Day trading is a very controversial topic. There are people claiming its all a scam and gambling, while others say they make huge profits and live on day trading.
The reason day trading divides opinions so badly, is because it is so difficult to begin with. People claiming its all about luck and doesn’t work, are the ones who have not succeeded with it. There might be several reasons why they didn’t succeed.
The other part, which claims that you can make profit with day trading, is also divided into two groups.
One group acknowledges the fact that day trading is a bad idea for most people. It is a very uncertain way to make money, requires tons of training and dedication, and causes a lot of stress.
Then there are the course sellers. People who claim anybody can learn day trading with this simple course and method they are selling. I think this is one reason day trading has been put in such a bad light.
Let’s dive into the reasons why day trading is not the best career choice for everyone.
Most of the day traders lose money
According to some estimates, 95% of day traders lose money. This will vary depending on the survey and how it’s made, but I think it’s safe to say that most of the day traders lose money.
That being said, it is not likely that one out of 100-day trading learners will eventually become a profitable trader. For most of the people, that is not the best career choice.
On top of that, not everyone is even interested in day trading. Out of the people who are actually interested in day trading and take the effort to learn and try it out, most of the people are not going to be successful.
And these are just statistics. Everyone is an individual human being, and you could be successful in day trading if you put enough effort and time into it. However, statistics give a good image of how difficult this sport really is.
Day trading comes with a lot of stress
Another reason why day trading might be a bad idea is that it comes with a lot of stress. The stress comes from seeing your positions fall a lot, hitting the stop loss, and even ending the day with a loss. Those days can happen.
You have no guarantee of income, and that might put extra pressure on you if you have a family to support with trading. This is why it’s good to remember that never risk more than you can afford to lose.
You can lose a lot of money in short periods of time
In day trading, most traders if not all, use leverage. Leveraged products or other ways to profit from smaller movements more.
This also means you can lose more money in shorter periods of time. Good risk management is essential in day trading, or one bad trade could be fatal to your trading career.
There are easier ways to make money
Day trading might seem like a go-to career, offering unlimited returns that are only tied to your own doing. However, no matter how good that sounds, it is very difficult. If it was easy, why would anybody do any other kind of work?
Considering all the downsides of day trading, there are other safer and easier ways to make a living. Day trading comes with the mentality of “you can be your own boss” and the freedom to work from anywhere you want, but so come a lot of other careers as well.
You could start a business that runs online, this way you can work from anywhere you want as well. I have a lot of posts about starting and running a business. You can read them here.
No constant paydays
Another downside of day trading and why it’s a bad idea is that you will never know when your next payday will be. You might have big enough seed capital that you can live off from, but eventually, if you don’t make a profit with trading, that is going to wear off.
If all your spending is tied to how much you can make trading, that might bring extra stress to your life. Not knowing if you can afford next month’s rent or your child’s tuition fees, that might mean you are way over your head.
It takes a very long time to learn and be profitable
Day trading has a long learning phase. It takes months, or even years depending on how fast you can learn and what kind of trading you have in mind. On top of that, you will have to learn with real money, and that can cost you a fortune before you even become a profitable trader.
All the losses and failures you face, you could easily quit before you end up making profits constantly. Never making that lost money back you spend on learning to trade, might affect your mentality towards investing or gambling negatively.
I have a post comparing investing and gambling. You can read it here.
Final words
Day trading comes with a lot of downsides, and it is a bad idea for most of the people. Despite that, some people manage to make a good living with day trading.
If you after reading this post still want to learn more about day trading, I have a lot of day trading-related posts, you can read them here.
Hopefully this was helpful to you, have a nice day.
This is not financial or investing advice. Some estimates say that 95% of day traders lose money. Always do your research before risking your hard-earned money.