Exploring the World of Day Trading

Are you looking into a career in day trading? In the past, the tools for day trading were available only to professionals. But thanks to the power of the Internet, everything you need to get started is now conveniently online. If you have a nose for business, guts and a sharp instinct for how the market shifts, the maybe day trading is the job for you.

What is day trading? Basically it is daily, online stock trading with very short investment. The individuals who do this day in and day out are called traders, not investors in the traditional sense. A day trader is someone who will buy a stock that has high volume and liquidity and will sell that same stock within a few minutes up to a few hours.

Day trading happens only during the day. Those who do day trading usually stay glued in front of the computer and monitoring which stocks have a fast turnover. During the day trading, they quickly buy a large number of stocks at a time and sell it once they see the stock gain within the day. Day traders will make a purchase of a stock, hold it for only minutes watching constantly for the stock to go up or down, selling if it goes down only two or three cents and holding if it goes up to about five or six cents and selling. The stock is almost never held over night as there are many other opportunities and a stock that takes hours to move is not worth holding.

Day trading can be a very high paced and stressful lifestyle. There are millions of day traders across North America but it can be a very fast way to lose everything. Some people are making over $5000.00 a day but it takes months and sometimes years to learn and master day trading.

The broader meaning of the term day trading includes those who trade daily from their homes or offices, through Internet brokerages. These day traders might buy and sell stocks in minutes, but might also hold some overnight or longer. The latest buzzword for this is "swing trader," those who keep a stock within in a few days before finally selling them. To some, particularly the so-called bandits, day trading is just a numbers game. They do little research and just watch for moving stocks with good spreads. Others are more scientific about it, relying on news and technical analysis to catch everyday price fluctuations.

Day trading requires a certain amount of capital. Generally, day trading should have enough trading capital to buy at least 1000 shares of any given stock on any particular day. There are very few stocks priced under $20 that have the degree of liquidity necessary to make them suitable for day trading. This means that a novice day trader should normally have day trading capital of at least $20,000 to start. In addition, the new day trader should treat this as 100% risk capital and should not have to unduly worry that the whole amount of this capital may be lost very quickly.

You must also be aware that not all stocks are suitable for day trading. Day trading should never trade unlisted or thinly traded (low volume) stocks. These stocks have poor liquidity and hence a higher price volatility. This may make it hard for you to exit your day trading position quickly at a fair price. Trade only high volume, well-known stocks.

Michael Sanford has a wealth of trading knowledge available at the stock market and day trading resource center.

More Resources

Unable to open RSS Feed $XMLfilename with error HTTP ERROR: 404, exiting

More Currency Trading Information:

Related Articles

A Look at Forex Market Makers
The investor in the currency market takes for granted that a pair of currencies can be bought or sold at a moment's notice. Once an order is placed with a broker, the trade is executed within seconds.
The Meaning of FOREX Price Charts and How to Use Them
There is one very important factor that you should consider with great care if you are willing to become a successful, profitable Forex trader. This ever important factor that must be always present in the trader's portfolio, is the ability to read the charts.
Be a Smarter FOREX Currency Trader: Three Basic Principles
Below I will describe three basic principles that may come in handy for currency traders. They are very easy to implement and potentially take advantage of as you will see.
Forex Training: Follow Your Gut or Your Broker
Which way will the forex market move? Do you just follow your gut feeling? Or do you have Neo's sixth sense that would let you be one with the market and feel the underlying currents.Trading forex is a non stop action movie but a good one, where you really don't know who will win at the end.
Your Mother Could Make Money In Forex Trading
The question would be not whether she could but rather would she enter the Forex trading market. The Forex day trading arena is a veritable snake pit ripe for scam artists to bilk money out of unwary investors.
A Beginner's Guide to FOREX
FOREX is the abbreviation for the Foreign Exchange market. FOREX is basically an international exchange market where currencies from all over the world are bought and sold for profit.
Day Trading the Index Futures - How to Judge Good Entries
QUESTION: If the SP futures fall through support and go straight down for another two points, and I want to get short, should I a.)enter immediately, b.
FOREX 101: Make Money with Currency Trading
For those unfamiliar with the term, FOREX (FOReign EXchange market), refers to an international exchange market where currencies are bought and sold. The Foreign Exchange Market that we see today began in the 1970's, when free exchange rates and floating currencies were introduced.
E-currency Exchange Trading
If you are reading this article you are probably one of the many people who have spent countless hours searching for unique ways to make money on the internet. Very few people have gone on to succeed and most have failed miserably time and time again.
Adaptation to the Realities of the Market
Do you think adaptation to the realities of the market is the most important thing?Many times in the past I've written about the need to adapt, the need to be able to change your behavior relative to the market because the markets are ever changing. I've stated that mechanical systems may be workable, but for only a short time relative to the life of markets.
The Yin and the Yang of Markets
I am reading a fantastic book on trading, first published in 1924, by Richard D. Wyckoff, titled "How I Trade and Invest in Stocks & Bonds".
Ways to Acquire Discipline in Trading
One way to acquire discipline in trading..
Advantages of Trading FOREX Over Stocks and Commodities
There are many advantages to Trading FOREX as your main income generator. Let's start by something that may be worrying you already.
Forex Trading Can Be Like Day-trading
Forex trading, or foreign currency trading, has become a bit of a craze of late, especially since it is something available to anyone who owns a computer. And anyone who is willing to put in some training time can profit from forex trading.
Disgruntled
The following situation happens quite often to many traders. Look it over and see if it has been happening to you:You have been faithfully following your trading plan and the rules you've set for trading.
An Evaluation of the Devaluation
A Minister of Finance is morally right to lie about a forthcoming devaluation and a woman has the right to lie about her age. This is the common wisdom.
Forex Profits
The Forex Market-What, When and Why?Forex, FX and the Forex market are some common abbreviations for the Foreign Exchange market. Actually it is the largest financial market in the world, where money is sold and bought freely.
A Short Introduction To FOREX
FOREX is the world's largest and most liquid trading market. Many consider FOREX as the best home business you can ever venture in.
Trading Timeframes
Long TermLong term traders will work from end of day data and look to hold trades for a few weeks up to many months. Usually trend trading.
Options Trading - Advantages and Disadvantages
What is Options Trading?An option is simply granting someone the right to buy or sell something in the future. In the case of Dow index futures options, when someone buys a Dow call option they are buying the right to purchase that underlying Dow future at a specific price, known as the "strike price," at a future point in time, known as the "expiration date.