If most daytraders lose money, then...

Quote from Pa(b)st Prime:

"Few other fields have more published rules and guidelines than trading. After all, there's no Idiots Guide To Trial Defense. We've been inundated for decades with the old saws about cutting losses quickly and letting winners run. Still we see little improvement in the trading performance of most participants. Futures trading is truly a zero sum game. "

http://www.tradingmarkets.com/.site/stocks/commentary/editorialarticles/-76549.cfm
Actually, it's a negative sum game, because of commissions and bid-ask spread.
 
test your theory.

Open two demo accounts, on one, do what you would normally do, and on the other, do the EXACT opposite.

So if one loss is becoming too big and you exit because you're freaking out, you have to exit the other one at the same exact time. No saying "oh, well this one is winning so I'll hold it longer and let it ride." If you do that, you're not doing the exact opposite on both sides.

Do this, and report back here with your results.
 
majority lose for two reasons. majority of people in the market are amateurs and don't do this for a living or have any professional training.

1. amateurs don't know how to trade.
2. pigs(overleveraged)

100% of professional traders and investors make money.

it is true,

bears make money

bulls make money

morons and pigs get slaughtered.


Quote from trackstar:

LOL you think the stats are better for any other type of trader?

Speculator, Trader, Day trader, and especially INVESTOR.

The majority LOSE. Thats how life works. If everyone won it wouldnt be any fun anyway would it?
 
Quote from IShopAtPublix:

There is a bigger risk involved in trading fickle 1minute trends than holding overnight for the simple reason that nothing MAJOR has to happen in order to reverse it out of the blue. In order to reverse a trend on a 6months chart you need millions of shares. In order to reverse a 1 minute "trend" a few thousand(hundred even) may do. Big difference.

Wow, this is by far the best advice to give to ANYONE.

"Day trading" is pure gambling. 1 min trends can easily be punished by size.
I started trading big 60day 10min charts and I get bi-weekly signals.

Fooled by Randomness... the first time trader gets caught up in the action, and it's exciting and fun, until you blow up or NEARLY blow up!

I applaud you IShopAtPublix :D
 
Quote from IronFist:

test your theory.

Open two demo accounts, on one, do what you would normally do, and on the other, do the EXACT opposite.

So if one loss is becoming too big and you exit because you're freaking out, you have to exit the other one at the same exact time. No saying "oh, well this one is winning so I'll hold it longer and let it ride." If you do that, you're not doing the exact opposite on both sides.

Do this, and report back here with your results.
In the long run both accounts will lose, again because of commissions and the bid-ask spread.
 
Just imagine you have really big money. What would you do in order to get even more (by trading)?

You can get more money only by taking it from others.

You lead other people to sell although price is essentially set to go up and buy when it is going down.

This can be achieved by activating greed and fear in people. And this can surely be done best in people that are not very experienced and/or have small pockets. (You cannot scare other people with big moose so easily).


How can you achieve taking from the small traders best?

You might want to establish a way to get hard data on how many of those people are reacting to the actual path of price (something like a big continuous poll).

That means it would be really helpful if you had a direct connection to an online broker where you can see how many people are taking long or short positions and what their entry prices are.
If you just had a data set of some hundred people you surely could extrapolate this to the whole community of small/unexperienced traders. In fact this data would be priceless if you were running the strategy outlined.
 
How about this: Have one demo account in which you trade all the typical T.A. signals such as trend line breaks , double tops and bottoms etc , when you feel it's time to take a loss then you enter the opposite order in your real account, if the amateurs are exiting at those levels then that must be where the pros are entering, simple!
 
Quote from IShopAtPublix:

Day traders fail for the simple reason they take the complexity of the markets and take it to the next level. 1 minute chart "trends" are superficial and erratic. So you take the stress, the complexity of the markets and multiply it many times over only because people are afraid of holding positions overnight or have no confidence in longer trends.

I am a day trader and struggling, so what chart timeline should I use, as the books I have read do not address this issue.
 
rally silly thesis as to 1min being the downfall for daytraders losing. where do you get your data that 'daytraders' only use a 1min chart?
 
Quote from tradersboredom:

professional training.

1. amateurs don't know how to trade.
2. pigs(overleveraged)
[/B]

Oki, so where do I get the best professional trading training so I don't get slaughtered???
 
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