Anton is 90% correct. Day-trading is a loser for 90% of the people for whom that is their first type of trading. Good enough for me. On a wider perspective, maybe there is a growing back-lash against day-trading now that the EU-regulated brokers must publish verifiable data on how many of their current clients are losing money - these figures consistently run at about 75%.
But that is not what that guy said. He said that daily price dynamics are all noise. (This is nonsense, of course.)
Nevertheless, the statement "anyone who tells you to trade intraday is either and idiot or a conman" is true for most people.
One of those - eternal battles of what works and what doesn't, between sub categories of a tribe, that is build on hierarchical structure, that is based on specific skill. Same happens in art. ,,Traditional art does't work!" ,,Digital art is for loosers!" or bodybuilding, ,,New body builders looks as if they are pregnant!" ,,Arnold had no legs..." or etc & etc... I know, that what i focus on - works. If to worry, then only, how to make it better. Missed the 50% swing on CNC - how can i fix that ? Wheres the gem ? Now in another swing with 50% expectancy once more, yet with slight improvements - this time. That's all that matters. Btw Happy Christmas
Why many traders in big banks , big investment firms are unable to make it as day trader ? - because they are unable to concentrate for many hours during trading session. during trading, you need to glue yourself to the chair and monitor screens for many hours - because they failed to trade the appropriate financial instruments. instead of trading things like index futures, bonds ..., they trade illiquid currencies, major currencies like jpy aud eur which rarely move - because they simply draw trend lines, fans ... here and there, fibo there and there, they draw thousands of support and resistance lines thinking TA is all about drawing thousands of things. - because they failed to enter all continuation and reversal signals early. In quite a few cases, you only have mini seconds to enter the trade. And if you fail to concentrate, you are going to miss good signal which can come out of no where - because they hesitate to pull the trigger. they want to wait for double confirmation, triple confirmation. by the time all planets are aligned, it is too late to enter. - because they cannot centre their minds - because they listen to garbage nonsensical worthless useless news which contaminate their minds - because they don't understand market behaviour, market personality, market idiocracies, market temperament - most important of all, they fail to spend thousands and thousands of hours for many many months / years practising day trading. They don't treat day trading as if they were going for Olympics running competition.
I think day trading is fine and necessary under specific market conditions. On the other hand, if you can really read a chart well and you just got on board a position which was setup on a 4 hour chart and it is a test of a weekly level of significance that can lead to a multi day directional move, then why would you exit at the end of the day just to be flat at night? Sure you can reduce some size due to overnight margin requirements but being flat every night? Common... If you are REALLY REALLY good then you can trade two accounts. One for swinging with the larger picture move and one for day trading the counter trend reactions.
I think the guys at SMB capital seem to be able to do it. Or at least they train their guys to be able to do it. And they talk a lot about it.
Whenever one of these troll threads come up, there are volumes of comments by people who have no idea of the nature of day trading. Millions of people who are not traders "stare at a screen all day" for minimum wage, millions more for a modest living, millions more for a good living. The reality is most traders other than scalpers may have a few to a handful or two of signals per day. You get to the point where you know whether a setup is imminent or pretty much how long it will take for one to form. I spend much of the day playing guitar, doing pieces of martial arts forms, paying bills, researching things I want to learn about and either trying to provide some advice or guidance to a developing trader of good will or laughing at the comments of trolls and fools on ET. There are MANY worse and less profitable ways to earn a living and I've done a few of them. Is it difficult to learn and formulate a viable strategy(s) and does it require disciplined behavior ?Yes it does but others may prefer putting on roofs, or dialing for dollars or having to deal with corporate politics or having to manage fools or answer to them. There are those who are happy at outperforming the S&P with investments and that's fine but unless you manage a large fund or at least a 7 figure portfolio, know how foolish you sound if you think that's a great accomplishment or think that is in any way relate-able to a competent day trader.