Are you a daytrader?

Glavinsolo

Platinum Member
Sep 2, 2004
2,946
0
0
Like do you wake up when the stock market opens and buy and sell with your streaming charts and conference calls going on from your distant friends that also trade? Do you make good money doing this? Are you not answering because the market is still open?

Sounds interesting
 

JDrake

Banned
Dec 27, 2005
10,246
0
0
I was reading a Popular Science from 1999ish the other day and read about day-trading.. sounds fun..
 

gigapet

Lifer
Aug 9, 2001
10,005
0
76
my friend does it for some investmetn firm in the city. He makes ok money on good days. But if you blink to long you can get bent over as well from what he tells me.
 

DaShen

Lifer
Dec 1, 2000
10,710
1
0
Originally posted by: Glavinsolo
Like do you wake up when the stock market opens and buy and sell with your streaming charts and conference calls going on from your distant friends that also trade? Do you make good money doing this? Are you not answering because the market is still open?

Sounds interesting

Nope and I will never be one, but I do know a few that are extremely successful and pulling in 6-7 figure incomes.
 

imported_KuJaX

Platinum Member
May 29, 2004
2,428
0
0
Originally posted by: DaShen
Originally posted by: Glavinsolo
Like do you wake up when the stock market opens and buy and sell with your streaming charts and conference calls going on from your distant friends that also trade? Do you make good money doing this? Are you not answering because the market is still open?

Sounds interesting

Nope and I will never be one, but I do know a few that are extremely successful and pulling in 6-7 figure incomes.

Know them personally? Daytraders love to boust about their good days where they made $1000 but never talk about their average days where they lose more than $800 or will NEVER speak of their days where they lost $4000.

It is worse than a zero-sum "game". It is considered worse than zero sum because of expenses that are around that there is no way to avoid: commissions, the spread, software costs, data feed costs, etc. Even if you looked at it as gambling, thinking "i'll buy right now and i have a 50% chance of winning," it really isn't like that because you have to count in all of the other costs mentioned above. Statistics (or atleast what THEY say) is that 90% of daytraders will lose money, of the 90% that lose money, 5% will lose their entire account. out of 100%, 5% will make money. I read that daytraders that make money average out $58,000 a year.

Although making thousands with no effort (well a click of a button) is what makes daytrading look so attractive. Trade from anywhere in the world, at any time, make grundles of money. This is the reason why so many people lose all of their money, or wise up and quit before they lose it all, and why for every person that quits doing it, someone else starts. The only people making money are the brokerages, instritutions, software companies, datafeed companies, online daytrading chatrooms, and "i'll sell you my idea's and secrets" books and seminars/conventions.

Trust me when I say this: I know PERSONALLY (yes, know their full name, address, phone number, talk to them fairly frequently, etc) of about 15 people that have lost well over $200,000+ EACH and I know 0 people, yep ZERO, ZIP, NADDA that has made money over the course of more than 6 months.

Chances are that anyone here that respondes probably has an account with less than $10,000. Do note that the smaller account size that you have, even more drastic and faster you will be knocked out of the game, because regardless if your account is $10,000 or $1,000,000, you'll still be paying upwards of $150 - $500 a month in software and other data related fee's, not including commissions per trade. So if your account is $10,000, and you pay $500 in monthly fee's that don't include commissions, you'll be paying 5% of your account in monthly expenses, while if you had a million dollar account, you are only shelling out .05% of your account in monthly expenses. Hence, the smaller your account, the better likely hood of you saying bye bye to $10k
 

ebaycj

Diamond Member
Mar 9, 2002
5,418
0
0
Originally posted by: KuJaX
Originally posted by: DaShen
Originally posted by: Glavinsolo
Like do you wake up when the stock market opens and buy and sell with your streaming charts and conference calls going on from your distant friends that also trade? Do you make good money doing this? Are you not answering because the market is still open?

Sounds interesting

Nope and I will never be one, but I do know a few that are extremely successful and pulling in 6-7 figure incomes.

Know them personally? Daytraders love to boust about their good days where they made $1000 but never talk about their average days where they lose more than $800 or will NEVER speak of their days where they lost $4000.

It is worse than a zero-sum "game". It is considered worse than zero sum because of expenses that are around that there is no way to avoid: commissions, the spread, software costs, data feed costs, etc. Even if you looked at it as gambling, thinking "i'll buy right now and i have a 50% chance of winning," it really isn't like that because you have to count in all of the other costs mentioned above. Statistics (or atleast what THEY say) is that 90% of daytraders will lose money, of the 90% that lose money, 5% will lose their entire account. out of 100%, 5% will make money. I read that daytraders that make money average out $58,000 a year.

Although making thousands with no effort (well a click of a button) is what makes daytrading look so attractive. Trade from anywhere in the world, at any time, make grundles of money. This is the reason why so many people lose all of their money, or wise up and quit before they lose it all, and why for every person that quits doing it, someone else starts. The only people making money are the brokerages, instritutions, software companies, datafeed companies, online daytrading chatrooms, and "i'll sell you my idea's and secrets" books and seminars/conventions.

Trust me when I say this: I know PERSONALLY (yes, know their full name, address, phone number, talk to them fairly frequently, etc) of about 15 people that have lost well over $200,000+ EACH and I know 0 people, yep ZERO, ZIP, NADDA that has made money over the course of more than 6 months.

