To Cheese, Having limited capital certainly does not help the individual day trader after all he is going to be against pros with a lot of capital. If the individual day trader has $1 and the pro got $5 and the bet is for 25 cents it takes only 4 bets/trades for the individual trader to blow up, but it takes 20 for the pro. Who is showing ignorance, is probability something one should be aware of or it is no big deal ? AND...most Day Traders tend to ignore the word: CONSISTENCY. If one starts day trading and one gets a lucky week/month does that make him a good day trader ? After all his profitability was positive per DAY. In addition to all of the above don't forget how it is much harder for day traders when it comes to psycology. You and most people assume that I say what I said because I am a failed trader, no no no, I am a failed DAY trader, as a matter of fact I didn't even try to day trade. BUT...I have been trading full time for 5 years and AGAIN in 5 years I NEVER met a succesful day trader. If you meet them and they are all around maybe I live in the wrong city.
Here's a picture of the Marex trading floor (formerly Refoc Trading Services) the largest futures prop firm in London, but one of many. To get into Marex you have to have a track record of consistent profitably. There are about 200ish traders in the picture alone, they also have a few smaller offices off the main floor and some remote traders. I'm sure that day trading for all these guys is a pipe dream..... (Sarcasm)
What year was that photo taken? Marex is an excellent Company in expanding Markets, but really, is joe blow trading going to get access to Markit, or get access to LME metal futures?? It would be like comparing a bunch of Tour De France riders to the local guy riding around the park with fenders on... that guy doesn't have a chance without an environment where he can become that good. For 99% of the people, in this electronic trading environment, daytrading is of course a fallacy. It seems to me the thread starter means people who try to trade from home, whom will encounter capital issues, latency issues, scalability and reliability issues with their hardware, not to mention the dynamisms of their personal lives. For that, hes on the money.
no, but the concept, "I am set for a while, and want to put my money to work for me trading futures" is ludicrous. trading is not a simple, but a multiyear, expensive, timeconsuming pursuit that has a small chance of success. No highly successful, experienced trader (note: not PAPER trader) would disagree much.
[1] lack of capital is overblown. A person starting out with a big account usually just means he will lose more money than someone who starts with a small one. Both lack knowledge, skill, and experience to extract successfully. [2] latency is not an issue nowadays. The exception for me is when I trade from overseas and from time to time there is packet loss. [3] scalability: non-issue for the small trader. [4] reliability of hardware: non-issue. I would also include software in this. Lots of serviceable ones available and at much lower cost compared to years ago. [5] personal life: this is not particular to small traders; doesn't matter whether "professional" or "amateur"; this can always be an issue. I would add another category: execution costs, i.e., commissions and fees. That's a non-issue compared to years ago. Much lower costs nowadays to trade, and getting lower. You're gonna have to look to something else besides these categories for the reason why so many crash and burn at daytrading.