Agreed. However, most are not trained well either. Not really. Much of the problem relates to these really crumby prop trading platforms. Many of them do not support stop orders, most do not support contingent and/or bracket orders. Day trading is simply longer-term trading compressed into a shorter time frame with smaller profits per trade. The newer trading platforms really help to manage trading in that environment. Also, other things to consider for day trading success: 1) Don't hesitate to pull the trigger - You've gotta be fast and act with conviction. No second guessing. 2) Don't let the market rattle you - after 3 losses in a row, get back in there as long as you have not surpassed your daily loss limit. 3) Always have a daily loss limit in place. Quit after it's been reached. Review the losers and get ready for the next day. 4) Always have a stop loss order in effect for each trade. 5) Monitor and adjust your stop loss order placements and fills: - are they too tight ? Too loose ? To me, this one is HUGE as oftentimes my stops get taken-out by a few ticks, and THEN the trade goes on for a big winner. This can be rattling especially if it happens more than once per day. Tight stops result in a low winning percentage. No stops result in disasterous trades. The optimal stop placement is somewhere in between.
I'm pretty sure most serious daytraders don't use hard stops, but manual stops and hit out when the trade is against them. If your timeframe even resembles scalping you don't want to use stops...
May I ask why you don't advocate stops in a scalping strategy? I have always thought that in a strategy with low profit potential per trade, it would be imperative to cut losses quite short, otherwise it might take many good trades to offset just one loss. What do you say to that argument? Thanks.
Nothing is the answer. The truth is in the BACKTESTING which few day traders perform. It's simple: tight stops must be offset by larger profit targets. Loose stops must be offset by higher winning percentage. Otherwise, you've got a LOSING strategy. It's plain and simple...just like trading.
Scalping is unique because of the time frame. Once a scalp trade is placed you immediately need to prepare for the potential immediate exit. If one must take the extra time to calculate a stop once in a scalp trade that takes too much time. The stop and the target BOTH need to be in ones head at the time of the trade execution. As soon as the first target is hit . . . exit . . . period. The only exception would be if one is trading in a bracket, when the entire transaction can be placed at the same instant.