Can you make a decent living this way ?

We have a virtual Day trading game on going here now . I am not a day trader in real life . But I have noticed something .

If you had a really good stock trading program that gave you instant "Real Time" reports in stocks that are moving up quickliy ,it seems to me money could be made if you jump in and jump out before the profit takers started moving in . Most stocks that are climbing hard seem to start falling after noon as Day traders start selling . What happens if you sold before noon ??? Seems to me this might work . The problem for me would be staying glued to the computer .
A good example is GME today . It came out of the gate, at the opening making good gains and I knew it would last night but went for the bigger bucks of Dell and lost ! I got greedy .....

I do think you would be stressed out if you had to do it for a living. Reminds me of someone who has lost in Vegas and they are playing to make up for what they lost. A tough road to hoe.
But, if you were retired and comfortable, it sure might be a good way to supplement your retirement ....and if it tanked one day, no biggie because you have other funds to live on. JMHO. I am not a day trader and never have been. I do like our game though. It does give us all some insights.

BigAl said:

If you had a really good stock trading program that gave you instant "Real Time" reports in stocks that are moving up quickliy ,it seems to me money could be made if you jump in and jump out before the profit takers started moving in .

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Al, the big brokerage houses have millions invested in computer programs which do just that. And they are moving huge volumes of stocks, enough to influence the price.

Sitting at home and watching your computer, that is who you are betting against on the other side of the table. And this is a zero-sum game. For the programmers to keep their jobs the guy at home has to lose more often than he wins.

Worse yet, you are betting against *all* the different professionals with their programs whose decisions, combined together, establish the momentary price. And you are paying transaction fees. What are your odds?

California said:

What are your odds?

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Who knows.

You do have to stay glued to your computer to watch it.
I got burned on our day-trades this morning due to a meeting. I had a stock jump 32% this morning and I would have sold had I been at my computer. It's since tanked.

To answer Allan's question, we'll have an idea of who can make a decent living doing this in a month or so of day trading.

I have gone the day trading route and yes you can make money at it. You do have to sit in front of the PC all day long. I did not use any programs.

One month I made over 10K trading one stock, Carnival Cruise Lines. This was before the change to pennies for the price when it was still in fractions. Buy 2,000 shares, it goes up a little, sell, sometimes traded six or seven times a day, the same stock over and over again.

I made real good money for over two years, then one year I made a fatal mistake, I got hung up on the fact that Apple was over priced. Shorted it and then shorted more. In one year I lost what I had made in the last two years.

It is real white knuckles trading, you can make 25K one day and lose 25K the next, it is not for the feint of heart. You do not leave the PC to use the restroom, you do not leave to have lunch.

It is hard on the body system, the nerves, health all that goes with it.

My last true day trade was about four years ago, the kids were coming down to Florida and they thought it would be nice to have a not tub. Bought about ten options, do not even remember the company, something tech, was watching it, went out beside the pool to talk to the wife, came back in and some news broke and the price was going wild. Tried to sell and it would not take the sale, finally did and I ended up making about three thousand more than the price that I had put in. If I would have held, I could have made another 20K by the end of the day. But so goes the life of day trading.

Cultivating the soil and growing and selling vegetables is so much more relaxing and better for the health.