Day Trading is a pipedream.

Very good point. It's laughable how much misinformation is out there about daytrading. It's obvious that OP knows nothing about daytrading when he equates it to get-rich late night informercials. As you correctly stated, it takes years (literally speaking) to really know the price action. Any idiot can buy and just sit for months on out (eg, investor), but you really must know what you're doing in order to fight the market on a daily basis.

 

Trading Futures is a business. To my mind, it is the best business in the world - for a great many reasons! It has a very high profit potential against a very low overhead. Risk can be tremendously reduced by taking only high probability trades. In fact, futures trading is a relatively low-risk business when approached with the right attitude and the right planning.
There are no employee problems other than myself. No unions to contend with, no negotiations, no strikes. No employee benefit plans other than what I give to myself. No employees stealing from me. No collective bargaining, and no stockholders.
There are no merchandising costs, no damaged goods, no vandalism, no service calls, no repairs to make, and no guarantees to honor.
“I don’t have to advertise, and I have no marketing headaches. There is almost always a buyer if I want to sell, and almost always a seller if I want to buy. No purchasing and procurement problems, and no salesmen making mistakes.
“There are no manufacturing problems, no production schedules to meet, no shipping, no receiving, no product liability, and no insurance policies to carry.
“I don’t have storage problems either. No warehouse, no spoilage, no items to discontinue or mark down. No bills of lading, no freight or freight damage, no trucks to load or to unload.
“I’m free of invoicing, accounts payable, payroll, inventories, accounts receivable, billing, dunning, bad checks, and bad debts.
“Now I ask myself, “Self, where else can you find a business like this?” The answer is an overwhelming “Nowhere”! It’s the most perfect business in the world!!”

 

speaking of "there must be a reason"...

what motivates you or any failed (aka quitter) trader to invest precious time (on a Saturday, no less) telling complete strangers on an anonymous message board that the topic of interest to them is impossible.

In other words, what do you personally get for stating that trading is impossible on a trading forum? What's the emotional payoff for you? You cannot trade, no big deal. Lots of others can't cut it, either. But what do you personally get out of being here any more at all?

 

Glad to see these points brought out. If you can "cut the mustard" trading, you won't find a cleaner, seamless business anywhere.

 

I have never seen a poster start a thread like this who wasn't clueless about daytrading.

 

Your spectrum would not include the winners in this business. Day trading is not for anyone of the many with a weak mind or a weak personality or both. But that cannot be a surprise in any assessment of the endeavour usually required to achieve top success in most arenas of commercial or professional activity.

In the context of this thread let me quote again the famous words of President Calvin Coolidge: "Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent."

 

I guess you need to try to become more social.

 

Here is a little wisdom, daytrading for a living is possible, but not for everybody.

 

If you learn to position trade properly your daytrading days will seem like a bad dream.

I started as a day trader in currency futures. I remember there was a time I started with $6,000 and after 5 days my account had grown to $38,000. All day trades. Most lasted like 2 minutes.

Then, I lost most of it on a single trade. I remember there was a day that after I hit the ask price the bid fell 50 ticks in 2 seconds. It fell faster than I could send my order to get out. Then I decided to use stop orders. One day I hit the ask in a strong uptrend and I place my stop 15 ticks below. Next thing I knew, the market went down 15 ticks straight took my stop and then recovered, all in a matter of seconds. When you see things like that, you are stupid if you decide to fight them. You must change the way you operate.

 

here is truth on day trading

scientific truth if you disagee its by faith delusion only

http://faculty.haas.berkeley.edu/odean/