Sometimes I wonder why I even day trade...
- Thread starter VicBee
- Start date
This is true, but only in about 5% of situations. 95% of new traders who trade intra-day will disappear within a year, never to be seen again.
I was about 10 years in the 95% group. Because I am stubborn I finally got in the 5% group.
For me it is a no brainer to choose for daytrading. But it was a long and painful road. Lost everybody (traders, not family
) who started with me along the road.
Seriously, you know when you're in a daytrade. It's when you exit your trade position before the overnight maintenance requirements kick in.
wrbtrader
What you describe here is swing trading.
Day trading = positions are opened/closed within the same day/session.
And for day trading I differentiate between intraday swing trading (trying to capture larger moves/trends) and scalping (very quickly in/out capturing smaller moves).
Day trader, swing trader, position trader, investor; I prefer to think of myself as a speculator.
I buy assets with the intention of selling them sometime down the road at a profit. I'm not doing it for fun or for excitement, I'm doing it to make money.
If I have to sit in front of a computer all day or even for a couple hours a day, it becomes a job and I don't want a job.
I buy assets with the intention of selling them sometime down the road at a profit. I'm not doing it for fun or for excitement, I'm doing it to make money.
If I have to sit in front of a computer all day or even for a couple hours a day, it becomes a job and I don't want a job.
Guys, there is investing and there is trading.
Trading: Exploit an inefficiency in the market that can be quantified and scale that up until liquidity constraint kicks in. Doesn't matter if it's on a sub second timeframe or over 3 months.
Investing: Buy something that beats inflation in the long run and hold it until you need the money.
Trading is hard because it's a business and competition is fierce. Investing is not hard since you're making your living with a job and dollar cost average into an index ETF until you retire or die.
There is a very clear difference between these two: Finding an inefficiency to exploit is what trading is all about. You don't need to do that in investing.
However, I agree with OP: most people should not be trading and would be a lot wealthier if they just invested. It's the greed that drives them towards trading because they think they can outsmart everyone and make tripple digit vs single digit returns via mashing buttons
Trading: Exploit an inefficiency in the market that can be quantified and scale that up until liquidity constraint kicks in. Doesn't matter if it's on a sub second timeframe or over 3 months.
Investing: Buy something that beats inflation in the long run and hold it until you need the money.
Trading is hard because it's a business and competition is fierce. Investing is not hard since you're making your living with a job and dollar cost average into an index ETF until you retire or die.
There is a very clear difference between these two: Finding an inefficiency to exploit is what trading is all about. You don't need to do that in investing.
However, I agree with OP: most people should not be trading and would be a lot wealthier if they just invested. It's the greed that drives them towards trading because they think they can outsmart everyone and make tripple digit vs single digit returns via mashing buttons
Exactly!
Everyone else is losing money so I'm going to do the same thing everyone else is doing and make money. DUH!!!
The reason you/we trade is because we know that when/if(?) we get good at it, it's easy-peasy to make $500K/year or more. And all you need to start is a small poke and a sharp mind*.
That's the bottom line.
KISS baby, as always.
*The hard part
That's the bottom line.
KISS baby, as always.
*The hard part
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And that my friend is the misconception everybody has on their mind.
Trading is not a craft that - once learned - will always stay the same.
So you definitely won't make easy peasy money once you get good at it. Quite the contrary.
You find something, you make money with it for 6m or a year, then it's gone and you start from scratch. Over and over and over again.
The skill in trading is NOT the trading. It's in constantly finding new edge. The trading is the simplest thing. You push a button to enter and once your exit criteria are met, you push another button.
Ask anybody who is remotely successful in trading. Do you really think they trade the same way or even the same stuff that they did two years ago? 100% not.
Forget about the easy money in trading. It's always hard and you'll never relax because the only way to survive is to stay ahead of the curve.
The incentive in trading is scalability, not the easy money part. If you really think the dosh you make here will ever come easy to you, you'll be very disappointed once you get to the other side