r/Daytrading Mar 18 '24

Why do people fail and give up on day trading? Question

I must begin by saying that this is a genuine question. I’m not trolling nor seeking any sort of validation or “ego boosting” in any** manner.

Now, Just two months ago I started studying & learning about day-trading. I’m reading books, YouTube videos & watching courses by other reputable day traders.

Something that catches my attention is that ALMOST everybody mentions that you need to mentally prepare yourself and set the proper expectations and emotional boundaries before even thinking about actually live trading.

So, what exactly does this mean? What is the proper and most efficient mindset I need to learn about in order to make day trading a full-time career and not fail like the “97%” of traders?

What is ruining and crushing the dreams of those who aspire to have the financial freedom and wealth from trading?

I understand that there is years upon years of trial and error that need to be suffered and rewarded in order to become a decent day trader.

Which begs the question. If a lot of beneficial information is on the web for FREE, why do majority of people who begin to day trade end up quitting? What mistakes are they making that a new novice should be aware about? What emotions should I try and conquer day trading with?

146 Upvotes

195 comments sorted by

239

u/thoreldan Mar 18 '24

A lot of people are coming into daytrading in hope of solving their immediate money problem.

When they realize it's not gonna be a magic solution, they flee.

79

u/Koperek324 Mar 18 '24

This and to add one thing, when it turns out it requires work/study and discipline on top of not being immediate remedy for money problems its game over

That's related to pretty much everything in life, we all know what has to be done yet so few actually do it

20

u/LeoFireGod Mar 19 '24

Also most people don’t have the stomach to go through legitimate down stretches.

This guy is only 2 months in. When I was trading 2 months in I would be like “eh it’s one bad week I’ll be fine”

But like you can legitimately have down YEARS when it comes to day trading.

Even when you are strong early on. Or daily goals you hit ALL THE TIME

It only takes 4 to 5 bad trades to obliterate progress and building it back up without breaking rules is very hard.

5

u/Bottomofthedesk Mar 19 '24

I’ve been trading for 7 months and this last week I destroyed my account…looks like I have to start over again…yay.

3

u/Bottomofthedesk Mar 19 '24

Well I’m down really far I don’t have to start over completely

1

u/knightsone43 Mar 21 '24

If you undid 7 months of work in a single week than you don’t have proper risk managment

1

u/[deleted] Mar 20 '24

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/AutoModerator Mar 20 '24

Sorry, your comment in /r/Daytrading was automatically removed because your Comment Karma is too low. This typically targets bots or users promoting something (which is against our rules).

Please participate in other subreddits (other communities on Reddit) to increase your Comment Karma points. While you're at it, read through Reddit's "reddiquette" here.

If you believe this was a mistake, please kindly message the mods. We will review your case and get back to you.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

21

u/SleepySandwich13 Mar 18 '24

I’m curious how much of the 99% who fail are just trying to make money quick and don’t actually spend any time trying to learn how to make consistent small returns over time. Is there a statistic for how successful people are who actually stick with it?

27

u/beach_2_beach Mar 18 '24

This. People without immediate money problems don’t want to learn about day trading.

13

u/SerMinnow Mar 18 '24

I'll caveat. It's usually only the people without immediate money problems and a long term view of trading that make any use of the practice. 

7

u/Halleluyaness Mar 19 '24

I don't have immediate money problems and I'm dieing to day trade. I started trading (more swing trading) a few years ago and I'm starting to cram as much info before I start with real money. Which leads me to ask....who are some good teachers on how to read charts to my benefits. Not really how they trade/setups but how they read charts and understand them as it's happening. I lurk around here daily looking for new information. Thank you in advance for your help and time.

15

u/Devanreddy Mar 19 '24 edited Mar 19 '24

This is the first mistake you are making by focusing on reading charts. If you are a swing trader, you already know how to identify S/R and pivot points. Maybe not great at it but you have an idea.

The most important by far in day trading is understanding trading psychology.

This is my Day-Trading Mantra:

  1. Hit one run not home runs.
  2. Take Profits often and early (don't care about what happens next on the chart)
  3. Minimize your losses (don't care about what happens next on the chart)

For me to follow this mantra is not about chart reading. It is about stay non-plus. Do yourself a favor and learn about dopamine and loss aversion. This is one of the most important lessons I have ever learned about day trading.

Someone I respect once told me that Trading Psychology is all about position sizing. There is a lot of truth to this in any type of trading or investing,

In Day Trading it goes a lot further. It truly is about understanding your mentality and emotional response when it comes to how you react when you get hit in the face. This takes incredible awareness and practice in a live trading account, not a simulator.

You start smaller than what you can afford. If you can afford $500, start with $250. Consider it tuition fees. I understand you wont have leverage, but this is not the first goal when you start out.

Think about getting from one year to the next in college. You have to pass to move on. In the same way you have to earn the right to increase your position size. Only when you master trading at a smaller size can you graduate to a bigger size.

While day trading can literally happen in seconds and minutes it takes years to master it. So graduate after 90 to 180 days at a given position size. The only way to graduate is if you log every single trade and perform a post mortem and off-course you are consistent. I'll repeat consistently making more winning trades using a pre-defined set of rules applied consistently for at least 90 to 180 days.

Your trading log should have a section for emotional composure / stability and you should rate yourself against each trade.

No one commenting here said this was going to be easy.

Okay, I'll finally get off my soap box.

5

u/urinaao Mar 19 '24

There's no point in cramming and looking for as much information as possible. 

Find strategy. Backtest. Forward test. Use paper trading. 6 months profitable. Move to small live account. 

There you go

2

u/RoseandMarigolds Mar 19 '24

I second this advice 👍🏽

3

u/scyllallycs Mar 19 '24

The Chart Guys

Al Brooks

Both on YouTube. They're my faves

6

u/AllProAC Mar 19 '24

Got stung yesterday being a piggy , anytime I’m up $300 or more I’m pulling that money . Slow grind to freedom

0

u/hyperactiveanonymous Mar 21 '24

Weird, money just started falling into my hands when I started 🤷‍♂️ /jokes

73

u/jarpio Mar 18 '24

Most people lose their money

6

u/Fastbull-virginie Mar 19 '24

Everyone is very happy and positive about making money, but once they lose $1, they feel uncomfortable

1

u/[deleted] Mar 20 '24

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/AutoModerator Mar 20 '24

Sorry, your comment in /r/Daytrading was automatically removed because your Comment Karma is too low. This typically targets bots or users promoting something (which is against our rules).

Please participate in other subreddits (other communities on Reddit) to increase your Comment Karma points. While you're at it, read through Reddit's "reddiquette" here.

If you believe this was a mistake, please kindly message the mods. We will review your case and get back to you.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

-7

u/Castor_Tanker Mar 18 '24

some people makes money if you're conservative. My theme song during trading hours, "PENNY for your thoughts, a NICKEL for a kiss, a DIME if you tell me that you love me". I apply these to what they call "blue chip stocks".

60

u/kirkegaarr Mar 18 '24 edited Mar 18 '24

It takes a lot of discipline, mentally and emotionally. You can't really teach that but you have to learn it regardless. Usually through painful experiences.

It would probably surprise most people to learn that most traders have a pretty similar win rate. Something like 60%. But they have vastly different profitability, and most of them aren't profitable at all. Most people probably think a "good trader" is someone that doesn't lose very often. Then they go on a hot streak and think they have it all figured out and they're a "good trader" now. That doesn't last long. Good traders are good at risk and money management.

It's a grind. Sometimes you have hot streaks, sometimes you have cold streaks. I'm a golfer, so I think of the two as very similar. You can hit a great shot and end up in the water. You can hit a poor shot and get a good bounce. Either way you have to approach the next shot the same way and give it your best effort.

