Just curious I see quite a few posts about daily tick data, real time quotes, "platforms", etc. It seems to me that day trading is a lot of work and trend following is much more effective. I just can't see how daytrading JBLU (for example) would be more profitable than simply buying it long as it crossed the 50-day and shorting it as it re-crossed again. Admittedly, MA's are just one of many trend following methods. With all the candlesticks, gann waves, Fast Stoch, I wonder if simple is not better. anyway, just curious
=== Some of it is personality related; with a nickname like ''Joe Freakin Lightning'' he might tend to trade more/faster in any market.
I wont argue with your main point but new traders with small accounts are rather limited in their choices. You need a decent bankroll to swingtrade for a living and a lot of people dont have it yet. Percentage wise you can turn your money over a lot faster daytrading.
I agree that there is more upside in swing trading....but there are plenty of stocks with huge intraday moves, the problem is finding the stocks before the move occurs. With swing trading you are more likely to have the position for the real breakout, while daytrading your scalping in and out for 20 and 30 cent clips. Overnight positions carry too much risk for most prop traders, especially new ones.
It seems to me that you are actually asking if day-trading can be more profitable than position trading... Well, it's all about preference, there is competition in every timeframe. Daytraders like to daytrade and compete against other daytraders, trend followers like to follow longer term trends but they compete against trend followers. There is no easy money I agree that "simple is better" especially if it makes money
Here is a comment I found at: http://www.tc2000.com/privuser2/wordenreportseptember2002.htm ** 2. Trend - On the surface, trading with the trend sounds simple. However, a stock might be going up on a weekly chart, down on a daily, up on 60 minutes, down on a 15 minutes and so on. Trading in any time frame is easier when trading with the trend in a higher time frame. The more time frames you have lined up at entry the better your chances are. For position trades I use 50 periods to determine trend. For longs I want the stock to be above upward sloping 50 week and 50 day MAs. Vice versa for shorts. I plot both the EMA and MA, as some stocks respond better to one of them then the other. For some reason my personality always makes me want to fight the trend. I have seen this in other people, so I am sure I am not alone. Picking bottoms and tops is very difficult. Taking a slice out of the middle is much easier. Remember to always ensure the trend of the stock's industry/sector matches or pass up the trade. To maximize your chances, also trade with the trend of a major market average that most closely matches your stock. **
There's the learning portion as well.. 2 years of daytrading is comparable to 20-30 years of swing trading, in terms of bars. It would be a shame to take 20 years before you realize that your method doesn't work.
Who needs a method? It's a game of emotions, if you have a handle on your emotions then you're golden