping the bund via Kyte Brokers. But even they have packed it in and gone into property development. They are much happier after saying adios to 30 years of scalping
The general definition of scalping is not just trading the spread which for retail traders is really only left in crypto. HFT has erased that from all other markets. I consider my self a scalper among other trading designations because I trade a system that uses a 1 point target on the ES. Trades last take between 10 seconds and ten minutes on average.
Some traders prefer daytrading, "they are much happier" because they are not thinking of their position during the night or on the weekend. Its more like a job that is resilient to 9/11 type events.
Ultimately, I think most all traders are happier after saying adios to trading, after finding something better, after making a substantial amount or certainly after losing a substantial amount.
