How is retail day trading anything but a gamble?

Yes, nimbler the better, never mind the thinking.
I'm about to create a machine gun which fires foam bullets at the hot keys on the keyboard.
Should work?

 

No, should be filled with and fires cats. Obviously nimble and quick on their feet.

 

I did ok on the DAX last night

Thanks for the link. I had a read through and it was interesting but not much else. It is obvious the people who did the research are not traders and seem to not have an understanding of how interconnected the indices are. Out of hrs, futures on indices track other open markets (futures) so when they say out of market hrs I assume they mean equities. Even then, some equities are listed on multiple exchanges so in that case there is no out of market hrs really.

In relation to indices futures, the spread will widen out of market hrs and depending on the size of your position, you might have liquidity problems causing slippage. None of this has been factored into their calculation. If they think they have found a winnable edge, then they should trade it but my guess is they will not. Trading is not that simple. If the opportunities for gain exist outside market hrs then for sure one of the large trading firms would be onto it and taking advantage. I am not sure that is the case.

 

For day-trading purposes, I have noticed that the Euro Stoxx "behaves" much better than the DAX.

For instance the DAX can crush a support or resistance level without any warning, while the Euro Stoxx is more polite and usually gives the trader a few clues before the breakout.

Anyway.

 

I have had a look at the Stoxx before but the volatility on the DAX is higher. 100 point moves are not uncommon on the DAX which makes intra day trading a worthy endeavor. The DOW is really where it is at but not in my time zone plus that sucker can really move so you need to be careful!!

 

Man, you should see RBOB gasoline.

 

I will take a look but I learnt long ago to trade what you know. Commodities is a bit like currencies to me. All a bit fickle. I do more than ok on the indices so that is enough for what I do.

 

That means higher risk too, so you need very strict money management rules with this beast!
Enjoy your DAX profits in the meantime.

 

Yep, it moved 6% just today, hope you were on the right side!

 

Agreed plus you also need to know how to hedge positions in shorter time frames. The DAX can and does have some quite unexpected jumps so you have to be ready. For the most part it is good to trade.