im getting depressed Reading this thread... ....sad but true...the odds are really stacked against the 'daytrader' of old....with the pdt rules there is much less volume and 'irrational exuberance ' in the air..
Less than half that per day and you'd have to get a job? Ummm...250 days a year x $2500 a day = 625K a year! Any less than 625K a year and you'll quit trading and get a job? You must have a very expensive lifestyle and a really good job waiting for you. Am I missing something???
Well, the late 90's was easy street, thats a given... the people who can continue to do well are the people with sufficient capitalization, sound trading strategies and the discipline to execute the strategies devoid of emotion... daytrading will always be here to stay for the 5%-10% of us who have what it takes... in these "normal" times, daytrading has become a conventional business, with pretty conventional failure rates... find your edge, or become one of the 90%- 95% who flunk this game...
No. Daytrading is just a fad. I give it another month, maybe two at the most. Then forget it, no more daytrading. On the other hand, Love is here to stay. And that's enough to make you mine girl, be the only one. Love me all the time girl, we'll go on and on. One day when we're trading, deep in debt, not a lot to say, then we will remember, things we said today.
small time scalping IS now futile, due to decimalization. Whats the point of risking a lot of money to make a lousy penny? I used to trade a lot, when spreads were .25 and the ticks were 12.5 cents, if you could make a quarter on a thousand shares that could pay all your expenses for the day in one quick trade. late 90's we saw smaller spreads, smaller ticks, BUT, a lot more volatility and very strong momentum trends. A lot of people who called themsleves daytraders were really over night traders or swing traders, riding the upward momo. Now, we have less momentum ( except the past couple months ) and less spreads and smaller ticks. The one positive we have is very low commissions that aren't likely to rise. IMHO the daytraders are moving into futures of all kinds. Volatility will decrease in the stock market and drive all small active traders where they can get the most leverage and fewer hassles. SSf's have really eliminated the #1 reason to be a prop trader, leverage. Sure some strategies require trading the underlying stock, but most don't. the daytrading firms of the future could be firms specializing in SSF and e-mini trading.