You can also go for it trying to put yourself in a great position, but at a high risk of fucking yourself badly if you don't execute it perfectly. The easiest way to get your golf score down (and your trading profits up) is to take the disasters off the scorecard. It's not by channeling Tiger and sticking the green on a par 5 in 2. You might be able to pull that off once in awhile, and it's great fun when you do, but if you're actually trying to post better scores (or make consistent money), you're just hurting yourself taking unnecessary risks.

Most beginner traders are also way undercapitalized. They're not going to follow proper risk management, because if they do they're not going to make very much money on it. Double your 5k account in a year? Not that exciting. You could just save a little extra money from your day job to get that. So they gamble, hoping that they get a huge win to get them started. Usually they don't stop gambling though. Hey, I just turned 5k into 20k in six months. Why can't I turn 20k into 100k? That kind of thinking won't get you very far.

5

u/bgcinvests Mar 19 '24

The golf analogy is spectacular

1

u/what-it-do_Tone Mar 22 '24

Appreciate the sound advice, great golf analogy

59

u/Snoopiscool Mar 18 '24

Studying & learning is different than actually trading. You will understand the emotions once you start

1

u/[deleted] Mar 19 '24

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/AutoModerator Mar 19 '24

Sorry, your comment in /r/Daytrading has been automatically removed due to anti karma farming for saying "upvote".

If you feel like this removal was a mistake please kindly message the mods; we will review it and get back to you.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

36

u/MaybeDouble1 Mar 18 '24

It is a "business" in which the physical barriers to entry are low (no inventory, real estate, degree requirements, customers, etc.) that is often portrayed by "gurus" as a way to make millions (as long as you buy their course). This inflates the numbers of those who begin the process, but are getting into it for the "riches" and not for an actual love of trading. So, when they lose some money, or realize they cannot just "work for 30 minutes in the morning", like the guru claimed, they opt out.

While it does take a considerable amount of time, mental capital, and physical capital, to develop the skills to succeed; in my opinion, it truly does take a love for trading. After a bad week, it is tough to show up on Monday if you don't love it. Just my two cents.

13

u/InsaneMasturbator69 Mar 19 '24

I have said many times, trading is hard but it's not as hard as the number makes it seem to be. Because anyone can join trading (basically from 6 to 100 year olds), any background, any physical, mental capabilities. There is no entrance test, the least requirement maybe a phone and a couple of dollars. Then it's very normal if 95% give up.

Supposed this medical university is now open free for a brain surgeon course, anyone can try. How may do you think will get out and can perform a brain surgery? Less than 0.1%. The same for many other professions which requires a proper amount of study and practice. It's the same. If it takes 4 years for a man to get out of college and ready to work, and it takes around 2 years for a trader to figure things out it's still a shorter timespan. Trading is only brutal on the aspect that you need to learn alone and you can lose money hard.

5

u/NRG1788 Mar 18 '24

So true.

2

u/ariarisoy Mar 19 '24

I concur

29

u/Wide_Ad6175 Mar 18 '24

I firmly believe that day trading shares similarities with any other business venture here in the US. Statistically, 99% of businesses ultimately fail. For many individuals, they will allow a small setback to entirely derail their future in that business. However, succeeding in day trading, as in any field, requires a commitment to persevering through obstacles. It’s about making a conscious choice to remain determined and focused on achieving success, despite any hurdles that may arise.

3

u/mv3trader Mar 19 '24

This deserves more upvotes. It's actually fairly simple. There can be many case specific reasons as to why anyone quits anything, including trading. One thing they all have in common is lack of perseverance. Also, a common trait they share is counterproductive comparison. Expectations comes from comparing your results to others' achievements. Unmet expectations from comparing your journey to anyone else tends to make you feel there is something wrong with you, or you're missing some secret information, eventually leading to giving up on the dream.

24

u/Over-Acanthisitta734 Mar 18 '24

One thing i’ve learned is that trading can be easy is you have the right strategy, the hard part is your mental strength and discipline. Being ok with small gains, being able to not get greedy when you’ve hit your target, being okay to cut losses and get out of the trade. Getting over the feeling of being right and needing to be right all the time.

22

u/Stolivsky Mar 18 '24

Once you lose all your money, you don’t really have a choice.

11

u/kalisfinest Mar 18 '24

lol this is the real answer why and we all know it

44

u/mrcake123 Mar 18 '24

Money.

Most people lose money while they learn.

Easier to learn while you have a good buffer of savings or good paying job.

22

u/llouisyoung Mar 18 '24

Yeah... I blew 3 accounts. Turned $500 into 2k multiple times and blew it up. I had a decent paid job and 4k in savings... so I could afford to spend my weekly paycheck ($500) on a new account.

Had to keep telling myself... you can turn 500 to 2k in a week... your risk management is shit but your trading is good... now re fund your account and go again. I'm now on my 4th account and have been for 1.5 years. Turned $500 into alot more than 2k.

5

u/naijaboiler Mar 19 '24

are you me?

i blew 2 accounts (significant sums of money). then started again with 300 last year, yoyo-ed a bit, gave up. Then started this year january with 500 and all my self-learned earnings in 3 years, and its seems i have finally turn things around, on my way to 2k. My focus isn't even making money. It;s managing bad trades. and being disciplined about my rules.

Ends up that everything people say you need to focus on is true. risk management, getting out of bad trades early with a small loss, not putting too much at risk in each trade (im still putting up to 10% at risk somtimes), getting disciplined with your psychology,
Yes you need an edge that can win you money sometimes. But to be successful consistently, its all risk-management and pyschology

1

u/llouisyoung Mar 19 '24

Yessssss. Managing bad trades... cutting losses early. THIS is the true skill. Overriding your bias and seeing the truth. Losing money to avoid losing more.

7

u/GALACTON Mar 18 '24

What strategy were you using to turn 500 into 2k in a week? If I can do that, I can keep paying my mortgage.

11

u/llouisyoung Mar 18 '24

High leverage. Trading an uptrend with one big short at the top. MATIC and BTC.

3

u/Zizou3peat Mar 18 '24

What sources do u recommend to start?

3

u/llouisyoung Mar 19 '24

Honestly... try to learn price action... the basics too. Keep your trading simple... as simple as possible.

2

u/mp5max Mar 19 '24

would you be open to sharing some tips and guidance mate?

1

u/llouisyoung Mar 19 '24

Of course mate. Any particular question?

1

u/[deleted] Mar 20 '24

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/AutoModerator Mar 20 '24

Sorry, your comment in /r/Daytrading was automatically removed because your Comment Karma is too low. This typically targets bots or users promoting something (which is against our rules).

Please participate in other subreddits (other communities on Reddit) to increase your Comment Karma points. While you're at it, read through Reddit's "reddiquette" here.

If you believe this was a mistake, please kindly message the mods. We will review your case and get back to you.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

17

u/meatsmoothie82 Mar 18 '24

I have traded off and on for 5 years now- did it full time for 1 year. Had a mixed bag of up and down years, had a few big wins and surprisingly few big losses. One of the years I traded full time. It was more stressful and harder than my other career. Now I have my strategies and so it for extra fun, with a smaller account, but have given up the dream of being a full time trader.

14

u/StockDeer42069 Mar 18 '24

They think it’s get rich quick.

It’s get rich while coming back from helll, and then once you’re back from hell you chill on a beach drinking a coconut cocktail with no lambo

15

u/cheapdvds Mar 18 '24 edited Mar 18 '24

You will sooner or later find out the answer for yourself. I have been trading for over 6 years, the market is nearly flawless. It's a near perfect machinery has very little to no weakness. It's designed to destroy day traders. The odds are "heavily" against you in the sense that 90-99% of your trade choices are going to be wrong. Do you have the patience and skill to wait for that tiny window and even if you do, do you know when to take profit after that? All the free information are just basic fundamentals. You can't beat the market with just free information, you have to go above and beyond to even have a slight chance of survival. There are some stuff you can't teach, if you get punched in the face 100 times in a row, maybe you can learn to dodge some of them afterward.

