well firstly, statistically speaking most day/swing traders...

well firstly, statistically speaking most day/swing traders DON'T beat a standard index fund. but regardless i couldnt care less how others trade. you wanna short, do it, i don't know you and don't care. what i do actually dislike is shorters pretending they're not. Shorters come in and say 'oh this stock is going to plummet, the product doesn't have x or y', making up falsities to get the outcome they want then denying it when called out. Up-rampers do the same and are just as useless, however at least with them its plain to see what their sentiment is and ignore them, as the literally have to list their sentiment in each post. HC needs a 'shorting' sentiment button to make promote greater visibility of people's positions.

furthermore, i wouldn't define what i do as 'trade' firstly, as i trade long, but of course i do so to maximise profits. For me, my strategy is investing a secondary income that doesn't require consistent monitoring/speculation on SP ups and downs. I do this be selecting businesses by stringent criteria that show long term growth prospects. If i think the SP price won't be strong in a year then i don't invest, simple. This allows me to leverage my business education and value companies using actual research, rather than trading swings which are typically resulting from unpredictable holder sentiment - impossible to time perfectly on a consistent basis. Why on earth wouldn't you treat mitigating tax and trade costs as a criteria considering it literally effects your overall return?

its good for you to confirm that you're a shorter though, just so that everyone is clear about your agenda.