Are you saying equities are the easiest? Is that what you trade? And using technicals, chart patterns etc?
Nowadays stocks only because you can find such very unique stories/themes/dynamics; & if able to exercise extreme patience and prejudice... Requires PLUNGING some size & taking the UNIQUE risk. Options on said stocks, not like the good old days, not "easy" but sometimes worthwhile. The more liquid/heavy participation the market, the more algos have rendered it onto a field of death; macro, FX, popular futures, vergetaboutit unless you identify correctly at the right time a shift in dynamics leading to prolonged "trend" Scalping? Yeah there will be some scalping alright, will you have any skin left to show? Like to use a stop, because, well, you'r not insane nor a delusional debutant? Combine that w/ high intra-day leverage in popular heavy participation mrkt, meaning you use a TIGHT stop - Vergetaboutit, you'r all done
Are we really competing with algos if we are holding longer than a hour ? Stocks can be highly manipulated, rumors, lawsuits or failed drug trial, insider selling all can ruin a good stock.
I trade strictly by price so I don't see any market as being more difficult than another. I track index futures, currency futures, fx, financial futures, commodities, etc. and I've traded some markets without even knowing the market...based purely on the market's action.
One can only prudently trade using size/leverage w/ a stop in place. For a daytrader that stop must be "tight" eg w/in a one hour time frame dispersion most of the time, by its very nature. These stops have an overwhelming probability of being hit, in our new AI marketplace. The reason is counter-intuitive, there is no conspiracy among these programs - Rather, there IS causality of sorts... Humans cannot outwit machines, in the aggregate, and the $$$ must come from somewhere; the algorithmic HF or other traders we know are profitable. Zero-sum game it has to come from somewhere. The fact that stocks are manipulated is in no doubt, and is the reason for the most part that they present opportunity. This where good old human judgement can come in and figure out "the angle". In fact this is the point to my post. Once you are dealing in the obscurity of the known unknown affecting stocks, you are way outside the plausible operating spectrum of a program. We can agree to disagree, I have resolve in my observations, based on many many sessions day in day out.