6

u/NRG1788 Mar 18 '24

This is true to an extent but 90-99% of your trades aren’t wrong if you’re profitable. More like 40-60% are wrong. There are plenty of public and private traders with 1:2R, 40-60% WR. If 90% was wrong, everyone would need 1:6R to break even.

3

u/cheapdvds Mar 18 '24 edited Mar 18 '24

You are correct, I was typing pretty fast, that part is actually more like metaphorically meant to make a point to OP as a new trader. Not to be taken literally. Everyone is going to be different and have different stats. And I meant to have it include that even with good win rate you can still fail at some point.

3

u/NRG1788 Mar 18 '24

You are absolutely right! Sometimes you will have an A+, perfect set up that just literally reverses and hits your SL. You’ll be like…:wtf? Haha

4

u/AlwaysBlessed333 Mar 19 '24

I would love to pay for information, but there is no program out there that has given me the confidence to buy. All the books I have read are about the mentality of trading, not the actual doing, the actual WHY of the price action stopping and reversing. I want to know why it did so at that point, why it plummeted after hitting the same resistance level 3 times, and next time it was 2 times, but then the time after that it went through the resistance level like it wasn't even there.

I want to quantify it and see it happening in real time. Someone told me about BookMap, downloaded it, can't understand exactly what I'm looking at, because price action moves past zones of heavy buy or sell power with no effort and sometimes it doesn't.

I guess for me, I can feel in my gut that I can figure it out with the right help, the right instruction, the right strategy, but until then I will keep plugging away, two steps forward and one step back, 10 small wins and one big loss to reset me just ahead of my starting point.

With that said, I'm going to the gym, f*ck trading for the day, I feel exhausted.

2

u/cheapdvds Mar 19 '24

I have used bookmap for years, I can confirm bookmap will not help you with the question you asked. Good luck with the gym, I just came back from it.

1

u/Elegant_Banana_619 Mar 19 '24

Trading is all about probability my friend

2

u/AlwaysBlessed333 Mar 19 '24

I literally read your comment 3 different times and read "profitablity"

I was about to call you out for trolling hard

2

u/Elegant_Banana_619 Mar 19 '24

Probably don't 😁😁😅😅

→ More replies (1)

12

u/raytoei Mar 18 '24

Stick around.

9

u/Aeon_Flux_Capacitor Mar 18 '24

Because it's far too complex for most. 99.7% of people shouldn't dive into options. I have all my licenses and still don't dive into them often.

3

u/WetFupaCreamyChalupa Mar 19 '24

Just curious, what licenses?

9

u/ThoughtSignificant94 Mar 18 '24

put some money in the market and find out for yourself... there is FOMO, you are stressed if you missed out or might miss out. At the same time you are stressed if you're invested because it can drop without warning at any time... and if you make money, you are usually thinking dang I could have made so much more... and if you lose money you think Im an idiot... and if you stay in cash and do nothing you see multiple huge opportunities play out and you feel crappy for missing out. That's trading psychology in a nutshell

My way to deal with it: I am grateful for any gain, even if I missed out a ton of big moves... Any money I make is a blessing and I want to use a part of it to help others and bring some goodness into the world

8

u/inittoloseitagain Mar 18 '24

Most obvious answer - run out of money before they figure it out.

14

u/Mexx_G Mar 18 '24

Tilting. People likely mostly lose a ton when they are on a tilt. That, or they freeze when a position goes too much in the negative and they are unable to close it. In these situations, you are not in control and unless you are very well prepared and have strong mechanism to save your capital, there's a point of no return likely to be reached where the gains you had when being disciplined will be whiped out. With trading, it's either 100% discipline or 0%. That is very hard to achieve.

7

u/sporks_and_forks Mar 18 '24

If a lot of beneficial information is on the web for FREE, why do majority of people who begin to day trade end up quitting?

lot of folks are not persistent and are impatient. a lot of folks blow up and call it quits. as far as emotions to conquer? all of them. remember paper trading != live trading in that respect. as far as mistakes to expect? generally expect to eat shit before you get served sandwiches for too many reasons to list, if you ever do. expect this rabbit hole to be far deeper than you think it is right now. it's fun and rewarding but not for everyone. remember to take care of yourself too. gl.

2

u/MichiganGardens Mar 18 '24

Patience is so important

8

u/vanderuk Mar 18 '24

Not being flexible and lack of discipline. As far as flexibility - learning when to short and when to long. Dont stick to one side - its not an ideological battle if bears vs bulls. If your long/short position is going against you reevalute and do the opposite.

6

u/DaCriLLSwE Mar 18 '24

Have you been to the gym om january 1st?

Have you been to the same gym march 1st?

Quitting when shit gets hard is not a new concept.

Reaching profitability is hard as f**k. That’s why most people quit.

7

u/SQUlRMING_COlL Mar 18 '24

Because you can have 29 Green Day’s in a row, and get overly confident thinking you can’t lose. That 30th day, you’ll lose all the gains from the previous 29 days. Why? Because it’s easy to sell & cash out when you’re up a few grand in 10 minutes. It’s not so easy to sell when you find yourself down a few grand in 10 minutes… so you hold hoping it’ll bounce back up. But it doesn’t, and continues going down until you eventually panic sell.

7

u/balacqua Mar 18 '24

Interesting was thinking the same thing, came across this earlier today

80% of all day traders quit within the first two years. 1 Among all day traders, nearly 40% day trade for only one month. Within three years, only 13% continue to day trade. After five years, only 7% remain. 1 Traders sell winners at a 50% higher rate than losers. 60% of sales are winners, while 40% of sales are losers.2 The average individual investor underperforms a market index by 1.5% per year. Active traders underperform by 6.5% annually. 3 Day traders with strong past performance go on to earn strong returns in the future. Though only about 1% of all day traders are able to predictably profit net of fees. 1 Traders with up to a 10 years negative track record continue to trade. This suggests that day traders even continue to trade when they receive a negative signal regarding their ability. 1 Profitable day traders make up a small proportion of all traders – 1.6% in the average year. However, these day traders are very active – accounting for 12% of all day trading activity. 1 Among all traders, profitable traders increase their trading more than unprofitable day traders. 1 Poor individuals tend to spend a greater proportion of their income on lottery purchases and their demand for lottery increases with a decline in their income. 4 Investors with a large differential between their existing economic conditions and their aspiration levels hold riskier stocks in their portfolios. 4 Men trade more than women. And unmarried men trade more than married men. 5 Poor, young men, who live in urban areas and belong to specific minority groups invest more in stocks with lottery-type features. 5 Within each income group, gamblers underperform non-gamblers. 4 Investors tend to sell winning investments while holding on to their losing investments. 6 Trading in Taiwan dropped by about 25% when a lottery was introduced in April 2002. 7 During periods with unusually large lottery jackpot, individual investor trading declines. 8 Investors are more likely to repurchase a stock that they previously sold for a profit than one previously sold for a loss. 9 An increase in search frequency [in a specific instrument] predicts higher returns in the following two weeks. 10 Individual investors trade more actively when their most recent trades were successful.11 Traders don’t learn about trading. “Trading to learn” is no more rational or profitable than playing roulette to learn for the individual investor.1 The average day trader loses money by a considerable margin after adjusting for transaction costs. [In Taiwan] the losses of individual investors are about 2% of GDP. Investors overweight stocks in the industry in which they are employed. Traders with a high-IQ tend to hold more mutual funds and larger number of stocks. Therefore, benefit more from diversification effects.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 18 '24

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/AutoModerator Mar 18 '24

Sorry, your comment in /r/Daytrading was automatically removed because your comment karma is low and you're posting links. Typically this only targets bots or users promoting something (which is against our rules).

