If you have done your homework one should see very few negative gaps over nite....most would be gaps up...you are holding overnite in order to capture the gap.....money management and discipline will take care of this potential problem.... The real money is made in position/swing trading....I don't think anyone knowledgeable would argue otherwise...the problem is it takes a lot of homework and most on ET just want to buy something without any work involved... Trading halts are very minor part of the market.... SteveD
Regarding the money mgmt. comment, true for the most part. You allocate based on risk. The real money comment: Depends on the level of capitalization. I think there's a curve where the lower levels can achieve higher returns through daytrading, and that curve starts to shift as levels of capital rises, to higher in position. Yeah, halts are minor part in terms of frequency. They are a bitch though when they sneak up on a size trade.
If I put the number at 13 total (estimates): 1 major win (larger than all winners + losses combined) 2 small wins(.5 - 2 points) 3 scratches (-.5/+.5) 7 losses (.5 - 2.5 points)
Are there more opportunities in day trading? --Yes Are the opportunities smaller in nature when day trading--Yes Do most day traders miss most of the opportunities--Yes Should a newbie day trade---NO
The one issue with this thread thus far is that nobody has put forth a definition of "Day Trader." There are a multitude of "Types" of "Day Traders," each with unique attributes. Some of these "types" very closely mirror "Position Traders," and some of them have no relationship whatsoever. It might be best to define "Day Trader," so that we can compare apples to oranges and not apples to a whole basket of fruit, as is the current comparison.
Day trader opens and closed positions inside the confines of the same trading day. That is the generally accepted definition and is a given. It needs no explanation. Any time frame more than that is swing or position trading.
Are you opening up 400 positions and closing 400 positions a day? Are you opening and closing 1 trade per day? Are you opening and closing 20 trades per day? 3 totally different "Day Trading" approaches. These are all day traders. They are all active each trading day. They are 3 totally different day trading approaches. It's tough to make a comparision between postion traders and day traders without defining which type of day trader to which you're comparing him.