Thank you for that post Proflogic. There are many traders that making a living trading. One just gave up a great job at IBM to trade full time. She was trading on the side. One of the oters trades his uncles money for him full time and takes home over a hundred K. Per year (That is his cut) The last one I don't know what he makes but he does it full time.
I could not agree more. Assuming one knows how to trade, and has enough experience to avoid big mistakes, then all you need is to be well-capitalized with low margins. You will then do just fine as long as you go your own way and don't listen to Wall Street "advice." Apparently, only a few traders fall into this category.
It is doable. I am tired of these threads asking why others believe day trading is easy or difficult. May be whoever starts these threads should tell honestly about their record and if they think they are rich now.
The answer to your question is: Quote from Handle123: People are gullible, they see infomercials on TV, seeing some slick vendor selling some software where people are happy using some "foolproof" software waiting for either a green or red to buy or sell. People daydreaming "finally their pot of gold float their way," IMAGINE yourself making hundreds or thousands in a couple of hours or you can stay working your dull 9 to 5 job, cut to some poor smuck sitting at his desk with stacks of papers on his desk and the boss is yelling at him. IMAGINE buying that big house, that sports car, everyone patting you on the back, cut to same poor smuck sitting in bumper to bumper traffic smelling in fumes. IMAGINE sitting on the beach sucking down another pina colada while your hooter girl rubbing her bod against you, cut back to same poor smuck at his house trailer with bills piling up, wife is screaming "Hamburger helper again?". People envision delusions of grandeur thinking this can be so easy if I just buy that software. The reality of course, if you want to acquire all that, it is very possible, but expect to work years at gaining the knowledge to do so. It is funny, by the time you finally get very good at this craft, what you think you wanted all along, you don't. You have to put in an incredible amount of hours, you have to have an infinite amount of passion for doing the nearly impossible. And when you start, what you think is the most important is nowhere near what is at the end. You have to turn into Mr. Spock, trade logical in an illogical world of emotions. You don't trade price, you trade an illusion of what people are thinking. Day trading is a very tough way to make profits, sitting here behind the screen, just waiting for your patterns. And whether you manually trade or automate or both, you are always tweaking to make it better. Long hours has to be in your blood, not a whole lot of time sitting on the beach when you are running another backtest. And any great piece of software or method is never going to be sold. And why mess with the bs of selling to the public, dealing with gullible people for a lousy 5 or 10 grand when you can make that in a month, week, day or an hour? The old line "I just want to give back", what a crock of crap, give back? give back to who? Most vendors just want to stick it to the gullible to help pay back their losses. You want to give back, mentor 2/3 people for a year and expect nothing in return. 99% of the vendors out here will never show brokerage statements, cause they want you to dream about "IMAGINE". Happy New Year All.
that is the best answer so far. You just have to find a way to make DECENT income day trading. You have to have that attitude that you cannot get rich quick or get rich day trading. 1 out of 100 traders will be making a decent income day trading or trading.
The only way I know to get rich quick is to win the lottery. Everything else seems to involve hard work.