Is Daytrading difficult or impossible ?

[RRY16]

I started off on the shortest time frame possible, we were rebate traders, pushing massive volume on shit that didnt move back then like SUNW, or JDSU, the whole purpose was just to scratch every trade, if you put through 100k shares of something like JDSU that had a 1 tick range at the time, and scratched it but got rebates on both sides it was 400 bucks. I would regularly be gross negative but net positive. Unfortunately this slowed down the learning curve a bit cause i developed the habit of not even wanting to hold trades 1 tick off side, id just cut a position the second i took it if it went offside.

Went from that to raping dark books till they caught on, but that was the easiest money in history.

Then tried some systems trading

now full discretionary trading.

Slowly but surely my time frame in terms of how long i hold positions has lengthened, these days the sweet spot is about a day and a half, buy or sell something in the morning hold for one full day then sell the pop the next morning if you get it.

Ive found that the shorter the time frame/shorter the range you are trading on the harder it is to gain an edge, the algos are better at it than you, and faster your never going to beat them anymore if your time frame is 10 minutes looking to flip from the bid to the ask for 10 cents. The longer your time frame is, the less the amount your going to get skimmed for by bots matters.

Jesus, the only thing missing off your resume is SOES bandit and Broker @ Stratton Oakmont.

 

[vanzandt]

One slip, and we're on the road to risk of ruin, yes.

It doesn't get any better.... good pick.

"One slip, .....and down the hole we fall
It seems to take....
......... no time at all
A momentary lapse of reason
That binds a life....
for life".

 

[hoffmanw]

Thanks for the information.

Yet, the Johnson study involved only 30 random accounts from only one retail trading firm. Most day traders lost money (we all know that). The interesting thing about the study is what I think is the primary reason why "trad....

Things to think about.

Yeah, most people are naive. They think trading are cake walk rather than a battlefield where ONLY the strongest can survive. Even for institutional traders with degree from top schools, they have all the mentor-ships, training, connections, information and technology that top firms can provide. Most of them get kicked out in couple years because they are under-performed. Only the few who really understand the market and perform survive there in the long term.

If traders don't really study to understand the market and come up a working plan or strategies, which might take many many years, their odd of success in trading is really really slim in the long term. For people who don't prepare and step into the market thinking they will make a load of money soon, they will be in a real shock soon. They don't even know what hit them.

 

[Pekelo]

What is impossible? I say nothing:

https://www.reddit.com/r/gifs/comments/6b16aa/he_doesnt_know_its_impossible/

 

[Xela]

Why don't you go type something that is true?

What he said is probably true for 95% of the people reading it; not so many forum posts on subjective topics like this achieve higher validity than that (and I'm saying that as someone who daytrades for a living).

 

[wartrace]

Trading has to be one of the easiest businesses to enter. All it takes is some capital.

"Day trading" search results on Youtube = 8,900,000 videos.
"Day Trading" Google search = 22,200,000 results.

There is a lot of disinformation out there. Thousands of shysters willing to sell a newby their red light/green light trading system for a "small" one time payment. Hundreds of subscription "trading rooms" you can join for a monthly fee. Scammers taking existing indicators and renaming them for sale.

Scroll through some of the Youtube video titles. 4,200 dollars in five minutes per day! People using our indicator have a virtual ATM! Daytrading for 8000 dollars in 25 minutes!

Is it any wonder there is an extremely high failure rate?

 

[lawrence-lugar]

Scroll through some of the Youtube video titles

4,200 dollars in five minutes per day!

Daytrading for 8000 dollars in 25 minutes!

Is it any wonder there is an extremely high failure rate?

Those titles are not misleading at all. -- But I agree those kind of titles usually attract the average, ill-prepared trader to the game who are ultimately doomed for failure.

Easy come, easy go. Everything is a double-edged sword

$4000 is only a 20% return on a 20K trading account. Assuming you go all in that return is not that far-fetched.
Those kind of % returns are not that absurd or out of place in the options world.

I must imagine though that more than 99% of traders would salivate for only a tiny fraction of that return.
ET...EliteTesticles, or EliteTentacles is more fitting.

 

[lovethetrade]

What he said is probably true for 95% of the people reading it; not so many forum posts on subjective topics like this achieve higher validity than that (and I'm saying that as someone who daytrades for a living).

I think what they're saying is reloading your account is the easy part, making money from day trading is the hard part...but understand the angle you're coming from.

 

[volpri]

What he said is probably true for 95% of the people reading it; not so many forum posts on subjective topics like this achieve higher validity than that (and I'm saying that as someone who daytrades for a living).

Point and clik is not daytrading. But you know that. Truetype doesn't believe in day trading so he was being sarcastic by implying to daytrade you just sit there like a dipstick and point and clik. As if you don't have to have any brains to day trade. And have a regular job to keep shoveling money into ones dipstick account! In other words, he was denigrating day trading and day traders. He was belittling people like you and myself. So I pulled a "Donald" and hit back. LOL. However, i was mostly joking around with a word play on his name...truetype.."why don't you go type something that is true"....ROFL...

 

[volpri]

@Handle you said; "THE most risky endeavor cause of what you average on each trade and what you risking on each trade is for me always inverse than on long term trades. Now I know it wrong compared to the masses who day trade and scalp, risking over 4 points tying to make 1-2 points in ES"

Are you saying here that the masses risk 4 points to make 1-2 points and that is wrong or that you risk 4 points to make 1-2 and that is right?