sorry but this will be my last post on this topic today In last 2 yrs I have been using futures as well as stocks most of my plays are extremely short term in nature I cannot answer that prop firm query as I have not passed all those tests needed to apply to one good luck .... if you are under 30 and single , take a shot at trading for a career ... it gets harder if one is older and or has a wife and kids to support ... I am 45 and single by the way .... "Question - are you strictly Daytrading Stocks or are you trading over a longer horizon, and trading other instruments/markets? Could you envision starting out at a Prop firm in this market with say, $30 to $50k buying power and make a living if all you had to trade was the NAS or NYSE ?"
I have run into so many trading styles , there must be a thousand strategies in this sector to make money. I think anybody can make money in this industry if they are a student of the business, your trading style is determined by your personality. I like Daytrading and don't particularly care for swing trading, to me Swing Traders are investors and putting alot of trust in their picks, I cannot stand holding an overnight, to me its just not worth the risk. It seems like a few think Swing Trading is best, and that's OK, it all up to your individual psyche. DayTrading changed, its different, not better or worse, all you need is an up or a down to make money and provided you get on the right side, LOL. I think both can work, it just depends on a miriad of elements: Your financial Status - how much money you have Your Personality - aggressive, conservative, whatever. Daytrading is hard and not for everybody, Swing trading might be a little less instense but you need more capital. And I believe that the people that have survived the last 3 years will be the ones that survive the next 3 years.
I believe that it is absolutely possible to earn a good living daytrading stocks....sure there are no 30 point daily ranges anymore, not even very many $100 plus stocks...but there are quite a few that still have enough range to make a nice daily profit. I'll agree that the universe of stocks meeting most daytraders guidelines has dwindled but the specialists make all their bucks daytrading just a handful of stocks...and make no mistake about it they are daytraders.
I'll agree they have a big edge by knowing the book, but they lose and sometimes lose big...remember they HAVE to buy what everyone else wants to sell and visa versa....in a market where the stock trades heavily in one direction all day they usually lose and the goal for that day is to just keep losses as small as possible. The question was can you make money daytrading..and they do..by daytrading.
I don't understand why someone would limit themselves only to day trading, especially when your strategy is based on TA. Why not go where the opportunity is? After all, the TA is the same for intraday as it is for swing.
DayTrading the NYSE, I could really start an argument here about NYSE, LOL. But I don't have the energy, just let me say, I don't care for Daytrading the NYSE. It's like a specialist decides whether you are going to win or lose, I know its not that bad, but you are opening yourself up. No, I don't want to argue with NYSE Traders if you like it and have a confort level that's great.
<b>There is a time for all things</b>, but I didn't know it. And that is precisely what beats so many men on Wall Street who are very far from being in the main sucker class. There is the plain fool, who does the wrong thing at all times everywhere, but there is the Wall Street fool, who thinks he must trade all the time. No man can always have adequate reasons for buying and selling stocks daily - or sufficient knowledge to make his play an intelligent play. Jesse Livermore
There is no arqument about the NYSE. I understand how someonce would have problems with specialists and their handling of your market orders. But in the same time specialists give you an edge, you just need good execution skills to take advantage of them. Today traders also have access to automatic execution (NX), plus the ECN's, which make trading the listed stocks (active ones) easier.