Quote from Steve Tvardek:
Forget the statistics, I'm saying a good daytrader (someone who is already proven) vrs a good buy and hold investor. The daytrader will make FAR more money given the same starting capital (within reason, there is a liquidity limit in daytrading unfortunately). Just as an example, I am a daytrader only, started with 5K at the beginning of 2006 and turned that into 230K by years end. That high return is based primarily on the fact that I was able to compound and compound everyday, as my capital is constantly being freed up. The buy and hold guy has to sit through periods of inactivity or even drawdown. Basically, the more opporutnies you give a trader that can trade, the more money you can make. Simple math (also helps to have some leverage afforded to me, however the firm makes up for that in commissions charged).