It takes a lot of persistence but it can be done. In summer I back of my trading significantly, trading only the last hour, on most days I am done inside of 10-30 minutes. Fall to spring I am trading much more aggressively with far more size - both equities & futures night & day. Summer time is minimalist mode for me. These are small gains, summer is my tread water period - aiming for small base hits each day. The point being is become somewhat consistent is possible. This acct is my small acct, less than 1% of my capital. No trading done in first week of July, had company visiting. Trading mainly the NQ, & a few ES trades.
I agree with @SimpleMeLike, I don't think you need to be a quant to have a chance. There are many profitable day traders here and they are not morons or quants. It takes all kinds, there are many big institutional traders here but many amateur mom & pop retails too. Some are good at day trade, some swing, some use TA, some fundamental, some trade forex, some equity some options some futures, some commodities... The most important thing for an individual is we need to pick what fits us, don't trade like a quant if you only understand high school math for example.
The road is extremely difficult, if you doing it for the money, takes longer. Better to have jobs to go and off time for challenges. Of course, this was my direction and slowly paid off, it is better to trade profitable first before trying to program, saves years.
By the way Comagnum, Robert Carver mentioned you in his last book (Leveraged Trading: a professional approach to trading FX, stocks on margin, CFD's, spread bets and futures for all traders, page 67).
Keep in mind that streak of winning days was just 'variance'. I have had as many losing days in a row back in the day. That is why I called it amusing.
1. Keep a day job until consistently profitable. 2. Trade around your job...930am to 11am, or 2-4pm, eventually including pre/post market. 3. Trade what makes sense...to YOU...breakouts (long/short), pullbacks etc. etc. 4. Don’t worry about HFT’s, algo’s etc., you’re worrying about the wrong things. 5. Wait for the setup, if none, don’t trade. Good luck.
This is marvelous advice here and it's exactly what I do. Great advice. Trading needs to be a side hustle if you don't have edge.
In my opinion this is good advice. One problem with trading is definitely information overload. Narrow down and simplify and dont worry about what others do. There are literally a million+ different ways to make money in the markets, all you have to do is concentrate on 1 way that you feel comfortable with and focus on becoming an expert in that 1 strategy and make sure to keep an ongoing detailed written journal and notes on your trading create daily trade plan keep track of results keep track of what you are doing right keep track of what are you doing wrong create and adjust a plan to correct mistakes and get better Rinse/Repeat