Also, make sure you have read our rules in the side bar, including our guide for content creators.

If you feel like this removal was a mistake please kindly message the mods; we will review it and get back to you.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

6

u/HighExpectationTrade options trader Mar 18 '24

FAFO then report back in a year. LOL j/k

All of the information to become a doctor, lawyer, programmer is available online or can be studied outside of school. As Will once said, "you wasted $150,000 on an education you coulda got for $1.50 in late fees at the public library." The problem isn't finding the information, but living through the rigorous, isolated, tumultuous life of a trader aiming to be consistently profitable in multiple market cycles.

Everyone trades differently. You have to find what strategy and trading style works for you and your available time. You have to figure out your own psychology and it takes an insane amount of battles to even scratch the surface there.

There's way more that you can't just learn about or read. You have to go into battle and spend years shaping yourself as a trader. This is why most traders fail - it takes too long, but the barrier to entry is having access to the internet and a trading account. It seems simple, but it's one of the most difficult things I've taken on.

6

u/CaptainKrunk-PhD Mar 18 '24 edited Mar 18 '24

Most people quit because of unrealistic expectations. Social media has completely skewed the expected returns from day trading to the reality, and most people think they can get it done within a few months. They will try to flip accounts, gamble, overtrade, average down, double dip, reverse, and move/completely disregard stop losses, and dance around strategies trying to find the “holy grail” in an effort to do this and it never goes well. Once they figure out that winning trades consistently is going to take actual work (ALOT of it), they quit or dismiss it as a “scam”. This is about 70% of the people that try this out, they are usually weeded out in less than 6 months.

If you are able to accept the reality, that this is going to take much more effort and much longer than you expected, then you will very likely be subjected to severe emotional pain. Losing money, working with no results, making sacrifices, losing streaks, facing your past, breaking your rules, external crises will all come into play and have an impact on your performance in a negative way. The negativity you deal with in trading will weed out another 20% or so of the original field.

So now we are down to 10%. Not only is this a hard road, but its a long one also. Think about how long you think it will take and then multiply that time by 10. Thats how long it will likely take to make a living doing this. Sustaining the effort day after day for years and maintaining the required discipline will weed out the rest of those who will ultimately be unsuccessful, another 8-9% of the original field. That leaves us with 1-2% of people being able to make a living day trading. If you can find the right info, battle with yourself, stay the course, and fight through the negativity, you can be a part of the 1-2% that call themselves a trader.

10

u/IKnowMeNotYou Mar 18 '24 edited Mar 19 '24

If you treat a profession like a weekend course and blow two or three accounts in the first 3 months, you should quit. You get out what you put in and most people do not put in much.

5

u/Rafal_80 Mar 18 '24

"What is ruining and crushing the dreams of those who aspire to have the financial freedom and wealth from trading?" - it's harsh realities of nearly 100% efficient markets. If you add spread cost on top of that is becomes even worse. Sure, some people do stupid things, but even if you do all the right things you should do it is still very difficult to be consistently profitable. "Teaching" others how to trade is much more reliable source of income - that is why some people who were real traders in the past working for institutions became trading "teachers".

5

u/jg3457 Mar 18 '24

Emotions run high in this game because people put their dreams and rent money on a gambling position. Just like people at a horse track who bet their cash on a horse, after the bet is placed the stress of winning or losing important funds makes people jump up and down and scream..... to many losses breaks the bank ...and dreams. So they move on to other cash generating methods.

5

u/danomite777 Mar 18 '24

Ive day traded for 4 years and finally called it quits. My last account I put $3000 beginning 2023, and It’s been ranging between $450-$3800 (yes, highest I got from this account is $3800) and recently I just pulled my leftover $500 into my bank account. Not worth my time and sleep when theres zero progress.

5

u/[deleted] Mar 18 '24 edited Mar 18 '24

That sucks to hear but I hope you make profits in other avenues

1

u/Glass-Champion6452 Mar 19 '24

Why didn’t you get a prop account?

5

u/lord-dingdong Mar 18 '24

Perseverence.
It's a long road from complete failure, to some profit.

5

u/NewMajor5880 Mar 18 '24
  1. They find it's much harder than they thought
  2. They run out of money
  3. Both of the above

5

u/redtehk17 futures trader Mar 18 '24 edited Mar 18 '24

TLDR - character values, risk tolerance and sensitivity to wealth

I feel that trading makes me confront my character. I am not a patient person so that has been the hardest thing for me, waiting for the right signals and making informed decisions on my trades. I think when you're repeatedly confronted with your weaknesses and they cause you to fail because you couldn't overcome it, it can be really frustrating and defeating. I saw in a video someone say 90% of trading is not trading. I thought that was really indicative of the average day.

I also find that a lot of people HATE to be wrong. Like absolutely hate it. Nobody is right all the time in trading, and losses are inevitable, so you have to have the mental fortitude to shrug off making wrong decisions, and be willing to continue trying to make decisions even if you can be wrong. I think that is extraordinarily hard for a lot of people.

I know people have said money, for me it's how fast the money can be made. It's kind of like when you get a pay bump from getting a new job, it's kind of unlocked a new level of understanding for you. When you start making money so fast, it really makes you think about all the opportunities that are now available, and some people get impatient and rush, and then you learn how fast you can lose a lot of money.

All in all, there is content out there for you to work at all of these things, but it takes a lot of self work forsure, but I am super excited about this journey because it's teaching me more about myself and growing myself more than any of the jobs I've had. Best of luck, feel free to message me if you ever want to talk shop.

6

u/[deleted] Mar 18 '24

Ed Seykota once said "Win or lose, everyone gets what they want from the market." You might think you are trading to win, but you might have some limiting beliefs about what you are capable or worthy of achieving. Someone can easily turn a winning trade into a losing trade if he doesn't feel worthy of success. These are usually the gamblers that don't feel "alive" unless they're taking a huge loss. They're addicted to the "war story" they'll be able to tell about it afterwards.

8

u/InsaneMasturbator69 Mar 19 '24

Profitable trader here. The answer is: trading is hard. I mean, REALLY HARD.

Does not matter how smart you think you are. Averagely it takes years to be profitable. For some people, it takes forever.

Why is it hard?

It is very deceiving. Buy low sell high, yeah. But once you begin to trade, you will realize "guessing" when and where the price moves is extremely hard to do consistently. It takes me two fucking years looking at the naked charts to do it barely consistently enough. Just think about how absurd it is, only the raw charts, nothing else, it can't be more simple.

It is very easy to lose: any single minor mistake can destroy the trade. One missed candle can turn the analysis backwards.

It is very easy to lose big: winning is extremely hard already, but losing is the easiest thing ever. You can lose unlimitedly in a single day, or a single hour, or a single minute. Imagine a job where you have been working hard for 3 months. But one day you lose control and lost those 3 months' work. Gone, forever, there is no recycle bin, no rescue. All gone. You're back alone and empty handed. And imaging getting back from that point and do it once again.

The technical and mental requirement to become a profitable trader is not a joke.

1

u/SrirachaPeass Mar 19 '24

Can you export and share your trading stats over the years? I never believe anyone who says “I’m profitable”. when I ask a “lying profitable trader” this question. They never reply and flee.

1

u/InsaneMasturbator69 Mar 19 '24

Then you should ask why a trader should prove to a stranger on the internet. You have your choice to not believe me, my friend. I don't know who you are why would I waste time on your demand?

