An NYMag article that seems to agree with what I and many other market-watchers have noticed, regarding its profitability for daytraders versus those interested in longer timeframes:
The percentage of traders like Milman is small, but it’s not just day traders who are approaching the market with a short time-horizon these days. Investment bankers and hedge-fund managers who might have once based their trades on extensive research and elaborate models are finding that their models don’t work in this chaotic environment. Some who otherwise would have shunned this kind of day-trading are finding it profitable to chase the minute-by-minute momentum. “It’s definitely not a buy-and-hold market,” says one investment banker. “This is a trader’s market.” Some out-of-work I-bankers are also trying their hands at day-trading, with varying degrees of success. Scott Redler, a partner at the trading group T3live.com, hired (then fired) a trader who had lost his job when one of the major investment banks closed last year. “He lost more than any of our traders because he didn’t understand the smaller time frame and risk,” says Redler. “They think they know how to trade and they lose because they don’t know what it takes.”
