I mean the reason you are not getting many takers is because trading is done almost exclusively by computers. At least on an institutional level [I am not at an instutition and my computers do daytrade, but I am not the usual trader.] There are no more "daytraders" that make money sitting in front of their computers looking at charts. Most of those people are just hobbyists that like to gamble.
So where does the human intelligence aspect of trading securities / currency / stocks happen? is it ever done by individuals who have no affiliation to a firm or institution? or are these days over
You might get more takers if you tried to do a Documentary on Algorithmic Traders. Narrowing it to daytrading is too hard.
Well the few firms that still have human beings in the loop are firms for example that make markets in Chicago say in the SPX or VIX options pits.Crude and other commodities as well. If by human intelligence you mean who comes up with the systems, it is of course human beings, but my point is they are not the ones sitting in front of a computer doing any decision making, it is the computer executing a program. The human being are mostly monitoring things for problems. I spend 90% of my day coding and researching systems. But once implemented, I just sit and watch. See my post above. I think a better documentary is to focus on algorithmic traders, and don't make it so narrow that they have to be flat EOD.
You're being sidetracked. You asked for "day traders in New York". Heck, maybe you're doing your documentary on the decline in day trading. Yet, if you don't care if they are trading 5hrs per week, 20hrs per week or 40hrs per week or 60hrs per week...getting caught up about if they're this and that won't accomplish your goal of meeting them unless you're actually looking for a specific type of day trader. Yet, if you're looking for professional institutional traders that work for financial institutions, you're at the wrong forum. Instead, you're going to need to go to the Universities in the New York area and then get permission from the school to talk to the traders (grad students) using their "trading rooms". As to you talking to an actual institutional trader...the firms won't allow it but maybe if its part of some internship program you're doing. Yes, there are lots of institutional trading still done by humans and lots of retail day trading still done by humans. Many financial institutions still put out videos online in the past year to show there human traders. They also are now allowing a peak at their "humans" that are monitoring their algorithm trading systems...they looked like a bunch of nerds (quants) that are paid very well. Darn humans...they're still everywhere. It'll be another 100 - 200 years before all trades are 100% algorithms and you'll need no human intervention. By then, we've have robot cleaning maids, robot restaurant workers and maybe even robot girlfriends. Like the big hint I gave you earlier. There's a big decline in ALL types of trading and day trading is more spread out now with the rise in social media like twitter and stocktwits. In addition, as explained earlier, there's a current big shift of day traders to Europe and Asia due to the shift from New York into London, Hong Kong, Singapore as the leaders in that type of trading. I'm just guessing that the shift is due to the shift into the FX markets that's big there. Now the question for you is this...is there a specific type of day trader you're looking for that lives in New York ??? Thus, you should be very specific about what your documentary is about unless at the moment you don't even know yourself and you will decide upon the subject after you meet the day traders in New York.
Here is a simple metric for you. Count the number of total registered handles on ET from inception. Now, divide that number by their "activity level", meaning how often do they post, or even do they post at all. You will see that many many if not most of the "traders" that came here in say 2009 are gone. If you go back to 2001, the level is probably 10 people left from those days. ALL OF THOSE PEOPLE RELIGIOUSLY CLAIMED THEY WERE PROFITABLE. Retail-trading and making a living are oil and water.