I have just seen this article. What do you think? https://www.financemagnates.com/forex/analysis/new-study-shows-just-how-unprofitable-day-trading-is/
We can't control what other traders do. We only have control of our own trading. How other traders do shouldn't matter. Whether it's 1, 3, 5, 10 or 20% of traders that are profitable, I don't care. I care about my own profit, that's it!
How many people managed to bring home the bacon by investing? Very few !!! How many people managed to bring home the bacon by doing swing trading? Very few !!! How many people managed to bring home the bacon by day trading? Very few !!! Who are those who made it? Those are the people who have great passion and work very very hard to be in the top 1% category. So stop thinking day trading is the worst of the worst !!!! the writer is probably some lazy trader who just spends a few minutes a day staring at the computer to trade. You need to stare at the computer for many many many hours a day !!! And you need to spend thousands and thousands of hours to develop the holy grail. If you just spend a few hours only, it wouldn't work. What is the bottom line? Whether you are investing, doing swing or day trading, you have to sweat blood in order to be successful.
The people who fail at day trading would likely fail at many demanding professions taking serious effort and preparation and practiced with patience, discipline, focus and courage.
I bought my first stock over 40 years ago, so I have been doing this for sometime. The only individuals I know personally who retired with a million plus from investing were those who bought shares of companies at their IPO's or shortly thereafter, then they continued buying shares up to a certain point, the company's did well for 20 to 40 years and still existed after that amount of time. Otherwise most had very mediocre returns or just outright lost money investing.
The subject of the thread is the profession of day trading. Casual investing is a different animal. Don't take this as a criticism, the distinction is often confused in these ET threads.
That is a pretty general statement and I disagree. I was a professional engineer for years and switched to software development and did well with both. I have studied charts ad infinitum and took courses and read many books and so far I suck at day trading.
False equivalence, I was always successful prior to trading, academics, sports, corporate life and yet lost serious money learning to trade. It's a different playing field and requires a different mind set and developmental path. Most will not do what's required and many who do will quit before they put it all together. It's fine to say "it's not for me" but to consider it as a doomed path because one couldn't do it is an ego-driven cop out. Not a personal criticism, you may be on the path...who knows but it isn't easy.
The way I read your post was that trading is equivalent to many demanding jobs and if treated as such will lead to success. I guess I misunderstood.