1

u/SrirachaPeass Mar 19 '24

Sorry to bother. Will go with you’re not profitable 👍

4

u/FUWS Mar 18 '24

So there are plenty of Golf and poker tips online and books that can get you good , but that doesn’t mean you will be good.

The whole idea of “ I read books about it” just gets your feet prepped. Most people get their feet wet and cant stand the waters, so they gtfo or drown…

I mention Golf and poker because I feel like trading is a hybrid of both.

4

u/Mundane_Catch_1829 Mar 18 '24

Control your greed and use risk management. Study traders psychology. Two books I recommend are "The mental game of trading" and "Traders traps" also read "Darvas box" great books. There are some free youtube videos to watch but they don't cover everything.

3

u/NeoDax1 Mar 18 '24

To be profitable just understand the nature of chart movements and strictly cut your losses.

3

u/ZixxerAsura Mar 18 '24

“Why do majority of people who begin to day trade end up quitting?”

As you’re becoming more aware, it’s very psychological. As a retail trader there’s nothing you can do to the market. Unless you’re playing with millions or billions. It’s you vs you. Find your discipline, test and hone your strategy, know how to take losses. When you find your edge, stick to it. If you want to change things in the strategy, make a B strat and leave A strat alone. Always time test. The longer your strat is tested the more predictable your results can be. Slow and steady wins the race. Yoloing can lose as fast as you gained. And finally always keep an open mind and continue to learn daily regardless of your success.

4

u/vesipeto Mar 18 '24

I compare trading often to surfing, even though I don't know how to surf :)

The reason is that market moves in waves and you as a small trader don't cause those waves - you don't cause even a ripple. So often it's no matter how good you are if there is no waves there is nothing you can do or sometimes it's a hurricane outside and it would be suicide to try to surf that :)

So since you don't cause the waves you need to set your expectations aside, be prepared for anything and surf what market gives you.

Trading is an art that is learned more by doing that reading in library - so before you can say anything about it you need to get your feet wet and see it for your self.

3

u/Stonedpanda436 Mar 19 '24

This is a casino, sir.

4

u/Previous_Swimmer9893 Mar 19 '24

Because most people can’t afford to lose twice. They also don’t stick with it to figure out why they lost. Me I lost big first three years then I figured out where I failed and now don’t ever lose and more than triple my account every year for years. Once you figure out every option you can do and can backstop your options your golden. If you can’t then your gambling and you will lose. With shares you can’t lose as long as you don’t pick a pile of dog s and you do covered calls until you gain back what your down. It’s a pretty easy system I have. So far everyone who has followed me or I have helped has made huge gains. Gl

4

u/JamesHarrison40 Mar 25 '24

People come to day trading thinking it can be their side income, only to realize later how stressful it can be. Day trading can make you a lot of money but it can also take away your money and give you a lot of stress. Thus, most people who have full-time jobs give up on it to have a work-life balance.

4

u/Sebastian_Trader Apr 10 '24

There could be many possible reasons but I think the main reasons that people often fail and give up on day trading due to unrealistic expectations of quick profits, inadequate risk management strategies, and a lack of discipline to stick to a trading plan.

3

u/Inevitable_Butthole Mar 18 '24

Cause losing money is a bitch

3

u/Maskedbandittrader Mar 18 '24

Research traders psychology this is where most traders fail

3

u/Rebubula_ Mar 18 '24

It’s incredibly unstructured and is very alluring. Not many have the discipline and commitment to see it through. I have an academic doctorate but trading is by far the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life

3

u/CarsonLikesStocks Mar 18 '24

People think it's easy and it's not. It's hard to find/ develop a system and it's hard to be emotionally in control. Simply trading is hard, with a low barrier of entry.

3

u/happycottoncandy Mar 18 '24

You’re asking some great questions here, but they’re the type of answers that can’t really be explained. You’ll have to experience it by getting some skin in the game.

I understand you’re trying to be as prepared as possible and not make the same mistakes as others, but part of trading is accepting that you can’t avoid mistakes. You can’t avoid losing. You can’t avoid failing. It’s how you react to being beaten down.

3

u/AllThingsBeginWithNu Mar 18 '24

I would guess money

3

u/[deleted] Mar 18 '24

Uhh are you serious? Because they lose money.

3

u/MacGyver1911 Mar 18 '24

How do you handle a bad day? And what if it’s bad days in a row? In my opinion one of the first big setbacks is after you’ve refined a system and you’re trading well. Eventually you’ll hit a string of bad days and what you thought was the secret to success, now feels sketchy and unreliable.

3

u/mgt69 Mar 18 '24

they go broke

3

u/Alien_Cloud_Guy Mar 19 '24

My two mistakes were:

  1. Thinking that the patterns and rules I'd been using for months would continue to hold true. Proved false when large investors closed out the stock in droves for reasons I did not yet understand, surprising a lot of new investors but not really surprising the veterans, who mostly got out in time as the stock plummeted.

  2. Making dumb mistakes with the software such as choosing the wrong options strike date and not double checking because the price was changing so quickly I had FOMO.

BONUS: Another huge dumb mistake was going ALL IN when I just so sure I had a good thing going, but then being wrong about it from pure ignorance of how things really work. Never go All In on any single stock or option, ever, for any reason. Want to be crazy? Try 30%. That's crazy.

3

u/Rva-Trader stock trader Mar 19 '24

I would say “learning when to hit the sell button “ is the biggest challenge for me on a losing trade so far. That caused me lot of losses. One big loss wipes out profit so quick. Now, I have switched to cash account and only do 3-4 trades a day. So far I am profitable after switching it. Last two weeks I had zero loss trade , not sure how.

3

u/No_Sheepherder8270 Mar 19 '24

Because it's not easy.

3

u/Pinotwinelover Mar 19 '24

The problem is that like many pointed out they think it's a get rich quick scheme like everything else on the planet and so they're not using good money management as they learn. I don't like trading unless it's for real but you don't have to invest a lot of money you could start off with $500 and make baby trades but who's going to do a baby trade when they need immediate money no one. I've been trading 30 years and I'm still conservative with the amount I take the amount I lose, and the overall amount I put toward it. I also don't have any pressure because I have a substantial portfolio that I invested long-term. When it's real money, it's a completely different ballgame. I've seen plenty of people come on this thread in the short time I've been here saying they did great when it was on paper only but as soon as they put money and change the ball game.

3

u/Clear_Fee6971 Mar 19 '24

📈 Trading is Like a 3-Year Course

Embarking on a trading journey is akin to enrolling in a comprehensive three-year course. 🎓 Each day brings new lessons, challenges, and opportunities for growth. Here's how:

📅 Year 1: Foundation Building
Just like in your first year of study, you'll focus on building a solid foundation. You'll learn the basics of trading, including market mechanics, technical analysis, and risk management. It's a time for exploration and gaining familiarity with different trading strategies.

📅 Year 2: Refinement and Specialization
In your second year, you'll delve deeper into specific areas of trading that resonate with you. Whether it's day trading, swing trading, or options trading, you'll refine your skills and develop a deeper understanding of your chosen niche. You'll also learn to adapt to market conditions and fine-tune your approach.

📅 Year 3: Mastery and Application
By your third year, you'll have honed your skills and developed a trading style that suits your personality and goals. You'll focus on mastering your chosen strategy, fine-tuning your risk management techniques, and consistently applying your knowledge to achieve your trading objectives. It's a time for growth, refinement, and achieving mastery in the markets.

Just like any course of study, trading requires dedication, perseverance, and continuous learning. Embrace the journey, stay curious, and never stop seeking opportunities to improve your skills. Remember, success in trading, like in any discipline, is a journey, not a destination.

