Who is day trading successfully?

[u0362565]

You hear a lot about day trading and how hard it is and the platforms generally seem geared up for it i.e. they charge you fees for holding positions or they only let you hold them for so long (futures/forwards). So as a show of hands I wondered who is successfully day trading or are you longer term traders willing to pay fees? I find that anytime frame less than days seems quite random and I question the usefulness of the indicators. Were they ever designed for short term trading..

[THT]

You get more "noise" intra-day, that doesn't mean you can't be successful - I personally don't trade anything other than daily charts, predominately because I'm a lazy trader and don't want to be tied to a screen all day, I'm happy to pay fee's - but my holds are for days not months, if I were holding for weeks/months I'd probably trade an ETF in an ISA/SIPP 

The whole industry is geared up to relieve novice traders of their capital

Most people can't use and don't use Indicators right in the first place  - if a method works and that includes Indicators then they will work on any timeframe

[AndrewS]

For me the fees are not really a consideration since I am paying a spread over and over.

The real advantage of a decent win rate combined with a higher trade frequency is this. If I were putting on a trade a day with a win rate of 75% then on average I would have 5 losing days in the last 20, but with the higher trade frequency of 14 trades a day I have had no losing days in the last 20 days.

[jlz]

The ones that are successful trade in a very specific way:

- Scan for markets daily to pick opportunities. They don't trade the same market everyday. Normally to spot sideways markets that are reaching ranges so they can catch a reversal. 

- Trade only at specific hours, i.e when markets open around the world: 8 am, 3 pm , 10pm. Mainly looking for best price action.

- Open both sides of the trade using pairs trading. They aim to catch a trend in the opening sacrificing one of the sides. 

- Ignore indicators. There's too much noise intraday to get a meaningful signal. 

- Very strict size management. Never chase loses. They aim to make small profits daily so they can build up an insurance for the losing days. 

[u0362565]

Not really sure how to reply to any of this but good info thanks.  I have tried all sorts of time frames but i don't really have the time like THT to be staring at the screen, i have a full time job.  The slower pace is a relief on the daily charts.  The thinking of most people who come on here or at least what i was aiming for was to see if i could do better than bank savings rates and passive investments.  Certainly it is possible but not convinced for myself yet.  I assume most also invest as well as you're not going to plough all your savings into a trading account.    

[jlz]

Day trading is one of the most intensive and time consuming ways of trading. If you have to spend your time on a daily job I wouldn´t  recommend that path for you.

There are other ways of making a transition from your job to a full time trading desk. Maybe taking a slower approach that would require checking your platform once or twice a day would be better. 

I also have a full time job and I don´t consider day trading for the effort that I have to make to get it done. I don´t think I would be able to make it.

[Paul274]

I day trade successfully. As many here have eluded to its intensive and time consuming. I trade 8am -11am and then 230pm - 430pm (GMT). I take anywhere from 5 to 20 trades each day and hold nothing overnight. I do also buy and hold long term here on IG using forward contracts but that is a separate investment strategy.