There are fundamental reasons why trend trading is more profitable. The spread eats into your profits , trend traders trade with the support of the market and run their profits whilst cutting their losses , day traders and scalpers cut their profits short and are seeing their profits eaten by the spreads.A day trader might make 10 to 30 trades a day and pay loads of spread , a trend trader might trade only several times a week. The day traders find themselves trading from 1 and 5 min charts ,charts which are deceiving , noise and random.Just a few reasons why day trading is difficult to make money from.
Day trading like other trading styles do work for some people. But I have found it pays low income per hour. Lots of wasted hours in screen time, stress, high blood pressure and low pay per effective time invested. There are better trading styles that gives more freedom and higher or same returns.
Daytrading for most is a recreational activity with a remote possibility of making some money. For some it is an addiction. For very few it is a profitable activity.
The problem is no one knows when a trend starts, or when it ends. If you have enuf screen time you will almost always see some trend trade that is clear as day in the debriefing but you did not take when it was forming on the hard right edge. Chart analysis has it merits, but really, it is like a cornerback who watches tape of how a receiver beat him.
If you trade on the minute but synchronize with the higher time frame , there are less false signals and noise. Here is an example how noisy 5 minutes can be , whereas the 15 minutes is smoother in trends.
The right combination of multiple time frame analysis, pattern recognition skills at the hard right edge (not what has formed, but what is forming), along with a true understanding of where true supply and demand is on the charts, and ultimately executing a trade based on more precise shorter time frame entry signals with proper position size and risk management/stop loss techniques is the key to success. The majority who try to day trade will only incorporate a fraction if any of the above, and hence fail.
Olixpro-- try overlaying bollinger bands on top of the 5 min chart (using a 20 EMA in lieu of SMA)... it will make A WORLD OF DIFFERENCE in your analysis, and IMHO ultimately trading success. I refuse to trade w/o bbs on a chart.
To those that are profitable at daytrading. Please post the average annual percentage returns on your trading stake. Average monthly returns on trading stake. To those who are profitable swing or position trading, please post your average annual and monthly returns on your trading stake. Only those consistently profitable should post. If you lie, you are lying not only to the group but more importantly to yourself and you are useless. You know who you are so stay out. This will quash this useless debate.