for a while I decided to really take a good look into day trading after reading about guys like mark d cook. I liked the idea of making money every day. I kind of became obssessed with the idea of making money every day but finally came to the conclusion that I couldn't do it. I couldnt bare the thought of losing money some days so I moved away from day trading but my question is are there any people that do not have down days in the market while day trading? does anyone even believe its possible. for some reason I can accept a loss in the long term much easier that I can on a daily basis...
There are plenty of people on ET who make money every day, and I am sure some will post shortly. I am not one of them. I day-trade, and I make money consistently, but I have losing days, weeks, and even months. I have not [yet] had a losing year. Beginners often equate making money with being right. I don't believe that what trading is about. For me, trading is about making money over time while reducing to acceptable levels the likelihood of blowing out my capital. The key is to maintain the right amount of fear. Too much, and you won't be able to pull the trigger. Too little, and you won't handle the risk.
I agree with the above poster entirely. its the thin line between too little and too much that you gotta stay on.
Focus more on developing a trading strategy that you feel comfortable executing, regardless of time-horizon. You seem to have "issues" with perfectionism and a preference to fail in the company of others instead of succeeding on your own.
The vast majority of biz owners will have down days just like in trading so if you can't bare the thought then you will always be working for the man. Forget the idea and the though of making money everyday and focus on doing your best everyday and you will be okay. Trading is not about making money everyday it's about making money every month... I do average about 4 losing days a mo.
<i>"There are plenty of people on ET who make money every day, and I am sure some will post shortly."</i> There are? I guess we should define "every day". Periodic stretches of profitable sessions are strung together by many, but EVERYONE with no exceptions likewise string together losing days as well. All of the posters in P&L thread who have shown six-figure or seven-figure yearly gains have, to a person, shown numerous losing days. A few of those days were big. The key to successful day-trading is keeping losing days smaller and less frequent than winning days. Day trading is the same scale as any other time frame when it comes to profit - loss cycles. This profession is all about minimizing loss... no one eliminates it entirely. Anyone who claims otherwise is doing a disservice to the people who are made to feel inferior and therefore seek perfection where it does not exist. I'll happily retract this entire post with profuse apology if anyone who never has a losing day posts irrefutable proof of such inside the P&L 2008 thread. Be my sincere pleasure to be proven wrong on this topic and I'll be the first to apologize. Otherwise, consider such boasts to be ego-fueled lies of the most destructive kind.
thanks, those were some good replies. It actually inspired me to continue to day trade although I do plan to focus the majority of my portfolio towards longer term swing trading and trend following but I will still allocate a portion for trading. I had previously planed on scrapping my day trading. I believe there is a lot to be learned from day trading about market action. I think day trading can give you a better feel for the market in general. frustration lead me to want to just abandon it but your responses really showed my that my expectations and focus were just in the wrong place..
In jan. I lost money 8 out of 22 trading days, however I was quite profitable for the month. I have had months where I lost money only one or two days, but never a perfect month. I lost money my first year - since a major turnaround in trading style about a year ago, I have made money every month - I recovered all my 1st year losses + gained another 80% of my original trading capital. I certainly would love to be profitable everyday, and I think we all work toward that goal - I look at each losing day as a learning experience, and try to not repeat that mistake. I rarely have back to back losing days now, but this was commen when I started trading. If you take the approach that you stop trading due to fear of losing, I think you should work to overcome that - on the other hand, overtrading is also a problem, there have been so many times when I was up quite a bit, but kept trading, and let all my gains slip away to a loss for the day.