Debunking the myth that profitable day trading is impossible
Recently, there has been a proliferation of so-called "high profile" social media influencers on apps like TikTok claiming that profitable day trading and "beating the market" is simply impossible. Specifically, I'm referring to influencers like baxate_carter and these kinds of videos:
For starters, not to take away from his intelligence, but he simply doesn't know what he's talking about. It's very clear from the beginning that he has no real experience day trading and that he doesn't understand the dynamics involved. Furthermore, this post is by no means going to be a comprehensive rebuttal to the claims he made here. That will come later and will require much more time.
However, if profitable day trading was impossible, and "beating the market" as a concept didn't exist, it would be mathematically impossible for day traders like myself to produce some of the results that we do. What we do here is not luck and involves developing strategies with a clear statistical edge coupled with proper risk management. And if you're next question is why doesn't everyone just do it if what I'm describing here is possible, then my question to you is why doesn't everyone become a doctor? It's simple. Because not everyone can become a doctor.
Also, I'm not here to "brag" or seeking any kind of clout. I really don't give a shit about that. I'm not even a "life time" profitable day trader, and I will be the first person to admit that. I've lost more total money than I've made day trading, but despite that, I am still a profitable day trader. The only reason my lifetime results are still in the red is because I lacked the self discipline and control to stop myself from blowing several accounts through revenge trading. My dad almost died from a heart attack and stroke last year, and I simply broke down. But that's part of the journey of growing into the profitable day trader you can become. According to people like baxate_carter, it's impossible to consistently beat the market over the long term. But that's just not true. It is possible, and the only reason I haven't been able to show even more consistent results over longer periods of time hasn't been because beating market is impossible. I simply lost the battle against myself and broke my own rules. That's what 95% of day trading comes down to (discipline and self control and battling your own demons). And as a final anecdote on the topic of self-control, I recently celebrated ten years of sobriety from heroin and crack cocaine. And I can tell you, without a doubt, that the discipline and self-control required to successfully navigate the markets is greater than the self-discipline required than putting the needle down. I would know because I've done both.
I have a lot more to say about this, but these are just some of my more successful trading periods. I had only two red days from March-May 2023 before my dad almost died and netted over 100k for that period. Then in May 2024, I had my longest win streak of 1.5 months with nothing but green days and netted close to 50k for that period. All of these trades are legit and are real and represent what is possible in the market. It's simply statistically impossible to produce these kinds of results if successful day trading as a concept doesn't exist. Therefore, the goal of this post is to start debunking the myth that profitable day trading isn't possible. Day trading is difficult enough as it is. That last thing new traders need is more self-doubt and negativity from so-called experts who have no idea what they're talking about (baxate_carter).
A small sample of some my trading results:
March - May 2023:
May - July 2024:
January 2025:
