First of all, most traders are not doing this full-time. Unlike those professional traders who work in institutions or those who trade at home, they all have their own jobs, and trading is just a "side job". It is tiring enough to be busy with their main jobs, so how can they have a lot of time to study trading, let alone short-term trading.
And short-term trading is really difficult. The shorter the time, the more irregular the price trend, and it is particularly difficult to analyze the market and actually operate. When doing short-term trading, there are a lot of messy signals, which is what we often call "market noise". The more noise there is, the harder it is to find the rules behind the price.
Moreover, it's very easy to lose one's composure when trading short-term. Anyone who has traded will surely have this feeling. When you look at the 5-minute chart and the 4-hour chart, the feeling is completely different. Watching the 5-minute chart, your heart races up and down with the price, while the 4-hour chart feels much calmer. Once your mindset is disturbed, losing money is not far behind.
However, I have also observed that successful short-term traders around me share some common traits:
Multiple strategies: Facing different situations, they have at least 10 trading strategies and techniques to improve winning odds. Some skilled individuals even have more than 20 strategies. The market is always changing, and only with multiple strategies can various opportunities be seized.
Clever methods: Their trading methods rely half on fundamental technical analysis and half on utilizing market characteristics. They do look at fundamentals, but mainly as a supplementary reference.
Focused and strong: Everyone has one or a few trading instruments they are best at. Mastering one instrument is enough to thrive in the investment market.
Full wallet: This can be considered a successful outcome. If you can do short-term trading well, your net worth will naturally be considerable.