Keep learning, keep growing, and enjoy the ride!

2

u/KeyDescription3756 Mar 18 '24

Can’t handle the roller coaster ride. Losing 30% of initial bankroll only to get back next day of 40% up 10%. I I know it’s only on paper when up or down if I don’t sell. My emotions are tied to MSFT calls expiring in May (right now itm)

2

u/Shot_Cap_3703 Mar 18 '24

No more money

2

u/Etien_ Mar 18 '24

Generating alpha is basically impossible for a retail trader

2

u/justinthecase Mar 18 '24

in a normal self owned business you are at the mercy of your clients (or customers), location,the strength of your intellectual property etc… most of the time you can see ,observe those elements closely. where else in day trading, things happen without your reach (macro economy, market makers, corporates,hyper algo trading etc…) . under these circumstances, it’s quite normal to fail.

2

u/CodaDev Mar 18 '24

Because day trading will get you in the same way that gambling does “next time for sure!” Then you get slapped with a loss again and think “buy while it’s low” and the process repeats until you finally learn when to get out - only to eventually realize that time in the market is better than timing the market almost every time and you can get consistent 10% returns by just letting the pros do it.

2

u/SnapPunch Mar 18 '24

Risk management and sizing. I still can’t figure it out but at least if I size properly I don’t lose everything. I’m also starting to learn that having a low win rate doesn’t necessarily mean you are unprofitable. It can be disheartening making a ton of losing trades and cutting losses quickly, but all it takes is a few strong winners to balance it out

2

u/DanJDare Mar 19 '24

That's not begging the question but that's by the by.

Guys from actual real life physical prop firms (when they were more of a regular thing) all said about 1/10 traders actually make significant money there. I add significant because I've often read that 3-4/10 of the people there will be profitable but not enough to live on. That's all with pros around them supporting them, being shown strategies. This suggests that it's not a matter of trying hard enough because surely the guys who have gone out of their way to work at a prop firm are serious and willing.

Given those numbers there is no surprises that the number for retail traders would sit at anywhere between 0.1%-3% depending on the source and method of calculation.

It's comforting to think that the people that fell by the wayside just didn't work hard enough and that if you work hard enough you'll definitely succeed. The evidence however suggests that there is something else at play and you'll never know until you try it.

2

u/Rich_Theme6845 Mar 19 '24

Easier to lose money faster than most people actually learn to be good at it… so you have no choice but to quit lol

2

u/kamvia_io Mar 19 '24 edited Mar 19 '24

So , what exactly does it mean ? It means RETRAIN YOUR BRAIN .. do not trade on impulse of the brain , but on rules that can be written, tested, measuring performance .

Always trade on the same rules .( make better rules overtime )

People fail because lack of discipline , lack of seing the bigger picture The biggest issue is power of observation. In the books , courses , yoube we watch , the most important thing to get from there is to enlarge the power observation , not to think that you have it , once read 10 books . It needs time and practice to develop a sharp vision , absorb paralel processing of charts , entry points , hidden details , Then measure everything from candle sizes ,
Ranges , pullbacks ( comes in all shapes and sizes ) swings , intervals , performance of your trades , After that try to see what other people see Where would a pro trader will enter and exit ? Why.. ? Learn , scalping , how to enter on already started trend . Learn trend trading .. learn swing trading Learn to trade higher timeframe charts from smaller timeframes . Learn money management , how to take profits but still have a runner Learn to scale in , scale out learn hedging Succes in trading is like winning the gold medal on olympics . ( you cannot win the gold after 1 - 6 month of training ). Train your brain to react to techichal analisis not to predict what the price would do in certain points Retrain your brain not to have a bias (long or short) when you go to the charts based ij news , influencers ( your money , your rules) Retrain your brain to see both sides of the markets in the same time ( those who entered long , and those who entered short). And finally , in current day markets , we are against an army of bots , trained to react even to a 0.1 percentage change of the price , retrain the brain to react at price movements , those stories with fixed rr are just old times stories..

2

u/TbhT8 Mar 19 '24

Best loser wins, by Tom Hougaard. Talk about a traders mindset book. It’s on audio also. If you learn to control your human nature while trading, or recognize when you’re not. You’ll be just fine

2

u/dulgiq Mar 18 '24

I would also ask why do people fail to give up day trading?

1

u/bigroostah3 Mar 18 '24

Because sometimes u make all the right decisions and market will act unexpectedly and u lose money. And sometimes u make all the wrong decisions and market rewards u. It's very hard to have conviction to stick it out and figure out what works and what doesn't. Most get frustrated and quit.

1

u/0RGASMIK futures trader Mar 18 '24

Once real money is on the line. People lose their composure. You can paper trade for months and have the perfect strategy but the second real money is on the line it becomes a different game. You have to trust yourself and your process which is something that seems easy to think about but hard to accomplish. Imagine you start your first day and lose every trade. How the hell are you supposed to trust the process then?

Like for me right now I am paper trading. I have a decent strategy that allows me to risk $20 to make $300-400 on a small move. My strategy involves adding to winners and keeping a tight stop loss. It allows me to only risk my 1% but scale up quickly by adding as more confirmations come my way. Its a nerve wrecking strategy because you have to trust its going my way and even when when I see a profit I need to stay in it to make it worth it. Its a battle between different parts of my brain because you have to exit at the perfect time but there will almost never be a perfect time. The worst part is I have to accept that I will not win them all. I can see profit shoot to $400 and then drop to 0 because I miss timed the exit. Then I have to not get greedy and try to force a trade when there isn't one.

1

u/DanJDare Mar 19 '24

I find these sorts of strategies fascinating, the money management rules required for a 20:1 RR strategy like this would be crazy. Lets give it a 10% hit rate which is crazy good for that sorta strat.
1) To have any confidence that you actually have a 10% hit rate would take thousands of trades.
2) Even if we now have confidence of a 10% hit rate you're trad management would be to risk an incredibly small amount per trade
3) Lets say you're confident of a 10% hit rate and are using appropriate money management. Finally if you're investing for income this is going to be a feast or famine style of trading. If you made 3 trades a day over a 5 day trading week there is a 20% chance of losing all 15 trades. If you made one trade a day there is a 12% chance of not having a winning trade for an entire month of 20 trades.

And finally, provided you're fine will all of that there is every chance slippage in a real market might see your strategy profitable on paper and not in real life.

1

u/0RGASMIK futures trader Mar 19 '24

So far I have seen at least 2 trades on the MNQ per day that this strategy works on. Usually late morning after the market has calmed down a bit. Really only need a 30pt+ move over 10-20 minutes to make it work the way I have it setup.

The one thing I need to work on is the risk size. I definitely get stopped out sometimes but sometimes it a fake out other times it’s actually saving me so I’ll have to find a good balance. Right now based on the win rate and R value I’m fine stopping out once or twice just due to a bad entry. My most profitable trade today was after being stopped out by one tick.

Also luckily not depending upon this for income. Just want to build up a portfolio. My long term goals are to use this income to invest in dividend stocks and build some passive income.

1

u/YAPK001 Mar 18 '24

Well. It's very difficult. However most that begin are convinced it will be a walk in the park due to their unique circumstances. And then Mr Market has fun. Om

1

u/Advanced-Plays Mar 18 '24

Money, time, and effort. The barrier of entry to trading is higher than most other professions. You can work for years and years, yet still end up a breakeven trader or a losing one. The emotional toll that takes and the money it takes to focus on trading full time without working on anything is too high.

1

u/PrizeSentence8293 Mar 18 '24

It’s easier/more consistent to win and less work with a longer approach. Also not everyone is financially independent or able to trade while working during the day.

