The market works because of you lot. All easily led into situations. You are herded into what is deemed as the kill zone. This is the failure. You are fighting a battle you can never win, unless you know where the next battle lies.
1. Trading these time frames is extremely difficult. Not many people can consistently make a living at it. There are probably only a few people on this site that can, I am sure Dante is one of them.
There is a lot of money to be made by spread betting firms and DM firms in fees and non hedged gains.
The more trades you make and the more you get stopped out the more money this massive industry makes.
Because of this there is a lot of information and hype out there, blown out of proportion. (marketing)
2. Investing is easier, having your hand held by international financial firms, with their buying power to get in and out of markets. (but there is not as much potential for percentage gains as in trading.)
There is a lot of money to be made by these companies too, in the form of fewer larger fees.
Because of this there is a lot of information and hype out there, blown out of proportion. (marketing)
Ware these two extremes meet: Is a little boring, there is little information and hype out there, because there is no real money to be made from either of the above two types of firms.
Spread bet firms will set their leverage levels for different instruments to different settings in order to keep the people who give them their money in a high risk area (keeping the odds in their favour). If the client has enough money to stay out this area, then the spread bet company gives them the option of placing as much per point as the client wants, encouraging them back into the high risk zone.
Once you are aware of the zones they try to keep you in, you can begin to do something about it and pitch yourself (using the trading skills you have learnt) between a trader and an investor. You may not have enough money to trade in all the markets you have a fundamental directional biases for to start with, but that is just life.
Remember not everyone will be able to trade like the few successful day traders on this site.