The evidence of successful traders lies in the the fact that there are so many unsuccessful ones giving away money. Someone understands........
... successful daytraders who are outsiders have skills and are willing to apply them over time and the proper conditions ... insiders who "daytrade" have a much more consistent bread and butter business but they are actually matching orders(NYSE); a luxury that most outsiders do not have along with a completely different mindset/business(imo)... at every interval that outsiders try to keep tempo with the market, the market changes pace and adjusts ... not many can act fast enough or fully understand the data but, those who do certainly know what they are looking at and for ... it is not a profession anymore as much as it is an applied methodology ... personally, i think if a successful person is a daytrader they have a certain personality "makeup" that mandates that type of market participation. also, i think that these people are consistent over time in making profits. this is because the majority of so-called daytraders are actually better depicted as churners; giving profits away consistently. churners keep the markets moving so that dollars can be extracted, not so much losers as many think. good trading. alex no one on gods green earth 'chooses' to trade 2 million shares per day, why would anyone unless they had talent or a father who never praised them? wise up.
Pretty simple, I think. Because there are so many "respected" sources which claim it is impossible, and that anybody who tells you different is a cheat and a liar who is trying to profit off you, or a compulsive gambler in denial, probably hiding his own imminent destruction. You hear this enough, and it's not unreasonable to believe it. So many people think "A Random Walk Down Wall Street" is the holy grail of finance tomes, and decide that the only thing non-random about financial instruments is that if you buy and hold indexes, you can win. Otherwise, you will lose. Period.
The following thread is putting foot to ass regarding who's making money and how: http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?threadid=49526&perpage=6&pagenumber=12
The way I live would tend to suggest it, unless some very kind banker decided to lend me limitless amounts of money.
Hi, first post. I know it's an old thread, but I just have a simple question. For those who thinks it's impossible or pure luck to consistenly profit by day trading, I would think that most will agree it's possible to lose consistently. So let's say I trade against one of these "losers" on every trade, shouldn't I consistently profits? Before anyone mentions the commissions and what not, I am pretty sure that they lose a great deal more than that. And no, I am not profitable yet (just a newbie) but from my experience (about 2 months), it's very possible to profit on a consistent base with discipline and hard work.
It depends on your style of trading. For instance if you have a target of 8 pts profit per trade with a stop loss of 4 pts then a given entry point can be a loser (stopped out) regardless of whether you go long or short (think 5 points swings up and down). Even if you make the stop loss equal to the profit target, a reversed trade may not work the same because of differences in the entry price depending on whether you went long or short.
Well, should I said this then? Why is it hard to believe that somebody is consistently make money? On the other hand, it's considered "normal" if you consistently lose? For the dick who answered "Garbage", can't you understand a simple logic? Not everyone is a "loser", you know?
If you're actively trading then you should be able to answer your own question if you think about it. It's really easy to put on a losing trade, a winning one is much more complicated: What's your risk/reward? Where is your intial protective stop? How do you determine your trailing stops? (That's a whole can of worms right there!) Do you scale in/out? Just taking an opposite position isn't enough. A winning trade has to be actively managed. A losing trade you just close and move on. Swingtrading, daytrading, whatever. H