Day trading ?

To be a trader you must first learn how to invest. You must know the products and the markets in which they trade, how security transactions are cleared and more importantly you must know the rules that govern those products and markets. So you must know what you’re doing, why you’re doing it, and how to do it. You should start by reading “Investing for Dummies” by Eric Tyson.

To be a day trader you must first know how to trade and in order to trade you must know how to invest. To day trade you need several years experience as a trader. You must know the products and the markets in which they trade, how security transactions are cleared and more importantly you must know the rules that govern those products and markets. So you must know what you’re doing, why you’re doing it, and how to do it. And most importantly you must have the capital to finance your transactions, a decent day trader should have least $25,000-$50,000. You should have read “Investing for Dummies” by Eric Tyson.

Here’s a list of books you should consider, at least read half of them

Bulls Make Money, Bears Make Money, Pigs Get Slaughtered, by Gallea

How to Trade in Stocks, Jesse Livermore

Millionaire Traders, Lein & Schlosberg

One Up on Wall Street by Peter Lynch

Reminiscences of a Stock Operator, Edwin Lefevre

The Disciplined Trader, Mark Douglas

Trader Vic-Methods of a Wall Street Master, Victor Sperandeo

Trader Vic II-Principles of Professional Speculation, Victor Sperandeo

Trading for a Living, by Alexander Elder

Trading in the Zone, Mark Douglas

And when you think you want to trade, try some paper trading to test your skills without spending you money http://simulatorinvestopedia.com/ http://www.moneyworks4me.com/

and/or http://www.tradingsimulation.com/

Before you enter your first order you need to address four major policies and have very strong discipline to follow them

1 - You need a written sound trading/investment plan with rules that will not only help you but more importantly protect you, mostly from yourself. Always use stops either to protect you on the down side or to lock in profits on the up side. Never trade on emotions, when emotions get involved walk away. Don’t try to out-smart the market, you’ll loose but if you always take what the market is willing to give you, you’ll be successful. Other words, you don’t trade against the trend since the market is always right. And NEVER trade on emotions, once you let emotions in your trades you will loose

2 - A written money management program is essential. Remember never invest 100% of your capital into any one security and never have 100% of your capital invested. Never go into a trade without knowing when and where you are going to get out of it. Never let a loss on a trade get greater than 8%-10%, always take you loss and walk away - don't loose more than you need to and don't be afraid to take the loss. Remember you never can get hurt taking a profit. Never average down, but you can average up.

3 - You must have sufficient trading/investment capital. Use your own money, there’s no need to go into debt so that you can trade and/or invest. Margin can be used but only with restraints, never let the account wall below 45% equity. Unless you fully understand margins you should not use it.

4 – A full and complete understanding of the rules & regulations of the industry. If your going to play in the game be sure you know the rules of the game and always follow them.

Unless you are willing to study and follow the above you will never make it as a trader. To be successful as a trader it takes work and constant study of the markets and the products traded in those markets, there is no easy way and it will take you several years before you should even think about day trading.

Day trading is a form of speculation in securities in which a trader buys and sells a financial instrument within the same trading day, such that all positions are closed before the market closes for the trading day to avoid unmanageable risks and negative price gaps between one day's close and the next day's price at ...

Day trading was dead and gone 20 years ago.  Back then, you paid to enter a room where you had access to a super fast computer that was connected directly to the three major exchanges.  Using your smarts, you then bought  huge number of shares in stocks and sold them seconds later when they had gained tiny fractions of a penny.  Most folks lost.  A few became millionaires.  That has all been replaced by hedge funds that are run by super smart kids with degrees in finance from just a few Universities.  These kids are recruited just like pro ball players before they even graduate and paid millions to work their magic.  And like pro ball, the hedge funds are owned by old fat billionaires.  The kids enter their own programs which automatically buy and sell. Your chance for being one of those kids is the same as being hired as a starting pitcher by the New York Yankees.  Now we have dirt bag scam artists who for hundreds of dollars will gladly sell you the "Secret of Day Trading".  I have trouble believing your "thousands of hours" and "four years".  btw My answer is the only correct answer.

Im guessing cause these people are stupid wealthy they could buy lots of shares and sell it for a good return

There are people who are consistently profitable day trading, but they have tools that are not available to normal retail customers. You can see a video about them at

https://www.cbsnews.com/video/60-minutes-investiga...

Of course there are others who make money from those who sell classes and software to day traders.

https://www.sec.gov/news/studies/daytrading.htm

https://www.sec.gov/reportspubs/investor-publicati...

Certainly there are some normal retail customers who make more than they lose day trading, but most do not. 

I have not studied the subject enough to give you good advice to becoming successful other than the old adage "let your winners run and cut your loses short."

Maybe 1 in 10,000 can consistently make money day trading. Most people would give up LONG before 4 years.

There was a brief period way back when where I did ok swing trading. Then the market makers computers figured out their weakness and it took me out of the loop. That was when stocks traded in fractions and I could route trades to 3 different market makers and sit on the bid and ask and wait and hope for favorable fills. Eventually, it stopped working so I stopped doing it.

At any given time, on a stock with a $1.00-1.25 ask, I might be sitting on the bid to buy 1000 at $1.00 at all 3 and on the ask to sell 1000 at $1.25.  Sometimes the stock would move against me but a lot of times, I could buy one day and sell a few days later.  Trades were $19 and my broker used I think 3 market makers. 

Practice has nothing to do with something that DOES NOT WORK for the overwhelming majority.

Way back when they had day trading firms where idiots would go to lose their money.  The firms made a killing, the customers did not. But there were others willing to lose their money as soon as a desk came open. Eventually, people caught on and knew someone who blew $20-100k in a period of weeks to months so they ran out of customers.

Maybe you aren't consistently profitable due to black box trading?