Day trading stocks: waste of time and money?

[murray]

Anybody had any success day trading stocks?
Most mutual fund managers can’t even beat the indexes with the stocks they invest in. So how can an individual know which stock to trade and make money doing it?

[FormerOwner]

I hear about friends of friends that made a killing day-trading during the dot-com boom but I haven’t heard of anyone making any money at it in the last few years. One of my buddies went to a seminar and dropped $3,000 for a computer program that tells him what/when to buy/sell. It was worthless! He might as well have have used a random number generator to make his picks. Total loss of 3K. I think he roughly broke even on his day trading – some gains, some losses but the software was a total loss.

[FormerOwner]

I hear about friends of friends that made a killing day-trading during the dot-com boom but I haven’t heard of anyone making any money at it in the last few years. One of my buddies went to a seminar and dropped $3,000 for a computer program that tells him what/when to buy/sell. It was worthless! He might as well have have used a random number generator to make his picks. Total loss of 3K. I think he roughly broke even on his day trading – some gains, some losses but the software was a total loss.

[Coronita]

I hear about friends of friends that made a killing day-trading during the dot-com boom but I haven't heard of anyone making any money at it in the last few years. One of my buddies went to a seminar and dropped $3,000 for a computer program that tells him what/when to buy/sell. It was worthless! He might as well have have used a random number generator to make his picks. Total loss of 3K. I think he roughly broke even on his day trading – some gains, some losses but the software was a total loss.

 

I have found that most people that talk about making a killing day-trading only tell you when they are right, and never when they are wrong. Although most people think they are professionals, most are not. There are probably a handful of folks that could probably day trade that don't work for institutions, but for the rest of us, it's not going to work. Either (1) we get to emotional or (2) we are out gunned by the I-banks or both. Also, one reason I stopped trying to day trade…. Pain in the ass end of year tax calculations even for my cpa.. It just wasn't worth the time for me, because I didn't personally  do that well to really justify the pain in the ass things at the end of the year. If you think you're one of the handful of folks that can actually be successful, by all means try it.

[Coronita]

I hear about friends of friends that made a killing day-trading during the dot-com boom but I haven't heard of anyone making any money at it in the last few years. One of my buddies went to a seminar and dropped $3,000 for a computer program that tells him what/when to buy/sell. It was worthless! He might as well have have used a random number generator to make his picks. Total loss of 3K. I think he roughly broke even on his day trading – some gains, some losses but the software was a total loss.

 

I have found that most people that talk about making a killing day-trading only tell you when they are right, and never when they are wrong. Although most people think they are professionals, most are not. There are probably a handful of folks that could probably day trade that don't work for institutions, but for the rest of us, it's not going to work. Either (1) we get to emotional or (2) we are out gunned by the I-banks or both. Also, one reason I stopped trying to day trade…. Pain in the ass end of year tax calculations even for my cpa.. It just wasn't worth the time for me, because I didn't personally  do that well to really justify the pain in the ass things at the end of the year. If you think you're one of the handful of folks that can actually be successful, by all means try it.

[Carlmichael]

I’ve been a member of this site for about a year.
He actually has an informative Q&A this month.
I regret buying the 25 dollar membership as most of his informative articles are free.

http://www.thekirkreport.com/

[Carlmichael]

I’ve been a member of this site for about a year.
He actually has an informative Q&A this month.
I regret buying the 25 dollar membership as most of his informative articles are free.

http://www.thekirkreport.com/

[Wiley]

I’ll fess up. I love the markets. I love economics. I read about 6-8 hours a day papers on economics, company research, etc. I day trade stocks, options, and futures (commodity only). I’ve done this for about the last 8 years seriously.

I’ve made tons of money and immediately gave it right back. I stayed completely out of the dot com deal but to be honest I really wanted to short it when the nas was about 3/4 the way up. Thank god I didn’t.

My feelings are its only good as a hobby. You trade what you can lose. I have other accounts that I rebalance once or twice a year that actually make me money but I’d have to say I’m probably flat when it comes to day trading. I know I made some dough the last few years but the last 8 months has killed me in my day trading accounts.

You have to have a fundamental view about what your trading (and it also has to happen to be right). Then you only trade in the direction of your view. Doing both of these will make you money but you can also get whipped out of money if you use leverage and time it wrong.

There is no free lunch and its especially true with the markets. Some guys can see through the noise to the true fundamentals and those are the ones you learn from. Definitely not day trading only on technical analysis or listening to guys like me on these blogs. I’m talking about guys with great track records like Warren Buffett, Jim Rogers, Marc Faber, Jim Sinclair, etc.

I have yet to see a day trader post his trades in public. I guess its possible to make it but I’m a skeptic and I am one.

[Wiley]

I’ll fess up. I love the markets. I love economics. I read about 6-8 hours a day papers on economics, company research, etc. I day trade stocks, options, and futures (commodity only). I’ve done this for about the last 8 years seriously.

I’ve made tons of money and immediately gave it right back. I stayed completely out of the dot com deal but to be honest I really wanted to short it when the nas was about 3/4 the way up. Thank god I didn’t.

My feelings are its only good as a hobby. You trade what you can lose. I have other accounts that I rebalance once or twice a year that actually make me money but I’d have to say I’m probably flat when it comes to day trading. I know I made some dough the last few years but the last 8 months has killed me in my day trading accounts.

You have to have a fundamental view about what your trading (and it also has to happen to be right). Then you only trade in the direction of your view. Doing both of these will make you money but you can also get whipped out of money if you use leverage and time it wrong.

