Is day trading worth it?

[Laissez Faire]

You missed or purposely dismissed the assumption of "all things being equal" as the qualifier there.

Tell Lescor he could as easily work his prior firefighter job for a "consistent" income these past seven - ten years instead of what he's made from trading. Send him that PM, and see what he has to say.

I'm not going to discuss this any further with a vendor who very clearly does not have an edge!

 

[Alpha Trader]

I doubt that many who earn well really are even aware they have the "edge" so many here talk of...they just are too busy going forward doing better than others around them.

Lol. That is so true. A trader I know from NYC who is a very consistent trader over 12 years, tells me he still doesn't know what his "edge" is. Yet, year after year, he outdoes his PnL.

 

[Alpha Trader]

The overall "edge" is actually so simplistic, most of the failed traders here cannot possibly grasp how plainly simple the factors for "success" actually are. If laid out right in front of them as a trading plan, about all the failed traders would reply, "that's it? Nah... cannot be that simple. There must be more complexity to things than that."

Double-barrel guarantee that's the overall herd response.

Isn't that just the irony! However, in their defense, that simplicity has to be refined to such a point, that it requires a lot of work to get there.

 

[butterfacetrader]

A day trader isn't going to win 100% of the time every single day. So yes, if you're a supertrader who wins big every single day instead of just swing trading, then sure you can build networth quickly leveraging to the max every single day. But clearly nobody can do that. Otherwise these day traders will have exponential returns and they ought to start their own hedge funds. But with a day trade you're up against a lot of BS too like stop hunting and daily volatility that can stop you out early.

A swing trade just looks at trends on a longer term scale, and your levels are larger accordingly and you will not be a victim to daily volatility hitting your stop loss. Its also a lot less stress. Price moves to your level, you enter a trade and walk away. If and when it hits levels you take profit or take a loss. This can happen over 1-2 days. You don't need to be glued to a screen. You can go read the news while it plays out. With a day trade you're glued to the screen on a second by second basis looking at each tick move.

Anyway like it was mentioned, there is no right way to trade. You trade what you know and what you're good at. Whether that is day trading or swing trading. Just saying that day trading is better because you can use higher leverage on a day trade because of intraday margining rules, is just ignorant. Its about reaching the target $$ amount that counts. With such a high day trade leverage, your stops are gonna be miniscule compared to what you can take with a smaller position in a swing trade. Your highly leveraged day trade has way less margin of error in the trade execution. It is highly unlikely you can pick precise tops and bottoms to enter trades. A swing trade allows a better margin of error in this timing.

 

[tiddlywinks]

With a job you have consistent income even if you have a bad day and you don't have to worry about a market that's consistently changing (I hear you complaining about volatility a lot).

That's a crutch argument for
1) people who WANT to be self-made but cannot for whatever mental or physical reason, or do not have the necessary characteristics in the first place but think they do.
2) newly minted socialist-esque mindsets where it's ok to be a schlub and get paid for it.

Not worry about a market that's consistently changing? You mean like DNKN or SBUX, where rain affects peoples daily patterns. Or GM recalling millions of vehicles allowing F to set records. Or GILD. An actual cure that noone wants to pay for. Sure would be nice to have a job in one of those staid and seldom changing environments wouldn't it?

 

[Visaria]

A day trader isn't going to win 100% of the time every single day. So yes, if you're a supertrader who wins big every single day instead of just swing trading, then sure you can build networth quickly leveraging to the max every single day. But clearly nobody can do that. Otherwise these day traders will have exponential returns and they ought to start their own hedge funds. But with a day trade you're up against a lot of BS too like stop hunting and daily volatility that can stop you out early.

A swing trade just looks at trends on a longer term scale, and your levels are larger accordingly and you will not be a victim to daily volatility hitting your stop loss. Its also a lot less stress. Price moves to your level, you enter a trade and walk away. If and when it hits levels you take profit or take a loss. This can happen over 1-2 days. You don't need to be glued to a screen. You can go read the news while it plays out. With a day trade you're glued to the screen on a second by second basis looking at each tick move.

