Since day traders typically begin and end each market day entirely in cash, they aren't helpless victims of the markets' thrashes and throes. While long-term investors bank on market bull runs, daytraders thrive on market volatility. It's not hard to imagine that a competent short seller could easily make as much money in this horrid market as the hyperactive bull buyer made in the astounding market rise in 1999 and early 2000. The interesting thing about day traders is that they can be both the savvy short seller and the bubbly bull buyer. Fund managers and investors in general underperform because of overconfidence in their ideas and ability.
Value investing wins one year, gangbuster growth the next.
Day traders don't specifically follow a strategy rooted in fundamentals or philosophy. They follow the numbers, the ticker, the volume and the trends. They are adaptable creatures that can hypothetically beat the market no matter what stocks it wishes to tout. Of course, being a master financial chameleon is no easy task, and we don't disagree that most daytraders fail miserably and wind up losing their shirt. But Golden has been day trading for three years, and he claims he's able to make as much money in the current bear market as he did in more bullish times.