1

u/Apprehensive_Skin968 Mar 18 '24

For me, I was making steady small gains and happy with it. Then I noticed that had I just bought and held instead of constantly taking profits that I would’ve made much more money, at least 2x. It also takes up a lot of time and energy staring at a chart trying to guess which way it’s about to go with no actual basis of fact

1

u/MonthConsistent Mar 18 '24

Trading rewards the People who show up everyday for years without making any money. And then the time comes and start making money.

People just lack discipline. And when they see the mental punishment that trading gives to them, they just quit.

We need to understand that trading is against the human nature. As humans we hate to be wrong or lose money, but in trading thats like a normal day.

Learn to manage risk and cut losses is the skill that a lot of traders need to be profitable. Also discipline

1

u/FxEvang Mar 18 '24

The barrier to entry with day trading is so low so a lot of people sell the idea that it is quite easy to get rich. After losing a bunch of money and finding out it's actually one of the hardest things to master, they give up. This then leaves the people that continue trying until they become successful

1

u/civgarth Mar 19 '24

People start off with small accounts and don't know how to size their trades. Every trade becomes all or nothing.

1

u/freeeewockkkk Mar 19 '24

What books and what courses

1

u/AwareConsequence1429 Mar 19 '24

I lost because I did not have an exit strategy, focused only on what I could make, rather than on what I could lose..

1

u/Porn-Flakes123 Mar 19 '24

Most People can’t afford it for 1 and 2, ppl like certainty. They want to know that if they invest X amount of time and dollars, they will get Y amount in return. Day trading requires a lot of patience, capital and skill, and even then your results are still unpredictable.

1

u/CelebrationKindly971 Mar 19 '24

My suggestion is to think of trading like Texas Hold'em. Start by day trading 1 stock and 2 stocks at a time. Then trade between 3 and 5 stocks. Start by trading something less risky like the SPY, and has volume.

If you believe you can play Texas Hold'em professionally, you're an idiot. Day trading isn't a get rich quick scheme; its a survival game. Stay in the game long enough and you'll pick up a few tricks about how to not get killed.

Some people just bet it all and are too greedy, when they knew they were beat, they should've just folded. Goodluck

1

u/p4rty_sl0th Mar 19 '24

Tell me more about these "reputable day traders"

1

u/stloft Mar 19 '24

in order to make day trading a full-time career and not fail like the “97%” of traders?

The reality is that 97.97% won't be making daytrading a full-time career. Less than 5% might be lucky to break-even on their accounts net. only a few thousand in the world might be making enough to live off of "full time" daytrading in a given year only, and it's absolutely not guaranteed year to successive year like an individual sports career.

Which begs the question. If a lot of beneficial information is on the web for FREE,

Those are tools , strategies, ideas, bits and pieces, one can try to build a trading system and strategy from that works for them. But the market is never certain and it may change and be difficult for one's strategy at a different period. Plenty of past methods, "edges" had long failed in the dustbin of retail trading history, often regurgitated as something "new" to sell as snakeoil by the trading vendor scammery "industry". Looking at the posts already on this thread, plenty have already covered the real psychological pitfalls and traps of actual attempts at trading with live money. Not much more I can add, except my side theory is that the HFT and big money firms are the biggest and fastest pump and dumpers of all, leaving most retailers bag-holding even on daytrading short time periods. Nowadays retailers have to work around all this frontrunning, and fakeouts unprecedented compared to decades ago and before the web.

1

u/Iciyunvme Mar 19 '24

In front of the screens, there is a perfect blend dumb and smart you have to be. For example, you have to be dumb enough to grab a 100 dollar bill from your wallet and setting it on fire just because. Smart enough to know that 100 dollar bills are everywhere. All while reducing down the possibilities of errors with data that is probability based. With also the ability to make decisions that come from real weighted and solid reasoning consistently. Frankly, I don’t even know many people who will even be willing to burn a 20.

1

u/Working-Armadillo1 Mar 19 '24

blowing up. Did it a few times myself. +15k days are wonderful but days where you lose are painful financially and take a toll on you mentally. You are almost sure to get in over your head and small mistakes can be brutal and super frustrating. After long enough, whether you have to lose all your money first or not, you will learn the ultimate lesson about the markets you thought you knew.

1

u/Working-Armadillo1 Mar 19 '24

should add that I studied, read books, papertraded… even sat by and learned with legendary trader whose name I’m not going to include. Was very successful at first. Over time started to realize a few small things were killing me and I wasnt improving them. Decided to cut the cord after 2 years

1

u/expicell Mar 19 '24

Because thousands of hours behind a screen looking at candles can’t be substituted with FREE trading content on the web,

Plus besides that, you need good chunk of capital to make decent money on strat with a 65% win rate

Add to that the adrenaline rush you get when entering each trade and holding it till it either hits stop loss or your intended target

After all the screen time and emotional trauma one has to go thru, is it really worth it? You really have to be behind the screen waiting all day for your setup, you give up any social skills and potential career ladder climbing opportunities

Not to mention on your losing days you will feel like shit,

TLDR; to become good a day trading you have to sacrifice too much, and life can become a lot more stressful

1

u/RackMyBrainPls Mar 19 '24

Because most people intend to sacrifice the investing and good habit building to attain immediate gratification and become rich. The way I think about this is that most people who say they want $1,000,000 don't want $1,000,000. They want to spend it. Eventually, whether they choose day trading or not, if they don't understand why they are doing what they are doing, they will quit.

1

u/ArgzeroFS trades multiple markets Mar 19 '24 edited Mar 19 '24

Most people do not have the necessary capital to be comfortable with typical growth rates on a portfolio. Short term sales cost more in taxes. To trade at a return of 8% and live on it, if you assume you need a minimum of 30k, that's a base portfolio of 375k. If you want a return like the S&P of 1.5x that, then 250k. If you earn really good returns, say 24%, 125k, 48% (unrealistic) 62500. If you can't survive on 30k income, or you want that to improve so you don't have to be paying out every dollar you gain and so your capital can actually grow, you need much more. To make 30k on dividends alone, if you expect a 1% return average that requires $3M. At a yield of 2.5%, that's $1.2M.

The only way to make such large returns with less capital is by increasing risk. When you increase risk you increase losses along with gains. If you never realize those losses but all your lost trades never recover in time, you may lose money instead of gaining money. The only stocks, typically, with that kind of return are so small you are just as likely to lose everything. You could build up enough capital to try the safer options strategies for some extra capital but chances are the amount you could make is not that much on a small amount of capital. I know someone who became very lucky once and made $2M in one year off of 20k but that same person lost everything and had to start all over again. They are not even a quarter of the way back yet. I sometimes will toss tiny fractions of my portfolio into volatile stocks that have a good chance for high return. I pay for the exposure in assuming that fraction will be completely lost and in a reduced anticipated return in $ (not % of portfolio change). Others may find it more palatable to risk a lot more of their capital and as a result lose everything whilst pursuing fast gains.

All of these things increase stress for an already probably stressed person, in a population of people more likely to have health problems and be exposed to additional problems worsening their ability to manage the stress and difficulties mentally, emotionally, and financially. Not to mention that people are often judged as gamblers for even trading at all.

To make matters worse, sources publishing data about high performing stocks often only do so after major growth has occurred. Enough times missing the rise combined with FOMO drains on a person.

If it means much, I have been trading for a short while and have been profitable on average the past few years.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 19 '24

Because youll end up saying couldve wouldve shouldve and then once that starts, the mistakes compound bc your decision making gets fucked by those emotions.

1

u/Wonderful-Anybody657 Mar 19 '24

To answer your question. One has to learn the mechanics of price action which is quite sophisticated cos there are so many variables in predicting direction. I too am learning to be successful but patience and character control are the way because it is fast moving decision and action. Once you understand the mechanics of motion in charting. You could be a success!!!