Chances are that anyone here that respondes probably has an account with less than $10,000. Do note that the smaller account size that you have, even more drastic and faster you will be knocked out of the game, because regardless if your account is $10,000 or $1,000,000, you'll still be paying upwards of $150 - $500 a month in software and other data related fee's, not including commissions per trade. So if your account is $10,000, and you pay $500 in monthly fee's that don't include commissions, you'll be paying 5% of your account in monthly expenses, while if you had a million dollar account, you are only shelling out .05% of your account in monthly expenses. Hence, the smaller your account, the better likely hood of you saying bye bye to $10k


unless you work for a broker and get everything at cost :)
 

Strk

Lifer
Nov 23, 2003
10,197
4
76
They seem like they are one step away from a mental breakdown, but that's just my opinion.
 

D1gger

Diamond Member
Oct 3, 2004
5,411
2
76
My wife has been a day trader. She was reasonably successful (she doubled her initial $15k in her first six months), but the effort and stress was taking its' toll so her returns started to slow, until she finally decided it wasn't worth the effort. When she quit she cashed in at $35k. Basically in 18 months she made $20k working 4 to 6 hours per day. I had no idea of the volume of trades she was doing until I saw her tax summary for the first year.

Although she was trading on an account that was worth $15k -- $30k her volume of trades for the year was over $5million. In out in out in out, often for the same stock or option and sometimes holding it for less than a minute.
 

TySnyder

Senior member
Oct 16, 2004
511
0
0
Originally posted by: D1gger
My wife has been a day trader. She was reasonably successful (she doubled her initial $15k in her first six months), but the effort and stress was taking its' toll so her returns started to slow, until she finally decided it wasn't worth the effort. When she quit she cashed in at $35k. Basically in 18 months she made $20k working 4 to 6 hours per day. I had no idea of the volume of trades she was doing until I saw her tax summary for the first year.

Although she was trading on an account that was worth $15k -- $30k her volume of trades for the year was over $5million. In out in out in out, often for the same stock or option and sometimes holding it for less than a minute.

A minimum account of 25k is required by the SEC for day traders.
 

D1gger

Diamond Member
Oct 3, 2004
5,411
2
76
Originally posted by: TySnyder
Originally posted by: D1gger
My wife has been a day trader. She was reasonably successful (she doubled her initial $15k in her first six months), but the effort and stress was taking its' toll so her returns started to slow, until she finally decided it wasn't worth the effort. When she quit she cashed in at $35k. Basically in 18 months she made $20k working 4 to 6 hours per day. I had no idea of the volume of trades she was doing until I saw her tax summary for the first year.

Although she was trading on an account that was worth $15k -- $30k her volume of trades for the year was over $5million. In out in out in out, often for the same stock or option and sometimes holding it for less than a minute.

A minimum account of 25k is required by the SEC for day traders.

Not in Canada. She traded through a company called Swift Trade, that had a $15k limit.
 
D

Deleted member 4644

I just sold my last stock the other day. Now I want to take some of the profits and start a more active trading account. Which is the best, assuming maybe 5 trades a month of a fairly small amt of cash?
 

dandruff

Golden Member
Jan 28, 2000
1,407
6
81
Originally posted by: LordSegan
I just sold my last stock the other day. Now I want to take some of the profits and start a more active trading account. Which is the best, assuming maybe 5 trades a month of a fairly small amt of cash?



MBTRADING.com
 

tweakmm

Lifer
May 28, 2001
18,436
4
0
I've been in a pretty rigorous forex course for the past few months now and have got a few good daytrading strategies and good swing trading strategies.
I hope to go live in another few weeks. I know a lot of people who've gotten rich doing the same thing.
 

vi edit

Elite Member
Super Moderator
Oct 28, 1999
62,484
8,345
126
Originally posted by: tweakmm
I've been in a pretty rigorous forex course for the past few months now and have got a few good daytrading strategies and good swing trading strategies.
I hope to go live in another few weeks. I know a lot of people who've gotten rich doing the same thing.

100:1 leverage scares the ever living crap out of me.

Best be on the winning side of that bet.
 

Noirish

Diamond Member
May 2, 2000
3,959
0
0
anything is better than day trade.

pick some volatile yet stable companies for short term and steady growth for long term.
 

tweakmm

Lifer
May 28, 2001
18,436
4
0
Originally posted by: vi_edit
Originally posted by: tweakmm
I've been in a pretty rigorous forex course for the past few months now and have got a few good daytrading strategies and good swing trading strategies.
I hope to go live in another few weeks. I know a lot of people who've gotten rich doing the same thing.

100:1 leverage scares the ever living crap out of me.

Best be on the winning side of that bet.
There are some brokers who offer 400:1. :Q
That is some serious action to play with.

The trick is to not over-extend your margin, so when you lose(which you will) it doesn't wipe you out.
 

everman

Lifer
Nov 5, 2002
11,288
1
0
Originally posted by: tweakmm
Originally posted by: vi_edit
Originally posted by: tweakmm
I've been in a pretty rigorous forex course for the past few months now and have got a few good daytrading strategies and good swing trading strategies.
I hope to go live in another few weeks. I know a lot of people who've gotten rich doing the same thing.

100:1 leverage scares the ever living crap out of me.

Best be on the winning side of that bet.
There are some brokers who offer 400:1. :Q
That is some serious action to play with.

The trick is to not over-extend your margin, so when you lose(which you will) it doesn't wipe you out.

Forex trading is the risk lover's paradise, or living hell :D I've heard stories both good and bad, and it's not for the faint of heart.