Is day trading worth it?

trip said:
...All I've said is I find the SLA rules a bit fuzzy which explains why so many that have tried to apply them - including me - have failed. I don't think the error is on the student in this case. Not necessarily on the teacher, either...
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It doesn't matter what the method is...most are going to fail while using it while only a few will not fail. That's just what happens when learning a discretionary method (something that's not automated from start to finish).

Further, the issue really then isn't the student/teacher...its really the student/student. Thus, what are "the few" doing that "the most" are not doing. That's the real issue (question) in my opinion and something that may not possibly have an answer.
 
dbphoenix said:
Mark (wrb) is another one who understands what a trader's mindset is.
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This is unfortunately the one critical flaw of SLA. It has to be applied by someone who will trade trade it without emotion, who will trade it long enough to let the power of statistics/statistical edge do its thing, and who won't let a few previous trades influence the next trade. I have had far too many bad days just because I'm reluctant to take the next SLA trade which ends up being quite the winner.

It doesn't work as well in a tight range of course, but once again, give it a solid week and I think almost every single week would produce a positive outcome.

The thing is though that you need to figure out how tight you will draw your lines and at what point you exit given a line break. These choices I guess the trader has to define, and once you pick variables that work well, just stick with it, time and time again!

I myself am working on putting this into practice.
 
Can trading skills be taught?

Bruce Kovner: Only to a limited extent. Over the years, I have tried to train perhaps thirty people, and only four or five of those have turned out to be good traders.

Richard Dennis: Almost anybody can make up a list of rules that are 80 percent as good as what we taught our people. What they couldn't do is give them the confidence to stick to those rules even when things are going bad.

Marty Schwartz: I hired four people, but nobody lasted. They all became intimidated. I tried to clone myself and it didn't work. I taught them all my methodologies, but learning the intellectual side is only part of it. You can't teach them your stomach.

William Eckhardt: Anyone with average intelligence can learn to trade. This is not rocket science. However, it's much easier to learn what you should do in trading than to do it. Good systems tend to violate normal human tendencies. Of the people who can learn the basics, only a small percentage will be successful traders.

Richard Driehaus: It can be taught as long as the person has an open mind. I like to say that the mind is like a parachute-it's only good when it's open. Of course, each person must still develop an individual philosophy and tailor basic trading concepts to his or her own personality.

Victor Sperandeo: Over a five-year period, I trained thirty-eight people. Each of these people spent several months by my side while I taught them virtually everything I knew about the market. Out of these thirty-eight people, five made money.

Is day trading worth it? Maybe. At the very least you need to be in the minority who can be taught (or learn for yourself).
 
Laissez Faire said:
Hello all,

I started out swing trading stocks by submitting orders and managing my positions outside market hours. In a relatively short amount of time, I made what seemed like (and was) a small fortune to me at the time. My method was simple and stress free, but after honoring my stops always, I found myself in a large position that went against me immediately and I simply could not take the loss.......

I started out studying day trading and spent thousands of hours trying to figure out the nature of intraday movements. I've had periods of success and feel that I have a very good read of the market most of the time, but ultimately, I was not consistently successful for various reasons. ................

I'm just thinking that swing trading may be just as rewarding, less stressful and even more financially rewarding than day trading, while at the same time leaving time to pursue other interests (which I have a lot of).

Any thoughts on the subject?

Please keep it civil. : )

Thanks.
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Mr LF899;
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Well Don Bright Trading Co+ many market makers -specialists do well daytrading.
But investors, as a group do so much better than day traders, as a group........Investors usually have much less comissions exspense, less slippage, less stress.

Did you read book Market makers Edge;
+ note multi month candlecharts???????????????????????????????????????????????????????


Also you may do much better if you plan + pray before you get into trouble,LOL:cool:

PS. I have done it both ways, also,plan + pray early and late ;; early is best for prayer+ plan,,word to the wise/LOL:D
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k p said:
The thing is though that you need to figure out how tight you will draw your lines and at what point you exit given a line break.
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So the original rules are a bit fuzzy? Or perhaps you're not following them.

I'm just sayin'...

:p
 
Pigsky: "I've never shared my rules on ET. I spent thousands of hours getting to a consistently profitable day trading plan. I wouldn't share my written plan with anyone, nor would I sell it (I've had a few offers). "

Again, I've never shared my rules nor my plan on ET.

I've never formally mentored anyone. I've informally mentored people. I consider informal mentoring to be spending chart time with someone and explaining my core setups and how to enter. Several people got to the point of understanding this; almost none could bring themselves to trade these setups. One woman claimed to be consistently profitable trading my "ATM" setup (which I've shared at length on ET), but we've been out of touch since that claim and I have no idea what she's up to.

I consider formal mentoring to be either a paid situation or a situation where a student watches a trader trade each day while learning the details of the trading method. I have no interest in such.

As far as I know, I've only shared valuable information with regard to high probability trading setups and I've even shared the entry methods I use.

As far as I know, I've never caused anyone harm through my logical demonstrations and illustrations of high probability, low risk price action scalping setups and methods, which anyone can study and test at length.

Yet a pack of rabid ET-ers continue to follow me around and insult me, ET-ers who, by the way, have offered us NO DETAILED TRADING INFORMATION WHATSOEVER TO WHICH WE CAN APPLY STATISTICAL ANALYSES.

No, instead these rude members spew personal opinions, misinterpret plain English and spin it to fit their overwhelming need to convince everyone that there are no edges in the market that an ordinary person can exploit, and most of them haven't even provided evidence that they've been profitable for any length of time.

As always, ET never fails to astound!
 
pinkman said:
If someone was given a proper edge, the recipient couldn't really fail to make money with it. People fail because they are trying to beat the market with all of their lines on their charts that are really just a coin-toss
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People fail because they have no edge or they have an edge but lack the stamina to trade it with discipline.

Take my highest probability setup, my ATM machine, so to speak. It's easy to explain, it's easy to recognize (price is making new daily highs or lows), and it's easy to run a statistical analysis of it with any particular trading instrument to determine how best to enter and manage the trade.

What's nearly impossible for most is to actually place the order because this setup always feels like you're entering during a trend reversal and you're going to be the idiot who bought near the high or sold near the low.

Nothing like ego to ruin a good thing.

Here's the ATM setup for those who think I said it's so easy a caveman can do it:

http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?t=281746
 
Sharing a strategy and teaching someone how to trade are completely two different things. Too many traders think in error that they are the same.

In fact, I've seen hundreds of threads at ET where someone shared their trade method. In contrast, I've never seen a thread at ET where someone "teaches someone how to trade".

Successful trading involves so much more than just a trade strategy. Simply, learning a strategy from hindsight charts is OK but that's just a little piece of the puzzle and it can not possibly be a replacement for learning how to trade.

Never has and never will be.

Yeah, day trading can be worth it but so few have what it takes to get beyond learning a strategy.
 
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