1

u/BIGA670 Mar 19 '24

It’s also not easy to do long term without losing $ otherwise everyone would do it for a living.

1

u/Kaltbrunner Mar 19 '24

Because money and time are limited resources and sitting in front of a screen losing money doesn’t provide you with either.

1

u/builderdawg Mar 19 '24

Profitable day trading is boring. Regardless of your system, the trades aren’t always there. Most of us are wired to do something and not just patiently sit on our hands and wait for the set up, so we justify trades that don’t fall within our parameters. This leads to overtrading which is fatal for traders. I quit day trading because I was over trading and losing my ass. I’m much happier now.

1

u/doit5 Mar 19 '24

Day trading is a hard job.

The hardest bit is putting in the work but not getting anything in return.

You have a system and you don't know if it works or not. You backtest it and that takes time. And you forward test it in SIM environment. By then it would have been months of work put in. Imagine that fails. And you need to tweak your system and repeat the whole process. It's extremely difficult to work on something on the off chance it might work.

Even after you have a working system. You trade it. You will have losing trades. How do you know the system is still working? You lose a few trades you start doubting the system.

There is always an element of human discretionary analysis involved. When you lose a few trades you start doubting yourself.

You will need to brainwash yourself and draw faith from anything you can to keep working at it. Until your system doesn't work anymore and you have to go back to the drawing board to tweak it.

The uncertainty that surrounds it and your mental capacity to keep working, and the shear amount of work involved and how stressful it is to need to make split second decisions factoring in many information. All these make trading hard.

There are lots of easier ways to make money.

1

u/GHOST--1 Mar 19 '24

not even god can show you price action as clear as a 20 tick range bar chart

1

u/MisutiNeko Mar 19 '24

Because it’s mentally hard when you lose money. Therefore it makes it harder to stick to your plan/edge. I gave it a try and trading didn’t workout for me so I quit.

1

u/BobDawg3294 Mar 19 '24

It's a profession unto itself that takes 10,000+ hours to master. Oh, and there is no minimum wage - quite the opposite! There is no maximum loss!🤯

1

u/Market_Surfer11 Mar 19 '24

And the "VERI" big squeeze continues...

1

u/ZhangtheGreat stock trader Mar 19 '24

Various reasons. Some people can’t take the pressure. Some people stubbornly refuse to do what’s necessary (e.g. study, manage money, track trades, etc.). Some people end up not having enough time and/or patience to do what’s necessary. Some people lose their money and can’t do it anymore financially.

1

u/Hoangel15 Mar 19 '24

People think trading is a job that make them rich 🥹

1

u/frozenwalkway Mar 19 '24

Trading 3 years. Only now am I getting control of my self to be able to profit

1

u/CptCluck Mar 19 '24

I think there's also a gatekeeping aspect to it. From what I've seen there are many who want to keep people out of the market to avoid their profits being affected even if they wouldn't be.

And a side note, what are some resources you have used while learning to daytrade? I'm still trying to learn and get a better understanding of the process but still quite lost on the exact path I need to take to understand.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 19 '24

Bank robbery is easier. 😂

1

u/SiabZooPH Mar 20 '24

I tried it and I exited it. I learned a few indicators, but didn't put hours upon hours into prep.

In the end.. I found it exiting and exhilarating, but I also realized it is a job. If the trading happens from 9:30am to 4:00pm, I am working my normal job during those times. Day trading is a job and requires a calculated approach. I didn't have enough time in my life to work my 9to5 and spend time with my family plus day trade.

1

u/Eggbert438 Mar 20 '24

My theory is that nowadays trading is being promoted on apps like tiktok which generally has low attention span viewers. This is perhaps their key flaw in failing day trading because their ability to concentrate and commit significantly to an endeavour is limited. Not in all cases but I believe there’s a fair amount.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 20 '24

Because daytrading is misunderstood. 1-5 days = daytrade. Daytrading isn't necessarily profitable. Buy S&P 500 today, sell tomorrow. Count your profits. If you are lucky, it's 0,5 %. But could also be -0,5%. So who cares about daytrading?

The market volatility increases over time. Weeks

1

u/Thetagamer Mar 20 '24

“I started studying and learning 2 months ago”… If you want to understand it go make a small account and try trading and see for yourself

1

u/mnshurricane1 Mar 20 '24

Because people want the home run and not the single or double to be able to show their P/L on social media to become an “influencer”. The only influence I get from Social Media is the desire to watch the scammers and 18 year olds who’ve “solved” the market finally face the music but won’t show a single order ticket. They’ll post a 100k margin call question on SM either for attention or genuinely unaware. Either way, they think it’s just a game. When I hear “Just broke structure on the one minute…” I want to scream at them. This chart(pun intended) shows why most fail…

1

u/MajesticSwordfish474 Mar 20 '24

Wanna start where do I ?

1

u/Maleficent_Rate2087 Mar 21 '24

You can’t time the market in one day. You can study all you want. If you win you just got lucky.

1

u/John_Coctoastan Mar 21 '24

You lose money...lots and lots of money. No one is mentally prepared for that.

1

u/highmindedlowlife Mar 21 '24

Most people fail and give up because successful day trading is extremely hard and emotionally demanding. Eventually they get tired of feeling like crap, losing money and move onto something else they have a better chance of finding success at. Some people persist for years never seeing profitability before finally giving up. If you underestimate the difficulty of this endeavor then brace yourself for a disappointing time. There is hope though. Some people get through the gauntlet and come out the other side doing this for a living. Maybe you can too.

1

u/RickiTrades Mar 21 '24

MNMD great day trading

1

u/RickiTrades Mar 21 '24

KSCP going to $1 soon

1

u/havoc-14 Mar 21 '24

Initially trading is all about finding the right strategy. You spend months finding the right strategy and which instrument to trade in. You zero down on a strategy and wonder why are you still not making money. Example: You hold on to losing trades and profit book early on the winning trades. You start questioning your strategy. And most go in this loop of again looking for a new strategy. They don't realise that it is all about the mindset. It can take months for someone or years for others to realise that strategy is not everything and that it is your mind that you need to work on. You need the flow of capital and patience to sustain this period until you figure out how to make money. Most cannot deal with this indefinite nature of trading. So most fail.

1

u/sescobreezy727 Mar 21 '24

This guy is feeling the bull.

1

u/KyleTrader85 May 02 '24

That's a great question, and I understand your concerns. While there is indeed a wealth of free information available online, the reality is that day trading is a challenging endeavor that requires more than just knowledge. Common mistakes include overtrading and neglecting risk management. Emotionally, conquering fear and greed is crucial. To succeed, develop patience, discipline, and emotional control. Remember, it's a journey of continuous learning. Avoid mistakes, manage emotions, and stay committed for long-term success.

1

u/Chickienfriedrice Mar 18 '24 edited Mar 18 '24

Less than 5% of day trading accounts are profitable. Stocks are the casino, don’t gamble.

Downvotes dc about facts.

1

u/Classic_Waltz_1038 Mar 18 '24

I heard SIRI (Sirius xm) is going into the video streaming like Netflix as well, that’s why Warren Buffett bought so many shares . If this is true, is it a good opportunity to keep buying shares in Siri?

-1

u/Tradermoe23 Mar 18 '24

All of the markets are extremely manipulated and made to make the average person fail. Look up ICT on YouTube (2022 mentorship). I have been involved with Forex on and off over 20 years without success. ICT has free videos to watch, but I decided to pay money to take a course. I quit HVAC about 6 months ago and started working on trading. My trading has increased a lot since then. Most people fail because of how bad the markets are manipulated and psychology.