Can Day Trading be profitable for retail?

January 22nd, 2018, 12:13 PM

jefforey

I have tried many strategies some just having one trade per day to as many as 20 trades per day. I have tried trailing stoploss types and profit target types but all of them fail to return consistently. There are 2 or 3 great months but rest of the months give away the gains. But the caveat is that if the same strategy is run by Goldman Sachs then it will be immensely profitable. And this very fact raises my doubt. Is retail day-trading a myth created by Goldman Sachs and others to create liquidity for their own trades. After all even they need a counterparty.

Of course such strategies lose. Every moment in the market is unique. You will not get rich trading wooden, automatic strategies. You cannot just find a system, turn it on and wait for the billions to roll in. (and even people who trade that continuously adjust their systems, which is not easy either.)

Did you REALLY think that trading success is THAT easy??? :O

You need to trade in a way that responds to what is happening in the market RIGHT NOW, not 6 months ago. And you don't do that by analyzing charts.

You still believe in the myth of the Holy Grail, which I discussed in my thread recently.

Give that up. That kind of thinking does not work in trading.

January 22nd, 2018, 12:35 PM

Anagami

You need to trade in a way that responds to what is happening in the market RIGHT NOW, not 6 months ago. And you don't do that by analyzing charts.

How do you know what is happening in the market right now?

January 22nd, 2018, 12:55 PM

jefforey

I have tried many strategies some just having one trade per day to as many as 20 trades per day. I have tried trailing stoploss types and profit target types but all of them fail to return consistently. There are 2 or 3 great months but rest of the months give away the gains. But the caveat is that if the same strategy is run by Goldman Sachs then it will be immensely profitable. And this very fact raises my doubt. Is retail day-trading a myth created by Goldman Sachs and others to create liquidity for their own trades. After all even they need a counterparty.

Just so I'm clear about your basic premise: because you weren't able to do it, nobody else in the retail world can?

January 22nd, 2018, 01:16 PM

xplorer

Just so I'm clear about your basic premise: because you weren't able to do it, nobody else in the retail world can?

I wasn't able to do it and neither have i seen anyone else be consistently profitable. But i would like to be proved wrong.

January 22nd, 2018, 01:27 PM

jefforey

I wasn't able to do it and neither have i seen anyone else be consistently profitable. But i would like to be proved wrong.

A year back or so there was a guy who started a thread trying to entice profitable people to 'prove' to him that they were indeed profitable. He kept egging on other users with posts such as "I'm still waiting... no takers yet....". Many replied that there was absolutely no incentive for them to do so, and they were right.

When you say 'I would like to be proved wrong', how, exactly, would you like to be proved wrong?

January 22nd, 2018, 01:32 PM

xplorer

A year back or so there was a guy who started a thread trying to entice profitable people to 'prove' to him that they were indeed profitable. He kept egging on other users with posts such as "I'm still waiting... no takers yet....". Many replied that there was absolutely no incentive for them to do so, and they were right.

When you say 'I would like to be proved wrong', how, exactly, would you like to be proved wrong?

I agree that there is no incentive. I am just looking for some evidence. Not here to offend anyone. One way would be to post backtesting results done using tick data, I guess.

January 22nd, 2018, 01:49 PM

Strictly anecdotal evidence, but I have at least three clients that are successful day traders. Hugely successful, I might add. They're all local and my business has nothing to do with trading. Can't talk any of them into mentoring me

January 22nd, 2018, 05:57 PM

jefforey

I wasn't able to do it and neither have i seen anyone else be consistently profitable. But i would like to be proved wrong.

I would say you haven't looked hard enough but I think I said the same thing before (this is not news worthy).

January 22nd, 2018, 06:13 PM

jefforey

How do you know what is happening in the market right now?

Order flow.

January 22nd, 2018, 06:44 PM

cory

I would say you haven't looked hard enough but I think I said the same thing before (this is not news worthy).

guess this is a trick question. if everyone looses...no one makes money

. the other thing....if someone is profitable why would they need to show it to the world. i cannot think of a single reason.

Can Day Trading be profitable for retail?

Discussion in Traders Hideout

Can Day Trading be profitable for retail?