Once the winners in day trading were featured in the Wall Street Journal, drove sweet rides, lived in great houses and had the lifestyle befitting their success. Now, these folks have mostly vanished. All there is now are third world dreamers, posters who sell trading swag by telling themselves and others lies about themselves, and the seriously mentally handicapped gambler types. Day trading as you define it is a fools errand. How much evidence do you need?
With all the posts in this thread, it's clear why most traders fail. If you don't believe it to be possible, it won't be. I think I knew at some level I'd always be a great trader when I started, but didn't fully know why until recently. I will never stop knowing I can make 7+ figures a year trading. No one will change my mind. The one main trait successful people have in common is they don't give up. Trading is not "hard work," it just takes time to get good at it (same as any profession). It is this way for many reasons. In a capitalist society, in order for there to be rich, there has to be middle/lower class! Most people do not become rich overnight (there is of course inherited wealth, if you want to count that). I have made money 5 consecutive weeks, day trading RLM, nearly every day. The days I don't make money it's either because I screwed up or I stopped taking trades. My personal journey has been documented here. I have been a part time trader for 5 years. It's up to me to keep this up, and if I fail to adapt it could stop. However, I use simple lines to trade (probably won't need them eventually), and people have written about my techniques almost 100 years ago. I don't think I'll ever have a losing week again. From what I see the markets are mechanical, yet everyone complains about robots! If you consider a variety of factors, trading is the ideal business to be in. You are your own boss. You don't have to deal with drama/politics (rampant in military nursing). You can make far above an average living with a strong edge. And most importantly you make your own work schedule (time is the most valuable commodity anyway..)
There's a difference between believing it's possible and being naive. I was both. Absolutely, but you should also consider that there are thousands untold stories of people who never gave up and have been trying their whole life and never made it. With all due respect, I had 20 consecutive winning days and winning weeks when I resumed day trading ES with my second account. Then I increased size and encountered a losing streak. In points, my loss was far less than my wins, but in monetarily terms, I was breakeven in a short amount of time. As a a day trader, you need to be very consistent, week in, week out, year after year. It's not easy. I sincerely hope you will continue being a winner, but realize that 5 weeks is nothing. I agree with the latter though. As long as markets are moving and volatile, the 'robots' is just a convenient excuse. Absolutely. But I'm thinking that perhaps swing trading makes for a better lifestyle and it may be just as profitable. Maybe even more. As a day trader, you don't make your own work schedule. You're still working 9-5 and that's excluding the work done outside market hours. Best regards.
Agree about schedule. But only in case of swing/position trading with minimal analysis period of 1 day or more to enter orders on the opening/close and forget at least until the next day. The best case is long-term investment of course, but returns are usually much lower than more frequent speculation.
Or one can compromise and trade an hourly interval. This enables him to have a life yet trade more often than would be prompted by a daily chart. This is certainly a more realistic and practical alternative for those who want to "daytrade" while at work or at school or whatever they do that prevents them from actually following the course of price during the day.
In my experience it's more psychological. Just knowing a trade may happen any hour doesn't let one fully relax as opposed to say, long-term investment when you care less even about various flash crashes etc. From another viewpoint, if there are enough trades every day, there's no biggie to miss a day or a couple of weeks simply if you want so, especially if it happens around holidays or late August.