Again, What do I get out of it ? I enjoy and makes me smile to see so many people who really think can day trade because I am on the other side. It sounds arrogant but it is not. Guess what ? Keep on trying to PREDICT THE MARKET and/or by catching tops and bottoms and expect to make a lot of money really fast IS ARROGANT.
There are times to daytrade and there are times not to. Too many people feel that they have to get involved in the markets everyday by doing something. The fact is, its out of bad habit. There are traders who put on way too much size and force themselves into daytrades without even knowing it. They become impatient with the lack of volatility and start forcing trades. Their win to loss ratio plummets and they become frustrated. They don't realize that this impatience is what is causing their account to grind to lower depths. When shit is whipping around in volatile fashion, daytrade to conserve capital. When it isn't, you are best to sit in positions or on the sidelines.
Daytrading is promoted by brokers who only want you to generate boatloads of commissions. They don't care if you lose. Wake up and smell the feces.
I think the reason most traders fail is not because they are day traders or not, or because they dont have a trading plan, an edge, or any of that... The reason I think most fail is because they're not passionate about Trading or the Market in general. There in it for the money, and as most other entrepreneurs would tell you, going in business for the money isnt the way to go, but the get rich quick idea is over-whelming for most.
I don't think many good traders want to post a lot. Im not saying im great but I don't really post here until i take days off and miss part of trading, but my method signals a day off. Once I make my money, I don't really care what else happens. Or what someone else says, be they a good trader or not. Nobody elses comments affect my day to day trading, but I do really like to come here when im not trading and read and sometimes post. The original poster is just offering his opinion. Banks, hedge funds, pension plans, all of these entities have day traders. There are 1000s of ways to profit from price movement. I don't think the OP knows much about many of these ways. These are many of the ways I have made money day trading in my career (if i can break a few methods down into a couple of terms). 1 Time period 1998 to 2000. Moving average crossover, bought long only positions when mas crossed up, sold at profit point. Intrad day positions and from 1 to 5 days. 2. Time period 2000 to 2004. Merger arbitrage. I worked for a hedge fund specializing in this form of trading. My job was to trade tranches after deals were announced. Long the aquisition, short the acquirer, on and off all day long....sometimes holding something over night... mostly not. 3. Time period 2005 to 2007 Both long and short based on software i developed from time period 1. Pure day trades only. No overnight holds. 4. Time perios 2007 to present. Short only day trades, Discovered I do this the best. I haven't opened a long positions in 4 years and might not. If the market is up I have less opportunity that is obvious, but my scans still come up with enough breakdowns to make money overall. Thats nearly 10 years of profiting from 97% day trading. The OP is not aware of this. I only know my story for sure, and have heard many others or seen them in limited timeframes.