http://www.investorhome.com/daytrade/profits.htm I completely disagree with what they said at the end though, they gave a rather dissappointing opinion when you look at the facts they gave. The idea of gambling is that you rely purely on chance. From what I see in trading it looks like there is far more too it than that. As there are way more conditions that effect the prices beyond chance and patterns that you can follow in order to make money.
There are great number of things. First there are three areas of investing. Accumulation, liquidity and speculation. These 3 also are base principles such as Foundation, contending and discovery which are how people or societies grow or expand their bounds. Without speculation/discovery one will cease to adapt to new environs and changing conditions will overtake ones accumulation and liquidity. There is a vast difference between each type of these investment/life focus arenas and each type of person allocates a slice of their pie percentage according as they feel comfortable, see fit or strategize. Investor heavy mindset will have lower speculation and higher accumulation and liquidity. The trader heavy mindset will be more oriented to liquidity/cash flow increase and speculation. I have perhaps 10 very solid systems I use depending on which market. Stocks, pennystocks, E-minis or currencies. As a trader primarily I am very heavy on technicals and observant of fundamentals and trends. So ... yes there are multitudes of predictable identifiable criteria to use to affirm trading decisions beyond high level technical pattern plays. PM me and I will share a very simple system that works very well in making money. It is so ridiculously practical that it will amuse you. But please don't share it with others as I don't want to pollute the system. I use it to win trading contests for fun and may use it to make money at some time if I ever go back to the stock markets.
The odds arent good. But everyone who gives it a go thinks they will be part of the 1% that makes a million within five years of starting.
I made my first Million in 9 mos. Personally I think that was the grace of God ... so a good majority of the first 3 years went to support world-wide ministry. You are right however ... the odds are NOT good. I started with 10K which at the time was a massive amount of money for me. I promptly lost about 80% of that ... lost a lot of weight due to the stress and averaged down from $.43 on a pennystock to $.013 Cents !!!! ... I had a lot of shares and it ran to over a dollar and I sold off pieces as it ran. I paid for my trading education with pounds of fat and worry and stress and forced learning from stupid mistakes. I was fortunate. Most are not.
Damn typos, shame this forum isn't very relaxed on editing and deleting stuff you put up. I have no illusions about making millions in just a few months when it comes to the whole trading idea. Frankly the only reason I want to do trading is because I really want to get out of the house as it stands now and have a place of my own. It does make me wonder though if all this negativity surrounding trading is just either losers who don't like that they've gone and lost money because they were being stupid with it or there are people out there who also don't want others to catch on to what they've discovered. This is a route I discovered of getting around this stupid fixed pay and mortgage your house and future system. Makes me glad I started taking an interest in economics when the recession hit.
Lethyn: People don't realize that in life they: Accumulate and establish foundation Have liquidity and cash-flow Form agreements Speculate and discover So everyone is an investor and trader of something. Usually it is their time they speculate for agreed terms of money that they trade to increase their cashflow to have accumulation. To see beyond the matrix of the masses is the first step. It is very doable to do well ... even in bad markets. It is like most things however. You will need to master some skills and have a foundation and cashflow to support your initial speculative discovery. I have trained a lot of investors and quite a few traders. There are simple rules that I start with. - Up means up and down means down. - The trend is your friend - You have volume, momentum, velocity, acceleration, direction transition, support, resistance, overbought, oversold, short, middle and long term windows to identify to see agreement. Chart them. Catch them on a slingshot back to equilibrium and you will have a high win ratio. - One must capture their personal behavioral candlestick outside of market dynamics. [Exple: good money management]
trading is being dependent on markets. it's very stressful and many wil not make it. when the market is not volatile you will be tempted to lever up to make money or venture into markets that are unknown to you. that's why trading is alot like gambling. you are gambling that the market remains volatile and giving money.
It would be challenging to set up an unbiased study of whether day traders make money. Whether you went to firms or asked for volunteers outside of firms, you would get a biased sample. I think the comment from the CPA may be the best estimate. The IRS could provide data, but of course they won't because it isn't what they do. Perhaps some brokers could do such a study, but the results might not be good for their business! Many posts on this site state that few traders succeed, and while this may be true, I believe it is hearsay, and I doubt that the posters have any real data to back up that statement. Personally I am more of a week trader or a month trader. I would have no idea how to make money as a day trader. It seems quite difficult to me.
Why are you reading a webpage that was produced/updated in January of 2000? Figures/studies cited are based in 1999 and 1998. Who trades the same way as he/she did ten years ago?