Why trading communities have a low respect for scalpers?

[bellman]

Quote from nugundam:

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Well, part of the reason I would guess scalpers are not so favored would be the fact that they hinder the price action movement. If you bought a stock at a specific price and you decided to sell it 10 seconds later for a 5 penny profit you obviously are slowing down the stocks momentum in a way even though it would depend on the volume but nonetheless you have an effect on it no matter how small. Its natural that the longer term trader would be against the scalper because in essence he/she is "blocking his trade". Rather than letting say the stock run 50 pennies to a dollar the scalper is ruining the longer term trader's goal. A clearer example would simply be if a stock had a spread of say 10 pennies. A scalper would probably try to narrow that spread to 9 pennies or less just to get out quicker than the rest.

In my opinion, the real reason why anyone would hate scalpers would simply because they envy them. Either by the fact that they do not have the same low cost structure as the scalper or they simply are not "wired" to act in such a manner. As some have already posted, you should not be bothered by what others think.

I would go so far as argue that true scalpers are less risky than their longer term counterparts. I have always been of the opinion that the longer you are in the market the more risk you are taking. Another way of looking at it would be to try to predict a stock's price in 1 hr as opposed to 1 min or 30 sec. or less. Think about it, the longer time frame the less predictable is the price. Less predictable = higher risk & reduced edge.

Lastly, i think most market makers/specialists can be considered scalpers by their very nature. Again, since their purpose is to provide a 2 sided market, they usually will buy the bid and sell the offer which is really a quick scalp in its finest form

JMHO

Well put nugumdam, it's a shame you only post 8 times a year... that means we only have seven left!

 

[9999]

Quote from austinp:

<i>"I personally have the utmost respect for scalpers
http://www.trading-naked.com/paul_rotter.htm"</i>

Rotter is probably in a class relative to Tiger Woods and Michael Jordan. All three deserve utmost respect for what they accomplished. But, are their performances = styles duplicatable by the majority?

Performance-wise? Unlikely.
Style? I believe so.

 

[cashmoney69]

Why scalpers get no respect?.....simple. It's seen as shooting from the hip. Put a scalper next to a hedge fund trader (lets say both have the same annual salary) who do you think will get more respect?

Im not insulting people that scalp..I admire those that can do it, but this could be a reason why.

 

[Indrionas]

Quote from day7793:


Daytrading is the most risky way to make a living. Watching those screen all day can be very stressful and hard. Loss of capital is always a great threat.

If you cannot handle the stress and don't know how to manage risk, then yes, stay away from it. What's the problem?

 

[epiktetos]

Quote from cashmoney69:

Why scalpers get no respect?.....simple. It's seen as shooting from the hip. Put a scalper next to a hedge fund trader (lets say both have the same annual salary) who do you think will get more respect?

Put Paul Rotter next to Brian Hunter, who do you think will get more respect?

 

[MajorUrsa]

Quote from Indrionas:

If you cannot handle the stress and don't know how to manage risk, then yes, stay away from it. What's the problem?

Problem is he doesn't understand what 'risk' is. How can a trade that is watched second by second, made a 100 times a day, so with relatively low investment, be more risky than spending all your money on some company that could go broke overnight and then go to sleep for a few days?
Daytrading/scalping is not risky, but the small riks may eat you after a few trades. I prefer that to a big risk eating me after 3 months of waiting.

I think this turd is just jealous because he is not allowed to trade yet by his mother, and lacks the capital to daytrade anyway. Therefore he is a longterm long, the bread and butter of the market, waiting to be eaten and purged from the market just before he would make a profit. That's a good thing.

 

[shortorlong]

I'm pretty new to the whole thing (just a paper trader atm), but my 2 cents:


1 - It may be that daytraders are disregarded because they short the market. There seems to be a general distaste for shorters. I don't buy into this at all myself, I think shorters play a vital role.. I would suggest that daytraders make a larger % of short trades than value investors and perhaps even swing traders (I'm less sure about swing traders but I think its probly fair. since markets trend upwards on larger timeframes, swingers should be on average slightly more bullish?)


2 - Right or wrong, part of the disrepute may be because it is easier to *attempt* daytrading than it is to *attempt* value investing, option trading, and institutional trading. What I mean here is there is no academic requirement or experience pedigree required to daytrade. A lot of daytraders are doing it at home, or at prop firms with a low cost of entry experience-wise. Contrast this to 'traders' working at brokerage houses, fresh out of ivy-league school, or 'traders' working at mutual funds, banks, etc. These jobs often have more requirements than daytrading (that is not to say that these people have more qualifications than daytraders though).

In other words, with point #2, I am trying to say that the qualifications to get hired as a daytrader are lower than other types of 'traders', so the job may be less highly regarded by the uninformed. The low cost of entry breeds low presitge around the 'job'.


3 - Finally, daytrading may be seen by the uninformed as a 'get rich quick' method. I'm relating daytrading here to all the 'Get rich selling your stuff on EBay', 'Get rich placing classified ads', etc. These ad campaigns on TV and the web are now running alongside some 'get rich trading emini' campaigns. By it's very nature of quick, small returns, daytrading has a 'profit quick' feel to it. The public may liken daytrading to all these other get rich quick schemes, and so they are disregarding the activity altogether, and perceiving it's participants to be 'suckers' falling for another scheme.


All this said, I am currently training myself to daytrade futures, so I obviously have a bias here..

 

[sunggong]

Trading communities do not have a low respect for scalpers.

It's the people who tried and failed to make money scalping that talk crap about scalpers.

It's perfectly legal. It requires a lot of skills. It's definitely not for everyone.

Some people make money scalping. Other make money swing-trading or investing.

Who cares how you make money?

 

[Cocaine]

People who cant do it themselves and therefore feel the need to stroke their own ego by belittling those that can. It happens all the time in every profession.

Those that can....do. Those that can't....whine about it

Quote from sunggong:


Who cares how you make money?

 

[SuperVolatility]

I think the opposit...those who make a living scalping, day trading are one of hte most discipled and good traders. if you don't believe me ask youself this "Why am I not trading for a living?" because you could not do it. Either ran out money or got burned - you cannot trade....but you could be a day laboror clean up somebody garage and make a few bucks....that's a lot different from making money trading the crazy, brutal, volatile markets.

my my .48cents