There is no free lunch and its especially true with the markets. Some guys can see through the noise to the true fundamentals and those are the ones you learn from. Definitely not day trading only on technical analysis or listening to guys like me on these blogs. I’m talking about guys with great track records like Warren Buffett, Jim Rogers, Marc Faber, Jim Sinclair, etc.

I have yet to see a day trader post his trades in public. I guess its possible to make it but I’m a skeptic and I am one.

[4plexowner]

I’ve spent lots of money on seminars and books and software and newsletters in the elusive attempt to strike it rich day-trading

In my journey I’ve arrived at these conclusions:
– serious day-traders eventually end up trading the eMinis (because of the leverage) so why not focus on them from the start
– I’m not likely to make money on a trade if I don’t understand why I am in it and what my objective is (ie, I am blindly following the advice of some newsletter or ‘friend of a friend’ instead of thinking for myself)
– serious day-traders have to spend money on a decent trading platform and learn how to use it – I chose Tradestation because of its strategy automation capabilities – this lets the trader play ‘what-if’ games and test a trading idea without putting capital at risk – I believe this ability to test an idea prior to trading it is critical
– nobody is going to sell a ‘sure-fire’ trading system for $3000 – I’m trying to develop the proverbial ‘money-machine’ for trading the Russell eMini and I can assure you that if I succeed I won’t be selling it at any price much less $3000)
– to succeed at day-trading I will have to expend the same level of energy/dedication/drive that it took to get my engineering degree – the difference is $600K/yr as a trader vs $100K as an engineer

My current focus is on Jeffery Katz’s book, The Encyclopedia of Trading Strategies – he presents the idea of allowing an optimizer to pick not only the parameters for the trading rules being used (MACD, moving average, etc) but also to pick the trading rules themselves – Katz implies that a genetic optimizer (which is available for Tradestation) has the power to develop a profitable trading system using this methodolgy – I hope he is right – he also analyzes different entry and exit strategies in a very thorough manner

I’ve made about 5 attempts to trade the eMinis so far – my best trade was a position I took by accident – my worst trade cost me $3000 in 10 minutes (I know I’m right, I know I’m right, I know …, darn, get me out of this trade quick! …)

[4plexowner]

I’ve spent lots of money on seminars and books and software and newsletters in the elusive attempt to strike it rich day-trading

In my journey I’ve arrived at these conclusions:
– serious day-traders eventually end up trading the eMinis (because of the leverage) so why not focus on them from the start
– I’m not likely to make money on a trade if I don’t understand why I am in it and what my objective is (ie, I am blindly following the advice of some newsletter or ‘friend of a friend’ instead of thinking for myself)
– serious day-traders have to spend money on a decent trading platform and learn how to use it – I chose Tradestation because of its strategy automation capabilities – this lets the trader play ‘what-if’ games and test a trading idea without putting capital at risk – I believe this ability to test an idea prior to trading it is critical
– nobody is going to sell a ‘sure-fire’ trading system for $3000 – I’m trying to develop the proverbial ‘money-machine’ for trading the Russell eMini and I can assure you that if I succeed I won’t be selling it at any price much less $3000)
– to succeed at day-trading I will have to expend the same level of energy/dedication/drive that it took to get my engineering degree – the difference is $600K/yr as a trader vs $100K as an engineer

My current focus is on Jeffery Katz’s book, The Encyclopedia of Trading Strategies – he presents the idea of allowing an optimizer to pick not only the parameters for the trading rules being used (MACD, moving average, etc) but also to pick the trading rules themselves – Katz implies that a genetic optimizer (which is available for Tradestation) has the power to develop a profitable trading system using this methodolgy – I hope he is right – he also analyzes different entry and exit strategies in a very thorough manner

I’ve made about 5 attempts to trade the eMinis so far – my best trade was a position I took by accident – my worst trade cost me $3000 in 10 minutes (I know I’m right, I know I’m right, I know …, darn, get me out of this trade quick! …)

[Diego Don]

Gold is Money – daytraders thread.
Wiley said
“I have yet to see a day trader post his trades in public. I guess its possible to make it but I’m a skeptic and I am one.”

http://goldismoney.info/forums/showthread.php?s=b4053ec5c4edcab1855da17278e625ed&t=121855

To tense for me.

[Diego Don]

Gold is Money – daytraders thread.
Wiley said
“I have yet to see a day trader post his trades in public. I guess its possible to make it but I’m a skeptic and I am one.”

http://goldismoney.info/forums/showthread.php?s=b4053ec5c4edcab1855da17278e625ed&t=121855

To tense for me.

[cashman]

A few years ago, after the dot com bust, and after I lost about $150K trusting my money with Morgan Stanley during the bust, I decided to give day trading a try. I executed 100 trades, with 98 winners and 2 losers. Why did I stop? Stress, plain and simple. You have to be glued to the real time charts for the whole time the market is open, at least that’s how I did it. I traded big blocks and scalped small moves in the price. Sometimes just a couple of cents! Bottom line, it’s just not worth it to me to be so absorbed in one thing. I need a life, too! Now I make a handful of strategic trades a year, and keep an eye on the market just for amusement. And I sleep well at night.

[cashman]

A few years ago, after the dot com bust, and after I lost about $150K trusting my money with Morgan Stanley during the bust, I decided to give day trading a try. I executed 100 trades, with 98 winners and 2 losers. Why did I stop? Stress, plain and simple. You have to be glued to the real time charts for the whole time the market is open, at least that’s how I did it. I traded big blocks and scalped small moves in the price. Sometimes just a couple of cents! Bottom line, it’s just not worth it to me to be so absorbed in one thing. I need a life, too! Now I make a handful of strategic trades a year, and keep an eye on the market just for amusement. And I sleep well at night.

[Author]

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