Sometimes I wonder why I even day trade...

[newwurldmn]

Success depends mainly or even almost for 100% from the qualifications of the trader.
If you have the qualifications to be a daytrader you should daytrade.
If you only have the qualifications to be an investor, you should just invest.

No investor can ever beat the returns of a good daytrader.

"Silly" is to do something without having the needed qualidications. But even investors can do silly things. Silly depends on the person who is doing something, it depends not on what product he is trading.

How much of a day traders returns are based on leverage? How much is based on different accounting?
You lost 100percent of your account. That wasn’t really 100percent then if you had money on the sidelines.

if you took 100percent of your liquid assets (what a typical investor would employ) and didn’t have more notional than your account, what would your returns be?

 

[virtusa]

How much of a day traders returns are based on leverage? How much is based on different accounting?
You lost 100percent of your account. That wasn’t really 100percent then if you had money on the sidelines.

if you took 100percent of your liquid assets (what a typical investor would employ) and didn’t have more notional than your account, what would your returns be?

I put in my account money that I could afford to lose. As an investor I would invest that same amount, not more.
Depending on what you use as criteria you can always have the outcome you need to proof your case.
I try to keep it simple. After the wipe out I started again with 10K. So total amount I ever invested in daytrading was 60K. Because of the leverage and the compounding I have now much more money then I would have had as an investor with 60K starting capital. Because of the high returns I also don't need to continue to compound; I could already spent a lot of money (what I would not be able to do as an investor) and still stay ahead of the investor who leaves all the profits in the investment.
I trade/invest to spent money, not to grow it till the day I die.

 

[VicBee]

With the results I'm getting from that small account I'm debating buying a whole lot more shares, but today's price isn't what it was last year although lithium mining seems like a pretty safe bet in terms of demand and limited supply...

 

[virtusa]

With the results I'm getting from that small account I'm debating buying a whole lot more shares, but today's price isn't what it was last year although lithium mining seems like a pretty safe bet in terms of demand and limited supply...

Be careful, because the next generation batteries that are in research now, will all be without lithium. Some of them are already in pre production stage.

 

[tomorton]

based on what most people say,
the success rate for the day traders is < 10%,
and the success rate for investors is > 90%.

In fact, many people said best is to buy stocks and then forget about it
until decades later.
They'd recommend that instead of staring at the screen for so many hours a day for day trading,
just close your eyes, go buy faang stocks, tsla stock.
And a few years later, you will be very rich.

There are actually thousands of threads in this forum saying that day trading is
virtually impossible.
ie many people came to the wrong forum.
they should migrate from
elitetrader.com to eliteinvestor.com

I always say in my posts to new traders, don't even try day-trading until you are profitable on the dailies.

 

[virtusa]

I always say in my posts to new traders, don't even try day-trading until you are profitable on the dailies.

I don't agree.

Daytrading is completely different.

 

[SunTrader]

I don't agree.

Daytrading is completely different.

Agree.

It's like saying don't even think about learning to ride a motorcycle without having learnt to drive a car first.

Two different things to accomplish the same task. Do both or either, in whatever order.

 

[tomorton]

I don't agree.

Daytrading is completely different.

I agree, they are very different. But day-trading is harder. New traders cannot do it - or at least about 955 of them cannot do it.

But the point is that if they become profitable trading long-term off the dailies, they would have a better chance of succeeding at day-trading, in just the same way that linguists always find learning the third and fourth languages easier than the second. There are common principles across both. But in any case, if they become profitable in long-term trading, why go into day-trading anyway?

 

[virtusa]

But in any case, if they become profitable in long-term trading, why go into day-trading anyway?

Because a good daytrader makes much more money. 10 to 100 times more.

 

[maxinger]

I agree, they are very different. But day-trading is harder. New traders cannot do it - or at least about 955 of them cannot do it.

But the point is that if they become profitable trading long-term off the dailies, they would have a better chance of succeeding at day-trading, in just the same way that linguists always find learning the third and fourth languages easier than the second. There are common principles across both. But in any case, if they become profitable in long-term trading, why go into day-trading anyway?

After trying investing, swing trading, day trading stocks/options/futures,

I find day trading to be hard,
and investing and swing trading to be very very hard.
So I totally gave up investing and swing trading about 1.5 decades ago.

so traders have to try various things and see which one to give up
(or perhaps give up everything).