I agree having some $$ put aside for expenses. Moving from a job with a fixed salary to trading where there is no guarantee of any income (and possibly even losing $$) is a big adjustment and one doesn't want to put any excess pressure on themselves early on in their trading career. It's important to minimize trading mistakes early on and I started by taking small profits to help build confidence. Knowing you are picking profitable trades (even when the profits are small) helps to see that you can succeed over time. On the other hand I've seen newer traders get too emotional about trades or trade too big a size and suffer losses big enough that they eventually threw in the towel.
What would you say are the odds of the service you provide being crap if in 20 years as a broker no successful day trader has ever seeked it?
steoli said: Very nice!!! Ever heard about odds? It's the first place to start if you want to make money... I know a little bit about odds against and in favor, and also a little bit about daytrading. I am already daytrading longer than you were working in this brokerage. I know and saw that almost nobody survives. But even then you can never say that you will beat everybody. You have the same odds against and in favor as everybody else. Claiming that someone achieves 85% to 90% of win rate "daytrading" is impossible according to you, but you are sure to beat them all??? Is what you pretend not the same as what you contest?
What is "quite absurd" to you? Possible or impossible? It is bizar, idiotique, insane... so you don't believe it. Which means to you it is impossible. You can say impossible without using the word "impossible". On top of that you pretend that you can outperform all of them. Which means that: or you can have 100% profitable trades (you should beat their high rate), or the others cannot make their high rate. Which means again "impossible" without using that word. Because if the others cannot make 98% to 90% you surely cannot make more.
RallyMode, Well said!!! But It's not the service, it's the commissions. The more you pay the less chance you have of being successful. You are entering in a transaction with another trader, and you are both paying a commission. In this transaction the only one that has the edge is the broker. One way to avoid that is to find the cheapest option you can get, in terms of prices and slippage. And yes, it's a service that it will eventually disappear as we know it. The industry will change to ETFs that can go for the money in annual fees or in spreads, leaving you with 0% commission. Most people would win if weren't the commissions...
Commissions are almost non-existent for non-HFT or non-day traders and yet still very few people win. In fact, most would argue that less people are successful today than were successful when a futures cost $50/round turn. Fear, greed and money management are the stumbling blocks for the 95% that lose. That has always been and will always be the case. Not commissions. If you have a sound plan that helps you deal with the three issues I listed, you at least have a chance. Even then, most won't follow the plan when things go wrong (or right).
Most traders trade too much and to "microscopic". They start the wrong way, trying to catch small moves. Watching tick charts or 1 or 5 minute charts. This means limited profits but for each entry the full risk. Because they trade "microscopic" they have small profits, relatively high slippage and relatively high commissions. If you watch the hourly charts as a daytrader you will probably see every day 1, 2 or 3 big moves. The most logical thing would be trying to catch these big moves. Average profit will be much higher, risk compared to potential profit will be much lower, and commissions will represent much less as % of costs on profits. I daytrade but take on average only 2-3 trades a day, except if there is no trend at all. My cost from slippage and commission together is on average 8% of my gross profit. So I keep 92% of my profits after all expenses on average. In this way you have at least a change to make some money. My slippage and commissions per trade are equal to those who trade "microscopic", but my profit is a few times bigger. And all this for the same risk (stop).