Last year i took a shot at it, just a few trades every day.
Some crazy swings that is for sure.
In the end, i have put in 2000, and currently sitting at 6500 after 9 months, and i spent 2000$ on a day trading class from claytrader.
Very very very stressfull and you have be super disciplined and just take the losses when the trade turns against you.
And example, you take a trade that has a 50/50 at going up or down.
If it goes up, it could go up 10%, if it goes down, it could go down 100%.
Now what you do is sell at a 1% loss, no matter what.
If it goes up, above x% you put basically decide how much you want to make at least. Could be 1%, could be 5%, or you could go for the full 10% or just 1% All or almost nothing.
Provided the 50/50 is a true chance, and you do this over and over, you WILL make money. But the 50/50 is not true, so you have to get into trades that are way more in your favor. I think my results for all my trades are actually close to 40% wins and 60% losses, BUT my losses were always small and wins were always bigger.
I currently am winding down off of it though and just started to swing trade stocks that have good trends, and then sell when i see signs of them hitting their top, current one is AMAT.
edit:and nobody should NEVER view day trading as gambling, it is NOT.
It is another way to generate income. Being good at math, and stats is HUGE - it isn't luck.