Grim future for day trading as a career

[speedo]

Its over a decade now into my search for truly succesful DIY day traders -- they always vanish when facts are requested. NothIng new here. B

I have nothing to prove nor anyone to convince. What some jackoffs in a forum think is totally irrelevant There are many newbies and struggling traders who come to this forum for guidance and direction and are instead overwhelmed with negativity and arrogance The purpose of my post was to let them know that one can succeed at day trading.

Through the years we hear the same shit...."Nobody makes money day trading....only the insiders make money....it's rigged....commissions and fees eat you up...etc etc" It's the same losers making the same excuses. Trading is hard and it takes a lot longer and is more expensive than expectations but many of us do it although not nearly as many as those who don't or can't.

Trading, like many demanding professions requires a skill set that takes time to develop and usually requires a fundamental change in behavior and how one deals with emotions under stress. The difference is there is no barrier to entry....no advanced degrees required, no certifications no rigorous exams to pass. Just slam some sheckels into an account, attend a few workshops, read some books and you are now free to lose money.

I don't encourage anyone to get into the field because it is so difficult but I would not discourage anyone with the passion to succeed. Just understand that it will be a tough road and don't let the bastards get you down.

 

[profitlocker]

Trading, like many demanding professions requires a skill set that takes time to develop and usually requires a fundamental change in behavior and how one deals with emotions under stress

This is true. That fundamental change in behavior also tends to make you so emotionally sterile, that it can cause problems in your personal life. You become the market. I also advise people to not pursue trading unless they want to sell their soul

 

[speedo]

This is true. That fundamental change in behavior also tends to make you so emotionally sterile, that it can cause problems in your personal life. You become the market. I also advise people to not pursue trading unless they want to sell their soul

Emotions are part of the human condition and cannot be removed save by a lobotomy or brain lesion. What one has to do is learn to recognize emotions as they arise and not let them sway you from your plan. It's a learned response that fortunately does not require any soul selling. There are those who claim to be emotionless while trading but I find that hard to believe.

 

[wrbtrader]

...Trading, like many demanding professions requires a skill set that takes time to develop and usually requires a fundamental change in behavior and how one deals with emotions under stress. The difference is there is no barrier to entry....no advanced degrees required, no certifications no rigorous exams to pass. Just slam some sheckels into an account, attend a few workshops, read some books and you are now free to lose money.

I don't encourage anyone to get into the field because it is so difficult but I would not discourage anyone with the passion to succeed. Just understand that it will be a tough road and don't let the bastards get you down.

Completely agree.

Unfortunately, the lack of a barrier is problematic on the surface because too many people get involved in trading when they shouldn't be trading. I remember as a teenager...I thought to be a trader one would needed to go to college for such or go to some technical school like those setup for someone wanting to learn how to be a welder or needed to pass some kind'uv proficiency test...

Talk about being naive.

To make matters worst involving those t, many eventually develop this blame game and/or doom gloom outlook while they continue trading.

Then there are the the naysayers especially the ironic ones that believe they are the only profitable trader on the planet or their method is the only method that works. :eek:

P.S. I remember as a teenager...I thought to be a trader one would needed to go to college for such or go to some technical school like those setup for someone wanting to learn how to be a welder or needed to pass some kind'uv proficiency test...

Talk about being naive.

Today, more universities are teaching trading and have high tech trading rooms for their students in the school of business or whatever. Maybe that's a hint by those that eventually may become professional traders ?

 

[piezoe]

Every US citizen here on ET needs to get out there and vote Republican next year.

Haven't these past 7 years shown how hard it can become for a typical business person to make an honest living? Ever increasing taxes, regulations, red-tape, paperwork.

Clinton would basically be Obama part deux. Sanders would be Libtard on steroids.

VOTE REPUBLICAN

I have a different point of view. I am neither a democrat nor republican, and I live in a State where my vote in presidential elections won't make any difference, since we don't elect our presidents democratically. My income also fits into the top 10%, so I am not hurting financially. But I am of the opinion that traders, and everyone else, will do better financially, and in many other ways, if we adopt policies that will strengthen the middle class.

