trader accounts are insured by FDIC arnt they? maybe its becoming more of a scalpers market? if bid/ask is larger then their is more room to profit from the spread...
Cause all the people I know that make real good money trade equities. Much less efficient. And why don't you pay taxes? Even a mexican lawn mower pays his taxes on income earned. But as a day trader with basically unlimited BP it doesn't matter. Having more stocks to trade = more trading opportunities = more money. I'm a scalper too but I prefer more expensive stocks though I know guys who scalp those slow moving stocks like F and do well (or at least used to). A review of all trades done in the past year (10000+ trades) showed that my profit factor and efficiency (cents/share) go up with higher price stocks by considerable amounts. For example, 5+ profit factor with stocks over 70 dollars. Too bad there isn't that many left....
brandon - yup, i know (about bear markets killing volatility) - i've studied the 30s, and the late 70s, and i'm patterning my longer term thoughts on a hybrid of the two. although '08 was wonderful for me, and 09 is shaping up fine so far, that's my paranoia. then again, i control my destiny. if lack of vol. rules the day, i'll just change strategies to account for that. won't be as nice as my strategies now, but i'll do what needs to be done.