I don't believe longer time-frame trading is any easier in this regard, since instead of losing days you now will have losing weeks or months, since the trade durations are longer and thus you'll get fewer trades per week/month.
Even for the skilled scalpers, losing day is inevitable. It happens. But when that happens, they must try to keep the loss to minimum. For these guys, losing week is almost unheard of since they print money just about every day that they trade. Losing month is close to impossible for these guys. There are guys here on ET that hasn't had a losing week in many years. Losing month is unthinkable. Then again, there are guys who has a lot of losing days, but all of sudden, BAM!! hits a jackpot every now and then, and those days keep them profitable. There are many ways to be successful in this business. I try to make money every day though. I can stand losing days every few weeks, but losing week is NOT an option. Doesn't mean that it's never going to happen, but the chance of that happening is extremely low.
I think it's the net result that really matters of course in the end, and you should not get too hung up on the ratio of winning trades to losing trades - I'd rather be up money after 5 losing days and 1 winning day - than down after 5 winning days and 1 loser...
Yes, the long term average profit is what matters. You can buy groceries with profits but not necessarily with winning streaks.
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 <i>keeping losing days smaller</i> and less frequent than winning days.---------->>>> I couldn't disagree with this more because it depends on your style of trading and the frequency of your losing days. So far this year I have had one down day and 22 winning days. My down day is roughly 4x my average up day but I have 22 up days and 1 down day. Just do the math........just making some numbers up here that are consistent with my stats: 22 x $1,000 = $22,000 1 x $4,000 = $4,000 ----------------------------- Total Profit is $18,000 for the month. I'll take that deal any day! My trading style ensures that when I lose it will be a substantial loss but if I can win 95% of the time I have no worries. I won 88% of the time last year, made some adjustments this year, and so far the results have been spot on. It's where you finish at the end of the month, and at the end of the year that counts as long as there aren't significant deviations along the way. Strive for consistency but once in a while everyone gets stung.
Longer term is just easier for me to trade emotionally. I can cut losses on long term trades much easier. Its seems I have so much to work through mentally and discipline wise to become successful I have a ways to go to become successful as a day trader. I'll keep on pushin though.
ron insana said this is the 3rd time in history that the mrkt has been down nov,dec,and january in a row,said its the toughest trading since 1970,1st time was around the depression,so before you beat yourself up,look at what your up against,these are the mrkts that wipe guys out,the big houses are in trouble and their using every trick in the book to fleece us, trade small and keep your stops in, i never use trailing stops but i am now,its too mentally draining knowing theres a big whoosh around every pivot thats going to take you out
hmm - Ive only been trading about a month - and the pivots are 'difficult' to make money on -- -so this is 'unusual times' --- interesting