Anyway like it was mentioned, there is no right way to trade. You trade what you know and what you're good at. Whether that is day trading or swing trading. Just saying that day trading is better because you can use higher leverage on a day trade because of intraday margining rules, is just ignorant. Its about reaching the target $$ amount that counts. With such a high day trade leverage, your stops are gonna be miniscule compared to what you can take with a smaller position in a swing trade. Your highly leveraged day trade has way less margin of error in the trade execution. It is highly unlikely you can pick precise tops and bottoms to enter trades. A swing trade allows a better margin of error in this timing.

Good post. In addition, it's day traders that compete with bots (good luck taking on the machines), macro traders like me couldn't care less about bots.

 

[Alpha Trader]

A day trader isn't going to win 100% of the time every single day.

True. If your win rate is 60-70%, you would be a trader on steroids!

But with a day trade you're up against a lot of BS too like stop hunting

I can't comment on this as I do not trade using hard stops. However, even if one was, there are certain entry points that would keep you in 80-90% of the time based on different factors.

daily volatility that can stop you out early.

This may apply to a scalper more than someone that tries to aim for bigger intraday swings.

Its also a lot less stress.

So is intraday trading. Once you have a set method (and provided you are not scalping).

You don't need to be glued to a screen. With a day trade you're glued to the screen on a second by second basis looking at each tick move.

The opening and closing (if you have open positions and don't want to hold overnight) requires you to be there 100%. You get a few breaks in between, but overall I have to take you on this one, in that, you lose your freedom.

Anyway like it was mentioned, there is no right way to trade. You trade what you know and what you're good at. Whether that is day trading or swing trading.

+1

Just saying that day trading is better because you can use higher leverage on a day trade because of intraday margining rules, is just ignorant.

I agree with you on this too. The real advantage with intraday trading is the R:R you get. At a minimum, the least I will enter trades at, give a 4:1; the best tend to be 10:1+(less frequent). You can very rarely get this kind of a ratio with swing trades.

Also, how do you handle 10%+ pre/post-market drop (for eg. with AMZN last week), unless you have market orders set? And we know how we get filled on those orders as retail traders

 

[failed_trad3r]

Only time I had an edge and was printing money for a period, was when exploiting a slow feed of a european spreadbet company and I was making lots of money every day until they closed my account a month or so down the line!

Once i found a bug in a website of a bear raider which allowed me to see the company they were going to attack next. Free money, but it lasted too only a month or so. Alas....

 

[tiddlywinks]

Price moves to your level, you enter a trade and walk away. If and when it hits levels you take profit or take a loss.

This sounds like trading with a plan. Successful trading intraday, swing, or investing all require a plan.

With a day trade you're glued to the screen on a second by second basis looking at each tick move.

If YOU say so, then it is.

Anyway like it was mentioned, there is no right way to trade. You trade what you know and what you're good at. Whether that is day trading or swing trading. Just saying that day trading is better because you can use higher leverage on a day trade because of intraday margining rules, is just ignorant. Its about reaching the target $$ amount that counts.

+1

With such a high day trade leverage, your stops are gonna be miniscule compared to what you can take with a smaller position in a swing trade. Your highly leveraged day trade has way less margin of error in the trade execution. It is highly unlikely you can pick precise tops and bottoms to enter trades. A swing trade allows a better margin of error in this timing.

Picking tops and bottoms? Wanting a larger margin of error? Perhaps the plan needs tweaking

 

[austinp]

I'm not going to discuss this any further with a vendor who very clearly does not have an edge!

lol! OK then, but why not do as I suggested and ask a 3rd party non-vendor like Lescor?

Why not? Because his answer would fly in your face of purposely decided disbelief. Then where would you be, mentally and emotionally?