Yeah I agree. Not saying you can't make money longer term. But my biggest losses have always come holding overnight risk. Or to mitigate that you just end up trading such tiny positions relative to your account size you need a 6 figure account to make money. Very hard for a new trader. I solely day traded for about 6 years and rarely lost more than 4 days a month. Not saying Tomorton is wrong in anything he says. Just different experiences. Personally I find intraday far safer
Here’s a couple resources to get you started. https://www.marketlifetrading.com/ Don’t worry about premium. The course is free. Atleast watch the first two videos. He’s currently redoing the course. The course was free for many years and he just rebranded his research firm and such so decided to redo the course. Their was 7 or more modules before so keep an eye out. Look up chatwithtraders and bettersystemtrader podcasts. Look through for topics that interest yourself. This will all get you thinking about different ways to get an edge in the market. Marketlife podcast had a pretty good one called “ so you want to be a trader “ which laid out some pretty reasonable expectstions. Don’t expect much here as far as developing a strategy.
Cheers for this and happy you're comfortable to put up that, even with experience, a winning day every day is not necessary to be profitable. Lot of new traders try - and fail - for 100% winning days.
Rationally you're right that NOT holding overnight is less risky. Not holding over weekends even more so. But statistically and practically, overnight gaps are not one of the main risks that newcomers face.
But why is it objectively riskier? Intraday trading itself is not riskier, it's that it attracts people with a gambler mentality and/or people with small account sizes. With someone who is systematic and follows a plan, it's no more no less riskier than daily/weekly.
No imagining about it. I once lost $78K overnight. Actually, price was down indicating a loss (~$72K?) when the market opened, then the price improved to a $68K loss, then the price turned down. I was totally mentally unprepared and didn't pull the plug until $78K down and realized that loss (had I held as it kept going down over days & weeks, it would have been over a $350K loss). Since then, I never hold overnight. Period. Best daily profit: $14K; hit a home run, back when my norm ranged from $400 to $2,000 a day. It's a lot less now...
With overnight positions, you have to size very conservatively. You also have to take into account what happens in other time zones. Then there are the 9-11 type events, intraday at least you have an opportunity to get out but probably at a terrible price - still better than sitting around not knowing what will happen. Since no major catastrophes have happened recently, people have forgotten about it. Market always like to refresh traders' memory at the most inconvenient times.
$780K position. (Maybe $860K, it's been a while. The numbers 68 and 78 are carved.) Expecting news. Signed off around 2:00pm to go help friends by meeting their kids getting off the bus. When the news came, I was sitting under a tree drinking coffee. Had I not arrogantly been so sure of the price jumping up, I could have been signed in and easily contained the loss to $10K to 20K, likely less. Several lessons...
The problem is that this is all detail , you can lose slow or fast , safe or risky , but the only thing that really counts in the end is having a positive probability on your trades. However careful /clever your money management , you won't win in the end without it , but with it , relatively poor money management plans etc will come out ahead in the end as long as you keep going and don't lose it all in one go, get your probability up over say 75% and you'll have a hard job losing, and not ending up very wealthy. My recommendation is cast everything aside and chase deeper and harder for higher probability trades.