Active Trading is Back, Baby!

Active Trading is Back, Baby!

Jun 25, 2020

#DDTG is the second-best thing to happen to retail trading in the past year. The first, obviously, was commission-free trading being mass adopted by the brokerage community.

Davey Portnoy, of Barstool Sports and “Davey Daytrader Global (#DDTG)” fame, catches a lot of flack from grizzled veterans of the trading industry (Ok, BOOMER!), but there is no denying that his antics have attracted a lot of attention to the practice of active trading.

And I, for one, could not be happier about this.

The “Passive Investing” craze is/was a little overdone for my taste. Yes, there is value in that philosophy for 80% of the world’s population. But the demonizing of active trading by disciples of the passive investing crowd never sat well with me. There is no one formula that suits everyone equally. For those with the tools, skills (acquired through practice), time, and mental bandwidth, active trading can be a far more risk-adverse endeavor than passive investing.

Can active investing be dangerous in the hands of a degenerate gambler? Of course. But this doesn’t stop a Las Vegas casino from offering unlimited buffets to obese Americans. We all our responsible for our own choices.

I’m celebrating the Davey Portnoy’s of the world for showing people that active investing can be both rewarding, profitable, and fun. As long as we all take the proper precautions regarding risk management and idea selection, I say the more the merrier. More participants means more volumes, tighter spreads, better executions, and more volatility which is the bread and butter of active traders. Yes, please. More.

At Trade Ideas, LLC — the provider of arguably the best tools in the industry for active traders — we’re seeing a massive uptick in subscriber growth and revenue growth, reflecting a major increase not only in the number of subscribers, but those willing to pay up for additional premium services so that they can best compete in the market.

There is no way I can view this as a bad thing for the industry as a whole. Will there be casualties? Of course. There always is. Nothing can save humans hellbent on destroying themselves. The stock market is a barometer of human emotions. Always has been. This will never change. But for those of us investing in our education and the tools & services that support this growth, it’s quite possible we could be entering a new golden age of active investing and trading.

Welcome. We’ve been waiting for you.

Originally posted on Sean McLaughlin’s Medium page. Read it there.