Day trading is, without a doubt, profitable. Any strategy can be profitable if it is well managed. To begin, perhaps understand the basics of day trading and long-term trading, and then apply what works best for you. Even if some people are not suited to day trading, it is more promising.
Yes, definitely day trading is profitable for experienced traders but beginners should stay away from it. For trading by day trading strategy, you must be efficient in quick analysis and taking instant decisions.
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Risk management and knowledge are very important in day trading. If you have right trading skills then day trading might become profitable
It is profitable when you have good knowledge of the candlestick’s pattern, charts, and price action in short, technical analysis.
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Day trading is not profitable for 99% retail traders. It can’t be due to structural reasons like high speed, slippage, stop loss hunting, spreads, news based quick reversals , Algo Bots, commissions.
I am seriously surprised when people blame failed day trading on Trader’s Psychology, Motivation lack of Discipline or experience. These factors don’t matter as much as popularly emphasized. Even bots who don’t need Psychology or Motivation find it hard to make profit over a period of time
And those day-traders who are profitable don’t make impressive returns on their capital. It is most stressful kind of trading with least amount of returns.
Finally to be fair to day traders, I would like to know how profitable day traders here are by which I mean how much % on average they make in a month?
The short answer is lack of persistence with a well tested and rounded strategy. The success rate of 1% sync with success rate in most other fields. Not many are wired to persist in the face of inevitable failures they will find along the path to success.
I am mostly a trend follower. Markets trend only 30-35% of the time globally. I make most of my profits when the market trends. So I don’t look for monthly positivity. I look in yearly time frame. I post my yearly returns here and on my website.
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George Soros has an apt saying:
It’s not whether you’re right but how much money you make when you’re right.
So question is not profitability but how much profitability? Are top 1% day traders beating top 1% swing traders or top 1% positional traders or even Index Fund Holders?
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Its not just about how much we make when we r right. Its also about how much we lose when we are wrong and how often we are right and wrong.
My return % I have posted in the above link. I don’t know whether I beat anyone. I just focus on my returns and on the process to materialize the same. But my aspirational goal is to do better than Jim Simons… 
Day trading is simply not profitable. But course sellers, bot sellers, signal sellers and your broker(s) will try hard to convince you that day trading is profitable. This is how they make money. You see conflict of interest?
Time and time I see same thing repeating: brokers and salesmen trying very hard to convince novices that day trading is profitable. Most people claiming day trading is profitable are there to sell you something : course, bot, signal, webinar, mentorship , personal mentorship and what not. Don’t trust them. I repeat, don’t trust them. Ignore them. Don’t give them your ears, because if you do you will end up giving your money to them as well. Stay away from these dream sellers.
Now the main reason and only reason day trading doesn’t works is this: the candle size is too small to make any real money , assuming you can catch whole candle consistently (which itself can be done only 50% of time if you are very good at TA).
And if you are over-smart enough to use leverage (via Futures and Options) to compensate for lack of candle size, you have failed to realize that your risk reward has not improved at all. It is exactly same, your 1:2 strategy is now only 10:20 strategy.
The essence of successful trading is this: Cut losses, Let your profits run. In day-trading you can’t let your profits run and this is the reason day trading will never work. It can’t work.
Finally the fact that top succesful day traders earn far less than top swing traders and top succesful investors, is another evidence for how day trading is waste of time. Plus constantly sitting and staring screens gives you myopia, hypertension, back pain , Prostatitis and various mental health issues. But salesmen , I bet will never tell you : Day Trading is best way to lose your wealtha and health.
Day trading is not profitable for the majority of the people not because it doesnt work. Its because the ROI expectation is beyond their financial intelligence.
There is a class of people who are minting money intraday, and I have had the luxury to befriend them on this forum!
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What was their monthly ROI , on average ? Devil is in the details as the saying goes.
I can tell you my mindset, if that helps!
Every time I take a trade, the min profitability I look is 7% ROI per year. So it translates into 7%/200 trading days per day. (ie beat the FD rate)
For eg: if I make a profit of 900 per day for a capital of 25 lakhs - I call it a win!
so you are trading full time to beat FD returns?
hmm
I dont think thats bad.
Again I visualize 2 people in chair on my trading desk. One is me and the other the CEO of HDFCBank who is offering me 7% FD returns.
I will have to beat the other guy every single time to create alpha!
Imagine how hard that can be.
certainly its not bad…
But if i am giving full time to trading business i would have like to generate descent returns comparing to other business…
If i am passive investor or trader then i am happy if annually ROI is more than FD
I know a person who does only intra day. He made around 300 percent of his capital last year.
I do not do intra day but that doesn’t mean somebody can’t be successful.
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wow
300% ROI is awesome
the trader who got this return maintaining consistency?
In option buying for full time trader its possible but consistency is what matters most
Nah. He is just in cash segment. That too without any leverage.
He is consistent for 3 years now.
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awesome and we trader avoid cash trading and getting addicted to option trading …
fighting to get 20-25% by selling options full time
What works for one may not work for others.
I don’t do intra day because I don’t understand it.
For me option selling works. For somebody else it doesn’t work. It may not even work for me some day.