Why Daytrade????

Why limit yourself by not daytrading. In the markets like any endeavor; the more you can integrate into your strategy the more robust it will be.

Maybe the question should be: why not daytrade?
 
Quote from retire45:

Well... I started in the markets while in College trading penny stock IPO's.. quite risky but had a broker that did ok and did well.. Got back in markets early 90's... buying and holding.. didn't work well at all.. 95 or so got back into the pennies with $600 and worked up to 8k or so in about a year and a half.. then the dotcoms showed up... Got close to 200k by 2000 (everybody had returns like this), gave back 60k or so from 2001 to 2005... corrected by problems and have tripled the account last 18 months..

2001 to 2005 a strange time as mentally I wasn't there and was not doing well due to:

Over concentration, Trading too many (the wrong) different stocks, impatience.

The keys that have reversed things are

1. Focusing on a selection of very volatile but orderly basket of stocks usually over $30 (pricier stocks simply tend to move better without news events). This is done via a TC2000 Scan that yields about 500 stocks which I then manually review one by one. NYSE syocks tend to be better behaved that the four letter ones..<g> The idea is to avoid stocks that are "gappy" therefore news driven, tend to routinely violate prior day high/lows while in trend... etc.. SMSI and MBT no good.. MRO, CF good.. i.e. stocks that move in small but persistent orderly days.. that would bore a daytrader..

2. Usually not more than 10% in a stock (20% if a great setup).

3. Daily MACD must be in favor (preferably rising from a bottom) and Weekly not topping..

4. Patience waiting for the right conditions.. A great setup can make your month in a week if you wait for it as it WILL come.. ALWAYS does...

5. Avoid earnings reports.. unless the given sector has been blowing out earnings.

6. 3% stops on every trade... if a loss gets that far it tends to get worse... this is a work in progress though.. as different stocks need different amount or room... all comes down to how close to "protection" the entry is..

I do more work outside market hours for sure..
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I see, so you haven't tried daytrading futures. It is a whole different ballgame. I don't daytrade stocks either, although I know plenty who do successfully. I just couldn't get a good working system to make money on a regular basis, I got stopped out too much.
 
they ARE market makers,in the index pits known as scalpers,they are trading off floor most of the day because all the paper is now electronic
 
Daytrading can be addicting for some people

Quote from Midas:

Why limit yourself by not daytrading. In the markets like any endeavor; the more you can integrate into your strategy the more robust it will be.

Maybe the question should be: why not daytrade?
More...
 
Vectors

RE: because most people have real jobs that's why and don't have to daytrade

You should rephrase the don't have to part;

most people would rather make a 6 to 7 figure income working on their own trading the markets than working a day job. The last time I checked living the American dream did not involve clocking in at an office or factory.
 
market makers have to daytrade 300 times a day because the commission they pay is like pennies per 1000 shares and have no slippage
and are making a market.
 
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