Why Day Trading is Hard (and How to Get Better)

If you're like many beginner day traders, you've discovered that learning to day trade is a formidable challenge. It was sold as the easiest road to big money, but no one gave you the directions and you didn't know that the road would be full of black diamond hills, potholes that feel more like sinkholes, and more than a few dead man's curves.

I've been there, too, and after years of trading I eventually reached a consistency and profitability I was beginning to think would never happen for me. I want you to achieve the same (and more!) but without the despair I experienced.

Here's the good news:

You aren't struggling because you’re not smart enough or disciplined enough. It’s because you were likely sold an inaccurate picture of what day trading is. Here's the key: day trading is a performance skill that takes real time and experience to develop.

Let’s break down the how of learning to master this skill so that you can stop spinning your wheels and start moving forward in an intentional way.

Day Trading is a Skill that Requires Practice

Most people think day trading is about finding some secret strategy. Like there’s a magic formula out there that will unlock success if they can just find the best keywords for searching. Having a profitable strategy is important, but the strategy means nothing if you don't practice executing it over and over and over and over and... in real time, under pressure, with money on the line.

Think of it like playing an instrument, competing in a sport, or learning to cook. If you were learning to play piano would you read a book about hand placement and music theory, sit down at the piano, and expect your fingers to churn out a Beethoven sonata with ease? If you were learning to play golf, would you read an article about proper stance, go to the course, tee up, and expect to drive the ball to the green on the first swing? What about cooking a steak? Would you watch a Gordon Ramsay video, pick up a cut from the butcher, turn on the stove, and expect to cook the meat to rare perfection on the first go?

Of course not! Because no matter the level of expertise of the teacher, the student still needs to experience certain things for himself. The weight of the keys on the piano, the body alignment of the head through the hips and down to the feet with golf club in hand, and the temperature fluctuations of the chosen cooking vessel are all important pieces of the learning process that a student must feel on her own.

It's a shame that some of the most popular trading voices with the largest social media followings tout the idea that all one needs to do is nail their one easy strategy with a 90%+ win rate and, cha-ching! Money starts falling from the sky!

Just like you wouldn't expect to nail any other skills on the first try (without beginner's luck), it's unrealistic to think that trading can be mastered in days, weeks, or even months. When you respect trading as the high-performance craft it is, you can finally let go of the pressure to "crack the code" overnight and instead accept that becoming a consistent, profitable day trader will take lots of time and lots of effort.

Practice With Intention

Back to the good news: you absolutely can get better and achieve the consistency you've been fighting for! Improving trading requires lots of experience placing trades, but that experience has to be practiced with intention. No more willy-nilly placing trades every time the market turns.

So, what does intentional practice look like in trading?

• Following a written trading plan

• Only taking trades that match entry criteria

• Journaling every trade

• Reviewing groups of trades to look for patterns

• Identifying and working on specific areas of weakness

• Correcting one issue at a time

This work is the equivalent of what athletes do when they run drills or watch tape. It's akin to what pianists do when they break up large pieces into sections or practice specific fingering techniques. The traders who succeed see every trade as an opportunity to improve their process. They spend enough time practicing for improvement, letting the skill develop without hopping from strategy to strategy. They accept that if something is wrong in their trading, the issue is with the trader and not necessarily with the strategy. No strategy hopping here!

The Holy Grail of Trading: Practice + Time

If there is a Holy Grail in trading, here it is: intentional practice + time. Intentional practice means taking trades according to a clearly defined trading plan over and over without switching to a new strategy every time there's a losing streak.

So many people struggle with trading because they think they’re missing a secret. They think they need just one more course, one more book, another strategy. What they really need is a lot of practice that will eventually lead to confidence, which will eventually lead to consistency, which will eventually lead to? Profitability.

When you combine focused, purposeful practice with enough time to let skills develop, it's impossible to not get better. Improvement is inevitable and the payoff will be life-changing.

If you’re struggling right now, please keep going. You’re still in the process of building a skill. It’s normal to feel stuck. What matters is that you don’t give up before you’ve given yourself a real chance to improve.

Key Takeaways: How to Learn Day Trading the Right Way

• Respect the craft. Day trading is hard because it’s a high-performance skill. Knowing this can help you adjust your expectations on how long it will take to reach profitability. Remind yourself that what you're working on is difficult but worth it!

• Practice with purpose. Taking trades every time you think the market is moving in your direction is not a strategy. Clearly identify your setup and entry criteria and then trade only according to that plan. Rinse and repeat entries according to the plan and watch yourself improve!

• Be patient. It sounds cliché, but give yourself some grace. Learning anything new can be a challenge but learning a skill as life-changing as day trading requires respect and perseverance. The time is going to pass anyway; why not keep at it until you succeed?

You absolutely can do this. It's probably going to be hard and it's probably going to suck at times, but you'll get through it.

Happy trading!