Is Daytrading difficult or impossible ?

speedo

speedo

This discussion keeps coming up on ET. To those of us who trade for a living, the question is silly. The answer is....daytrading is difficult. There are many endeavors which are more difficult, becoming an astronaut is more difficult, transplanting a kidney is more difficult, making the Olympics is more difficult as is becoming fluent in 6 languages, playing Paganini flawlessly by sight reading, becoming a Grand Master in a martial art etc etc.

People who aspire to these kinds of things don't come to anonymous online forums to ask if these things are possible, they set their goals and get to work. They (we) may fail but the surest way of not succeeding is to not try.

I don't encourage to get into this as most will not do what it takes but I will not discourage anyone who understands the difficulty and goes forth anyway.

I leave you with this...
 
Good tune. IMO good trading really isnt all that hard, buy stocks that are going up, short stoccks that go parabolic, seems easy enough, but the hardest part about trading is just mastering your emotions and sticking to your plan. I see traders that make it so complicated with a million different variables, but at the end of the day its not hard to find decent places to enter a stock, its really hard to hold though especially after a losing streak, and most people fail because of that simple fact.

Once you learn to accept risk and be patient as a trader, and not insist on making every trade a winner, by dumping early or averaging down, its like opening pandoras box, all of a sudden it becomes very easy.

I believe Jesse Livermore summed up this conundrum perfectly:


You always find lots of early bulls in bull markets and early bears in bear markets. I’ve known many men who were right at exactly the right time, and began buying or selling stocks when prices were at the very level which should show the greatest profit. And their experience invariably matched mine that is, they made no real money out of it.

Men who can both be right and sit tight are uncommon. I found it one of the hardest things to learn. But it is only after a stock operator has firmly grasped this that he can make big money. It is literally true that millions come easier to a trader after he knows how to trade than hundreds did in the days of his ignorance.

Edit: Nice tune btw, added it to my playlist, love it, thx.

speedo said:
This discussion keeps coming up on ET. To those of us who trade for a living, the question is silly. The answer is....daytrading is difficult. There are many endeavors which are more difficult, becoming an astronaut is more difficult, transplanting a kidney is more difficult, making the Olympics is more difficult as is becoming fluent in 6 languages, playing Paganini flawlessly by sight reading, becoming a Grand Master in a martial art etc etc.

People who aspire to these kinds of things don't come to anonymous online forums to ask if these things are possible, they set their goals and get to work. They (we) may fail but the surest way of not succeeding is to not try.

I don't encourage to get into this as most will not do what it takes but I will not discourage anyone who understands the difficulty and goes forth anyway.

I leave you with this...
More...
 
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recession2016 said:
That's simply false. You don't lose money working a job but you can lose money day trading. Day trading consistently is one of the hardest jobs in the world
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You didn`t get the point.I meant doing a job good without the boss behind your back is difficult.Money has nothing to do in this particular context.
 
Max E. Pad said:
Good tune. IMO good trading really isnt all that hard, buy stocks that are going up, short stoccks that go parabolic, seems easy enough, but the hardest part about trading is just mastering your emotions and sticking to your plan. I see traders that make it so complicated with a million different variables, but at the end of the day its not hard to find decent places to enter a stock, its really hard to hold though especially after a losing streak, and most people fail because of that simple fact.

Once you learn to accept risk and be patient as a trader, and not insist on making every trade a winner, by dumping early or averaging down, its like opening pandoras box, all of a sudden it becomes very easy.

I believe Jesse Livermore summed up this conundrum perfectly:


You always find lots of early bulls in bull markets and early bears in bear markets. I’ve known many men who were right at exactly the right time, and began buying or selling stocks when prices were at the very level which should show the greatest profit. And their experience invariably matched mine that is, they made no real money out of it.

Men who can both be right and sit tight are uncommon. I found it one of the hardest things to learn. But it is only after a stock operator has firmly grasped this that he can make big money. It is literally true that millions come easier to a trader after he knows how to trade than hundreds did in the days of his ignorance.

Edit: Nice tune btw, added it to my playlist, love it, thx.
More...
Yes, it's not the trading that is difficult...it's the getting there.
 
speedo said:
Yes, it's not the trading that is difficult...it's the getting there.
More...


Yep its all about the process, that why i laugh at people who subscribe to these people who are supposedly going to show them how to trade for 30 bucks a month. Bottom line is at the end of the day the only way to be successful is through the school of hard knocks, trial and error, you need to learn your own weaknesses. I could give people my exact entries every single day and they wouldnt be profitable till they learned how to trade those positions, and how to manage positions, when to add/exit. So many newbs are focused on the entry like there is some holy grail of trading, really the only holy grail is buying support and selling resistance, and buying/selling capitulation....... its very easy to find your spots, but its how you manage it once your in the trade that makes or breaks you.

Inevitably every time i hit a rough patch i start holding losers longer and cuttingf winners faster, so im in a constant battle against myself trying to fight that tendency, there is no trading system in the world unless it was automated, that is going to get a person around that fight, so its pointless trying to learn the way someone else trades, other than picking up on some tidbits about position sizing, and pattern. If you cant have confidence in what your doing you are screwed, and you dont get that confidence from someone else giving you entries.
 
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speedo said:
This discussion keeps coming up on ET. To those of us who trade for a living, the question is silly. The answer is....daytrading is difficult. There are many endeavors which are more difficult, becoming an astronaut is more difficult, transplanting a kidney is more difficult, making the Olympics is more difficult as is becoming fluent in 6 languages, playing Paganini flawlessly by sight reading, becoming a Grand Master in a martial art etc etc.

People who aspire to these kinds of things don't come to anonymous online forums to ask if these things are possible, they set their goals and get to work. They (we) may fail but the surest way of not succeeding is to not try.

I don't encourage to get into this as most will not do what it takes but I will not discourage anyone who understands the difficulty and goes forth anyway.

I leave you with this...
More...

I'd say neither. Things difficult are complicated but if thought in a systematic manner can be figured out eg jet engine. Trading on the other hand is complex IE no matter how much you think about it you'll never completely figure it out eg politics. Some will be better than others but that is it.
 
speedo said:
The answer is....daytrading is difficult. There are many endeavors which are more difficult, becoming an astronaut is more difficult, transplanting a kidney is more difficult, making the Olympics is more difficult as is becoming fluent in 6 languages, playing Paganini flawlessly by sight reading, becoming a Grand Master in a martial art etc etc.
More...

The above mentioned professions are NOT "extremely difficult" as scores of new entrants come each year. However to be a Top Gun in any field is very difficult.

Given that 95% or more mutual fund managers are NOT able to beat the S&P500, proves that investing both long and short term is "very difficult"

and

probably 1 of the 5 MOST Difficult fields out there.

It is "much more" difficult than becoming an astronaut, kidney/heart/brain surgeon or AI computer programmer or few others.
 
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