Its not just Day Trading. Trading in general is a "pipedream" for most people. All the qualities needed to be a successfull Day Trader are very much the same for longer-term trading styles.
Day Trading is a pipedream.
- Thread starter guy990opl
- Start date
I don't agree. Even if you're able to make 100% a year consistently, if you're starting with a small bankroll (like, $10k) it will still be many years before you're taking home real profits. And then, any money that you use to pay rent, food, etc. isn't going into building up your capital.
I think being undercapitalized (which I'd say is having anything less than $100k available in your trading account) is one of the biggest stumbling blocks on the learning curve.
Now this does not apply if you've got a real job, you're trading as a hobby with some pocket money, and you don't really care about generating substantial, consistent income from it. But when you're just starting out and trying to become a fulltime professional trader, your chances are obviously much better if you've got a large bankroll than a small one.
Should govt regulation promote http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Value_investing OR http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algorithmic_trading ?
When I get asked about trading, I don't hesitate to say Google "Jack Hershey" and to read his posts on ET going back to the beginning under his name and bubba7 and Grob109. I also pass along a couple of pdfs he wrote that puts things in a neat package as a good starter. Usually I also get asked for book recommendations and I don't have any to recommend.
There is a 3 to 4 year period in the archives that in my opinion is the best resource available on the web for gaining a beginner's perspective. Participating in the collaborative effort of earnest people learning how to trade is probably the best that can be achieved from a message board. Reading about such efforts is second best. Unfortunately, the owner of this site doesn't make judgments about the value of contributions to the trading community let alone keep good ones in the archives. Some really good contributions have been lost.
ET exists because it fills a need for vendors that target a niche group of people. That group consists of beginners mostly and there is a lot of churning as people come and go. The vendors stay in business if they meet the expectations of people who do not know how to trade. Curiously, many people who do not know how to trade have strong opinions about how it is done. (I leave out the people who strongly believe it cannot be done to whom all vendors sell useless products and services or are crooks.) It is unclear where these strong opinions originate but you do see them displayed here on ET for all to see. ET has always been useful for that.
What are you a fucking moron? You can have 10K in a leveraged account and trade with 300,000 to 400,000k buying power each and every day. You don't agree because you have limited knowledge.
Good professional traders understand how to use buying power and limit risk. This isn't fucking INVESTING. I am never lack for finding morons like this guy who have no idea what real trading is about and continue to link performance to returns on equity. In trading, its all about returns on buying power.
You are a complete dumbass. Trading is equity invariant as long as you cover your fees. Fuck man, think. Tired of dumbass morons on this site attempting to say you need X amount of dollars to trade profitably or even successfully.
The limitations and why these uneducated (uneducated in trading) folk love to base their assumption on is that, yes, when you are managing 100million or 1 billion its harder to achieve large percentage gains. You will likely have less leverage to equity and have to deal with illiquidity problems associated with moving large $$ in and out of financial instruments. But you cant' base those smaller percent returns and use that to say "well you can't earn 100% on 10K each year" thats bullshit. If you are good you can take 10K and make it 50K in 6 months, based on good trading, leverage. Now here comes the bullshit responses ...from limited minds who know nothing about real pro trading, nor the advantage of being smaller (means you can trade anythign w/o much liquidity probelm..yes stuff the biggers guys can't even touch because of liquidity issues).
Just moronic uneducated comments. Im tired of them, thats why im swearing.
But as a smaller professional trader, using 10, 20 30 grand in a prop leveraged account you can easily and consistently pull large % returns when you are good. And the return is off buying power not equity.
God, does the ignorance ever end? unbelievable. its unbelievable that we have so much information on this site and still get crap like this printed.
If you are bad...starting with 100K vs. 10K is a detriment. You are just as likely to lose it.
We are not talking about BAD traders, dumbshit. We are talking about daytrading well...meaning...you are profitable. If you are a good trader you can take nearly any stake and build it into much, much more.
If I didn't trade I could go to las vegas and build a stake of a couple of grand via blackjack or poker in a short period of time. In fact, if I lost all of my money i would get a few hundred and start there...because i have done it before and can still do it.
Those are other areas where you can win big when you are not greedy and are a smaller gambler or trader.
I can just hear the bullshit comments coming now. these are all from people who have not done much in trading, poker, or blackjack.
And if they continue to believe their own crap they will never do it either.
To there....f U...uneducated mindless pricks. stop polluting this site with your lack of knowledge of trading success, your limitless bullshit on what it takes to make money (cause you don't know firsthand) and trying to seem like your opinions are effective. They are crap.
depends what u mean by consistency, back at my old office i met traders who were consistently making v.good money for 5-6 yrs, and now i hear they are out of the game, through not taking losses but simply not making any for extended periods while having to pay living expenses, mortgage,etc.
obviously we also live in a society, especially american society, which places primacy on instantaneous fulfillment and the illusion of permanence. so when we think we have switched on the lightbulb in trading, it stays on forever, while continuing to spend all our money on fulfilling our material desires.
and suddenly for whatever reason, shit dries up, your strategy dosent work...you try adapting, finding a new strat, but to new avail as you turn round and round chasing your own tail, becoming a despondent wreck despite your early successes.
obviously we also live in a society, especially american society, which places primacy on instantaneous fulfillment and the illusion of permanence. so when we think we have switched on the lightbulb in trading, it stays on forever, while continuing to spend all our money on fulfilling our material desires.
and suddenly for whatever reason, shit dries up, your strategy dosent work...you try adapting, finding a new strat, but to new avail as you turn round and round chasing your own tail, becoming a despondent wreck despite your early successes.
Mohdsalleh, I know you've complained about lack of liquidity in many of your posts. I am not saying I am the authority on giving advice BUT traders who don't adapt die, its as simple as that, that's what makes this profession so difficult. Many guys were making a ton of money before decimalization for example, or on the floor then couldn't adapt on screen, and so on. Once you are successful its very important, in my humble opinion, to continue testing new strategies because nothing lasts forever. If you do make good money, don't be a rockstar but save for that proverbial rainy day, because your one-hit wonder method might not work once the market changes. No point in complaining about it as that won't change anything. This isn't directed at you personally, but its more of a general observation. Good luck