I completely agree with you, There's only basically one way to day trade for the retail trader. You have to be bold and aggressive and very talented....if you expect this activity to provide you income and real money for your time and efforts in it. It's hard to get people to tell the truth and be honest with you -- but I'd personally say 99.4% of the people who attempt to day trade, or trade, are complete failures who are just wasting their time. They are better off just investing in the S&P, and doing something completely else with their time. Some people are so proud to match the S&P, or beat it by a few %....that's laughable, sad and pathetic performance. You have to truly amp up the risk/reward factor. and have the skill, understanding and wisdom to pull it off.
I believe this is closer to the truth. Guess a real edge is hard to find in day trading or investment. Now I am inclined to think edge is a random thing and it’s very few and far between. To achieve an edge is pure luck for individuals. Everything else can be achieved with enough time, experience and effort, such as discipline, psychology and technical skills, etc. Only edge is the elusive thing. I have read a lot about trading (and investment) in the last few decades. Looking back now everything in trading has been thoroughly discussed, studied and written except for the edge or alpha. Even edge itself is not permanent but perishable, per the famous trading psychologist Brett Steenbarger.
Took me 20 years of never giving up to create my own system. Probably diligently spent the past 4-5 years strengthening my EQ. It is a great feeling slowly seeing my progress to the point where I will be the GOAT......surpassing even Jim Simons. It will be take more time. But it "will" happen.
Easy.. 1. Graduate from Yale or Harvard with an MBA 2. Work 5+ years for GS, MS, ML or JPM in New York until a VP 3. Leave and start Hedge Fund You see? a very simple process. Good luck
Guys like that only have insider information as their edge. Not all but the majority. Education is important but so is raw natural talent....talent can take many many different forms
Unfortunately, for those of us that did not take that path, that Bio gets you in the door to make your pitch.
What -% do you consider "very low drawdowns" for that +10% return? How much max drawdown is tolerable?
I needed about 10 years to become consistently profitable and make enough to quit my job. Every daytrader, successful or not, needs a period that daytrading will cost money and not bring any money, only costs. I call that an investment cost. In any business most people need time before they can live for 100% from the profits generated by their business. I doubt that you are a successful daytrader, because these daytraders make a multiple of the 20% you mention. At the start I overestimated myself. Daytrading looked more easy then it was. Over the years I became better and better and I started to UNDERestimate myself. What seemed impossible in the beginning (making at least 2 points ES a day net) became easy. After more than 20 years of daytrading I reached levels that went beyond the level I ever was dreaming of. Conclusion: Over- and underestimation are changing depending on the evolution of the trader. So they are temporary and can change. In any profession you need basic knowledge, that you learn at school. Then you have to go to a higher level for more specific knowledge that you need for your future profession. So when you should start the more specific knowlegde for being a daytrader, you have a problem as this education does not exist. You confuse the lack of this knowledge with not being talented. For part of the wannebee daytraders there is indeed a lack of talent, but for another part there is no lack, just the knowlegde is still missing. This missing knowledge need to be found by the daytrader himself. What makes the numbers look bad, is the fact that you only need a PC and $500 to start daytrading. There are no other requirements. So basically even the biggest idiot can start as a daytrader. And the last years the number of daytraders went up astronomically because of the low entrey requirements. That same low level entry was the key of the success of trading crypto's. 75% of all wallets have less than $200 value. I would like to end with a post from someone else: