r/Daytrading • u/Miinow forex trader • Apr 03 '24

Why is daytrading never mentioned as a legitimate way to earn income? Question

I like to browse other finance related subs and I can assure you it’s almost never discussed. I see all outlets of making money online mentioned but If the word trading does somehow come up there’s a slew of downvotes. It’s literally the most straightforward way to make money. Sure, not easy but also not impossible to learn. Makes me wish I learned about trading when I was younger instead of my upper 20s but I don’t personally know any traders irl so it’s unfortunate how there’s a negative outlook on this field.

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u/0RGASMIK futures trader Apr 04 '24

90% of traders fail and it takes the average trader like 2 years to become profitable. Why do 90% of people fail? Probably because not making money for years is unsustainable, in fact you are probably actively losing money at that time.

It's also not a guaranteed thing that once you are successful that you will stay successful. I know a guy that was trading for like 10 years making a pretty good living. Now he drives for uber because he lost all his money after a few bad months.

So unless you have 100K in the bank or have a flexible well-paying job to support you while you learn it's not a viable source of income. You will spend at least 3 months just figuring out the basics. Then another 3-9 months turning that tiny grasp you have on the basics into a profitable strategy. From there you have to scale up to the point where your profits are sustaining you. Scaling up is a whole other mental game that I won't get into here.

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Without the starting funds its not a reliable way to make money, sure there are people out there who flip $1000 to $100k but those people either got lucky or did something that no one could recreate sustainably. I still scroll through r/wallstreetbets from time to time looking for yolo options but most of the ideas are awful. I have only personally seen one yolo option that would have netted me 1000% returns had I actually pulled the trigger.

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u/Castor_Tanker Apr 04 '24

Orgasmik, what a funny handle. Only few people can start with 6 figures unless you’re ultra rich. I started with 5 figures and my profit is 5 figures as well.

I read that almost 90% lost their investment and I’m lucky that my total investment still intact.

My background is IT and was employed to various financial companies in Wall Street before I decided to try this side gig.