Just like you I swing trade and don't day trade so I am on your side, but I think your logic against compounding with day trading is a little weak. Unless a day trader keeps taking money out, and assuming he is net positive, his compounding is as valid as ours.
We must consider the context of those statements. I am convinced those statements were a reference to his attempt at daytrading in the brokerage houses. He could not successfully daytrade them because of lagging prices quotes and along with perhaps other reasons. But he COULD daytrade the bucket shops and often had to resort to going back to the bucket shops to get a stake up to learn how to trend trade in the brokerage houses.
Again context. In such statements he was referring to daytrading via regular brokerage firms of the day (imo). He was not successful doing so. He was greatly successful short term daytrading in the bucket shops. He would be a wiz at it in todays markets. He could not make it work in the normal brokerage world of his day so obviousley he was against short term daytrading in the the brokerage environment of his day hence he was quite vocal about. BUT put him in a bucket shop...ANY BUCKET shop and he would daytrade the snot out of them and make them wish that he had not frequented their establishment.
But you have no regret since you made money and obviously still day trade?
Agree. I still wonder if he'd be as successful in the modern day. Some of the big guys who are still alive today all say most of their money was made back when the market trended better. They say these days, it trends smaller, and less frequently.
