Sorry just read the title again...Not True...I'll prove it... private message me for a webinar login. You may not be able to do it yourself, but the reason why anyone thinks it's possible is because someone can.
Relax rather than react immediately in your usual automatic fight or flee mode. You defend your claims as a fixed cult; they don't work as applied to day trading. Higher highs/lows and lower lows/highs is your core notion and its really old stuff. It is insufficent in your presentation as a methodology. It is interesting that you can't devise a way to overarch them successfully. Don't feel bad about being fixed in one state of mind of long ago. And no offence but you would need an open mind willing to research and learn more. I am very familiar with higher highs/lows and lower lows/highs in fairly fast and fast charts. My software clearly marks them out as they develop. They are valuable as an adjunct within a complete methodology where you have specific triggers for your buy and sell sequences. Keep hunting.
No reaction here and I am definitely not fighting or fleeing anywhere. I am a stickler for accuracy and your statement isn't accurate. The "Core" of my method isn't simply HH's, HL's, LL's & LH's. That is only a part of the process. Those oscillation outcomes are worthless if the construction of the chart they are being read on is randomly based as time and tick charts are based that way. My method is based on 2 layers; price direction and directional strength to utilize those oscillation outcomes perfectly and consistently. When price direction, at a specific oscillation, matches a confirmed & established directional strength on my charts there is a 88%+ probability of a positive outcome or profitable trade. Every entry is specifically ruled based and every exit is specifically rules based. It is a totally objective environment. That is in a day trade, scalp, swing or position environment as well. I've even recently had this procedure programmed and the accuracy is even better when the human slippage factor is eliminated. I don't feel bad about harnessing the random nature of price action . . . I embrace it. It was an open mind that allowed me to be to this point and further research will hopefully allow me to progress even further, though it isn't necessary. As I stated earlier, your assessment of what I do is lacking since the simple basics of what I do escape your grasp. It is nice to see you are comfortable with your software, its chart structure and your trading. In the end that is all that counts. There are many ways to extract profit from these markets and we both know we aren't the only ones profiting here.
Let's face it...if daytrading makes real profit; no one will go to work in Wall ST. Even Wall ST pro has to go to work everyday for a based salary plus bonus if there is any. These boys still have salary even if they lose their firms' capital. Daytraders who work for themselves surely 99.9999999% don't make any respectable profit. There is a very small percentage like 0.0000000000001% make profit by charging outrageous fees for trading lessons.
Its actually a funny thing about people, as to why they would undertake something, and put so much time and resources into it, if they knew (assuming they did ANY research what so ever about day trading) that they had only a 5% chance or less of making it.... The money is the one and only motivator. Then of course is the ego of "Oh, well I'm smarter than the other guys", or "How hard can it really be..." Would we bother doing anything in life if we knew how little of a chance we had of being successful? At least when starting a business, you have much more resources to help you, but with trading, you're all alone, and when your fail, your friends, parents, and family will all be there to roll their eyes, shrug their shoulders, and say "I told you so!"... tough world.
Thats the problem. Very few treat trading as a business. I've also heard that a good percentage of businesses fail. Poorly capitalized and poorly managed. Almost sounds like trading doesn't it?
Your are absolutely correct. (being humorously facetious) Wall street pros don't day trade because, for the most part, they don't have the time nor the inclination to learn. They are all to busy earning a paycheck. They have no time to think for themselves. Their total existence is to make the best with the limited tools they are given. Successful independent day traders are few and far between because of the personal limitations they bring to the table and they have to start their research from scratch because there is nothing readily available in the industry that makes consistent or common sense to them. The same obsolete tools the Wall Street pros use are the same tools a day trader is forced to use. Day traders are their own worst enemy and they carry their own stumbling block with them where ever they go . . . they just camouflage it with a hat.
Has anyone posting on this thread day traded? I personally know at five traders who are successful i.e. making a handsome living but please keep in mind honing one's skill takes time, money and patience and according to a recent NY Times article only 1% of all who attempt are successful i.e. if you have the three virtues; patience, time and money you 'll succeed the real problem is people who attempt it have small accounts and not enough put away for living expenses.
I have traded full time the past 14+ years. What I find humorous is these posts that say it's all but impossible to succeed. I left a secure corporate job, that paid very well, to trade in early 1996. Am I making $500K/year? No. I really don't have any desire to do so. I choose to balance risk and any associated reward by trading size I'm comfortable with. Thus, it's difficult to get myself into a situation where I might have a catastrophic drawdown of my account. All the naysayers here likely are either those who failed in their attempt to trade and assume if they failed so will everyone else. Like any profession, if you work hard, you can succeed. And I can say that quality of life today beats the heck out of the corporate world and the 'security' I had there. I've done well enough trading that I spend 2-3 afternoons per week tutoring inner city kids after school. Can't put a price on that and any lost profits from not being at my computer trading are trivial when compared to seeing a kid 'get it' when learning something new in math.
^^ It's not 100% impossible to be a daytrader; though, realistically, the chances are slim. 99% failed, it's the fact. You might be the exception 1%; that doesnot mean 99% didnot fail. 1% succeed vs 99% failed=tough or nearly impossible business.This is STAT, not fiction number. Daytrading is a tough business. If one is smart enough to do it; he/she should be able to make way more money if working for Wall ST. Most genius people are working in Wall ST for the paycheck plus bonuses. The most wealthiest/richest people are Wall ST workers; not daytraders, it's the fact. So, if you are so smart, why you bother posting here and not work at Goldman or JPM?