There are still a lot of great opportunities out there on the short side! People at my firm have been doing well shorting stocks with bad news on Nasdaq. Did you see BBOX last week? One guy made $35K shorting that sucker!
There are people who make $35,000 on really good days at Worldco too, whether long or short. But we're talking about a handful of people out of 800 traders, where most traders are making nothing. I don't know what BBOX did last week, but look at OMC last week. It tanked as much as 26 points from its pervious day's close, as much as 20 from it's open, and closed about $11 from its low. That was a good day for some people.
Yeah, personally, I think if you are a good trader then it doesn't matter what market we are in. Obviously, a tough, choppy market makes its HARDER to make money. But if you follow your discipline then you should be OK. OMC! DAMN!! I didn't see that. Last Wednesday huh? It opened 72 and the low was 51! That's like a 21pts move. BUT the thing is how many people saw that and of those who saw that , how many held that long? But not everyday there's an OMC or BBOX.
A lot of people saw OMC, but obviously not at the open. Once it starts tanking, at what point do you decide its gone too far, that its too much of a risk here. People actually got burned in it. Anyhow, those stocks are the abberations, caught mostly by the lucky people and, in some cases, the gamblers (who get burned just as badly sometimes). Sure, great traders can trade. But when I see people talking as though this market is just a little tougher than that of a year or two ago, that anyone who tries hard enough can make lots of money now, it is absurd. In fact, more than ever daytraders are competing against one another, which makes it that much tougher. Real volume sucks, even when the daily volume looks reasonable. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tm...9&e=1&u=/nm/20020623/bs_nm/stocks_retail_dc_1
Yeah... That kind of volatility 21pts intraday move is hella risky unless you catch it early enough. You wrote,"Sure, great traders can trade. But when I see people talking as though this market is just a little tougher than that of a year or two ago, that anyone who tries hard enough can make lots of money now, it is absurd. " Yeah, it's not just tougher. It's probably the toughest in a few decades as some people say. But everything comes and goes in cycle. If you can survive through this tough cycle then perhaps the next one will be an easier ride. Or maybe not. Because you are so battle-scarred to ride the big gains in the next bull market? haha. life as a trader is tough. Period!
The way the investigations have been coming out recently we may have 2 or 3 a day. I'm waiting for the newsflash " SEC investigating NYSE and NASDAQ for bogus books". Or "Greenspan and Martha Stewart had trist prior Imclone debacle." It seems anything goes now a days.