It has been the near elimination of progressiveness in the U.S. income tax structure, the persistent taxing of unearned income at lower rates than earned, the adoption of supply-side, trickle-down economics, and its continual, misguided and relentless championing by the Republicans, that has resulted in continuous redistribution of wealth from the lower middle classes to the wealthy. The Republicans strongly support the redistribution of wealth, something that as a capitalist I am firmly against. The continuous application of these Republican economic principles have decimated the lower middle class in the U.S. The Republicans want to spend still more on our military per capita, despite our entire defense department and all our brave men and women who serve in our military, along with our VA hospitals, being virtually 100% socialized. And we all know how terribly inefficient socialism can be! (C'mon $350 for a toilet seat, seven million for a missile?!!!) Our socialized department of defense is the most inefficient of all government operations. I am a capitalist. I believe in capitalism. And I believe that restoring the middle class and paying an honest wage for a days work will restore our country, its capitalist ideals and make our country great again. I hate the democrats, but I am left with no choice. The Republicans are worse! Vote Democrat. "Make Our Country Great Again."

 

[DDR]

I've quoted this before :
"Good traders know the markets Great traders know themselves"
Until a trader really understands this he will not become consistent.
Forget entries, indicators, charts, studying this is putting the cart before the horse.
Fix "you" first or expect more of the same.

 

[PoundTheRock]

Remember the good old days of SOES over headsets?

"Load CSCO at 32 1/4."

"Bid CSCO"

...Order filled at 32 1/4...

"Offer CSCO at 32 1/2."

...Order filled at 32 1/2...

Repeat 50 times.

 

[Occam]

Its over a decade now into my search for truly succesful DIY day traders -- they always vanish when facts are requested. NothIng new here. B

I'm not sure you'll find what you're looking for here. Many traders on ET are looking for a largely anonymous forum; the "truly successful" have little-to-no economic incentive to provide an Internet forum with definitive confirmation of their success, as this could open them up to fraud, amongst other things.

FYI, highly successful traders are periodically offered large sums (running into hundreds of millions) to run, once their brokers (but only certain brokers) see how well they're doing; if they accept, at that point many of them are no longer "DIY", by most peoples' definition.

Alternatively, James Harris Simons could be considered a "truly successful DIY day trader", if you consider how he started out. The fact that he now owns the world's most successful hedge fund is an outgrowth of his initial, DIY trading.

Also, not to say this is the case with you, but it often seems on these forums that those searching for a confirmation of their belief (e.g., "there are no successful DIY traders") move the goalposts to satisfy their presupposed conclusion; for example, another ET thread gave the "really successful" criterion as meaning something like trading $10,000 into $100,000,000 within 2 years. No one has done this, therefore it's impossible to be "really successful at trading", according to that person's definition.

To look at this from another angle, how much are you willing to pay to get whatever "confirmation" you need, and exactly what sort of "confirmation" would you need, and exactly what performance? Maybe someone will bite if you clarify this, and start another thread, making a very specific proposal that could be brokered by Baron.

 

[Q3D]

The outlier, that is the successful discretionary day trader is a dying breed and is facing an ever-increasing rate of attrition. However if "million dollar trader" Don Miller meets his $10,000,000 challenge I will accept that as success even though he has other businesses for sustainable income.

If the latest developments in AI continue at the current pace soon trading algorithms will be self-evolving. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/11/s...telligence-rivals-human-vision-abilities.html

 

[marketsurfer]

I'm not sure you'll find what you're looking for here. Many traders on ET are looking for a largely anonymous forum; the "truly successful" have little-to-no economic incentive to provide an Internet forum with definitive confirmation of their success, as this could open them up to fraud, amongst other things.

FYI, highly successful traders are periodically offered large sums (running into hundreds of millions) to run, once their brokers (but only certain brokers) see how well they're doing; if they accept, at that point many of them are no longer "DIY", by most peoples' definition.

Alternatively, James Harris Simons could be considered a "truly successful DIY day trader", if you consider how he started out. The fact that he now owns the world's most successful hedge fund is an outgrowth of his initial, DIY trading.

Also, not to say this is the case with you, but it often seems on these forums that those searching for a confirmation of their belief (e.g., "there are no successful DIY traders") move the goalposts to satisfy their presupposed conclusion; for example, another ET thread gave the "really successful" criterion as meaning something like trading $10,000 into $100,000,000 within 2 years. No one has done this, therefore it's impossible to be "really successful at trading", according to that person's definition.

To look at this from another angle, how much are you willing to pay to get whatever "confirmation" you need, and exactly what sort of "confirmation" would you need, and exactly what performance? Maybe someone will bite if you clarify this, and start another thread, making a very specific proposal that could be brokered by Baron.

Then the obvious question is why do they post here at all claiming to be succesful traders if anonimity is so critical??

Makes zero sense. The last guy who claims to do it vanished when asked for identity. Same story for a decade straight-- not one who isnt a vendor ever stepped up. Clearly they are hiding the truth about their income source of funds and or everything.

Most succesful people are proud of their accomplishments and dont need to hide. If they do need to truly hide, posting on the internet even anononymously is just plain stupid.

surf