Forget Law School And Just Become A DayTrader??? Forum

[Fred_McGriff]

Yeah because...uhh...everyone here has a cash balance of 25k (minimum equity required for day trading) just sitting in a checking account at a bank. Seriously, whatever happened to getting a job (even a shitty one) and working your way up? Not only that, but timing the market is extremely difficult, if not impossible. The best fund managers from all the best schools can't consistently beat the market, what makes you think you can? Get a job, work your way up to management, and enjoy a debt free life.

This. I've worked in finance for a while. "Day Trader" is not a job, it's a trainwreck waiting to happen.

[DubPoker]

Coming from the online poker world, I hear stories of people day trading every now and then.

I'm not familiar with it, but the vibe I get is the day trading market is a overall zero sum game (actually negative if you factor in trading fees?.) This leads people in academia to view it negatively and to not encourage people to day-trade.

However poker is a negative sum game (rake ftl) but is clearly beatable by a educated percentage of people.

So is day-trading for fish? or if you are smart individual is it beatable, kind of like poker?

[Fred_McGriff]

Ownership of securities is inherently not a zero sum game, the long term returns on the stock market are about 10% a year, but, there is no workable method of technical analysis that makes day trading a feasible long term option. There is almost no way a retail investor can beat the market without relying on a whole lot of luck, and I'm confident saying it's impossible to achieve over the long term. It's not just the fees, it's the loss you're going to take in the bid/ask spread on every transaction which is going to cost you basis points on every single transaction you make. If you buy options, it is zero sum (minus brokerage fees). Assuming 10% returns, which almost never happen (usually a bunch higher or lower in a given year) you would need $1,000,000 in principal every year to provide a $100,000 salary assuming the long term rate of return, excluding the fees and trading costs.

I know a lot more people who have gone to law school and become successful than people who are successful day traders, and I know a whole hell of a lot more people who have tried trading than law.