Don't get your panties in a bunch, I know there will always be tradeable days in a month, I did not dispute that, my objection was towards your claim that there will always be a few big moves everyday. That is definitely false unless you consider 5 point chop and the occasional 10 point move to be huge (good luck catching these moves though). And I believe your data includes ETH range, RTH range is much smaller that, so I don't know why you chose to include those since we are talking about day trading here, or do you day trade 24 hours a day?
All of these ranges affect intraday moves. It isn't as if experienced traders aren't aware that these ranges -- with the high and low and midpoints -- aren't there.
My beef is with him claiming that there are a few big moves everyday, thats just patently false. If you look at the statistics he provided, its clear that most days don't see a range thats greater than 15 points on the ES, the RTH range is probably far lower than that, probably 60% or less.
15pts is not too shabby. That translates into 37.5 on the NQ, which is not too shabby either. Whether or not one is able to take advantage of whatever moves occur, regardless of how one defines "big", depends entirely on one's trading plan. If one can't recognize a range in real time, much less trade it, then whatever trades are claimed will be assumed to be lies and the entire process a mystery. On the other hand, if one takes the time to characterize one's market -- which is rare -- and to develop a robust trading plan -- which is even more rare -- he will find that the mystery evaporates, and he can then begin to profit from price moves, large or small.
I agree that 15 points isn't so bad but only if its not the only move of the day and its RTH range. Look here I'm not trying to say that day trading sucks and nobody can make money day trading, my stand has always been its dependent on what the market is willing to give you. I stopped day trading for a few years to focus on my start up (partnership) and I just got back into day trading recently, but I only did so because I noticed there was elevated volatility in the DAX and the Hang Seng, been killing it trading those products in the last 2 months. I know a guy who made nearly 200% of his account (6 figure account) day trading the hang seng alone in the last 2 months, and he traded no more than 2 contracts each time so he wasn't taking on crazy leverage. I'm a firm believer of volatility = range = profit potential, traders need volatility to thrive, there is no way to get around this unless your strategy is one of the pennies/steamroller variant.
Assuming that one has a robust trading plan and follows it, what remains is size. There need be only one qualifying move that day.
there is such a thing as 'noise'. noise results from such practice of disingenuous trading of quote stuffing, spoofing etc. to manipulate price. algo's create noise and push a market toward randomness, not other way around. where every tick is fCked, ie pounced upon and bandied about like a tennis ball, the markerts deconstruct