Day Trading

Without knowing what you already know, it's hard to know what to tell you. What I will do is give you a link to great site for explaining the tax implications of trading stocks.

http://www.fairmark.com/capgain/

You can choose how much of the material you want to read, but I suggest you be sure to read the section on "wash sale" rules given the way you described your trading.

Most trading tips providers or signal providers don't work. You can read reviews on most of them on http://www.forextopten.com and http://www.forexpeacearmy.com .

The most important thing to know about day trading is most people lose money. I would do some research before I got into it.
Especially since you apparently don't understand investing. If it were easy, why would people go to work? Learn how to invest the right way and prosper!

About 1.3 billion (down from 1.57 billion shares last year) trade on the NYSE daily (average). About 50 million change on the NASDAQ daily. No monetary figures are given as I am not sure it is worth the computer time.

There is a great website called Sharebuilder.com that will lead you through what you need to know. They have a great starter kit that costs about $50.00 but they give you a $50.00 certificate to purchase stock with. It is a very well executed website and the documentation should point you in the right direction.

Yes if you do this 4 or more times in a week, however, you will be tagged by the SEC as a pattern day trader. This just imposes special trading rules on your account. Mainly, you must maintain a balance of $25,000 or more at all times. Since you are talking about investing $140,000 then this wont be an issue. Other regulations pertain to margin accounts and non-withdrawl requirements. Also remember that profits made by day trading are subject to normal income tax, they don't receive the special tax treatment of long-term capital gains. But the short answer to your question is yes, you can do this.

I'm giving you some web sites to check out for day traders and swing traders. This will give you a "feel".
http://www.alphatrends.net/
http://www.thekirkreport.com/
http://www.slopeofhope.com/
http://www.tradingwithtk.com/
http://www.thinkorswim.com/
http://www.redoption.com/

Also, some good books to start with are;
Trading In the Zone, Mark Douglas
Mastering The Trade, John Carter
High Probability Trading, Link
Trade Your Way To Financial Freedom, Tharp

Learn the basics of "Technical Analysis" before you read these books. Understand Candlestick Charting, Moving Averages, Support & Resistance, RSI, Channels etc.

There are many great books out there…. Don't read any of them until you've gone through these. Don't ever underestimate the importance of money management, position sizing & trading psychology.

This will take at least a year to get through. Do it and you'll save yourself from many costly mistakes.

With your money

The most important thing to look at is risk versus reward. It takes a lot of skill to be successful at day trading, and a lot of cash. According to SEC regulations, you must maintain an account balance (minimum equity level) of at least $25,000. However, you will only be classified as a day trader if you buy and sell (or sell short and buy to cover) the same security within one day, and do this four or more times over five days or less. This means that you can make a day trade (or two or three) and not have to worry about your account being frozen, but make a habit of it and you will see your account suspended for up to 90 days.
Besides account requirements, there's also taking into consideration commissions versus trade value. To buy and sell stock can cost anywhere from $10-$40 overall, so you should be expecting profit exceeding this before entering a trade, which means trade size is a key component. Average daily volume of a stock wil lgive you an idea of what you can expect to be able to buy or sell.
Utilizing different technical indicators such as stochastics, RSI, MACD, moving averages, and price change patterns could give insight into possible future price changes, but these are all speculative and should be used with caution. I would caution anyone who is a beginner trader/investor about day trading. For short term gains, it's better, and less risky, to find stocks about to increase over the next few days/weeks/months. You'll more than likely realize more gains at less of a risk. It's up to you to learn how to do this correctly, but it can be a much more reliable method of trading rather than day trading. Good luck!

People spend years learning how to trade & you want a short quick answer……… sorry…. there is no such thing.

If there was a "best time" to trade… wouldn't all the professionals be doing it. I do have some rules for myself;
I never buy/sell before 10:00PM EDT
If a stock reaches its high 5 minutes before 4:00PM, I'll buy.
I never trade during the hours of 11:30AM-1:30PM (lunch)

BUT…. these rules mean nothing without a ton of information I or anyone here can give you.

Here's some places to start;
http://www.alphatrends.net/ (best "sum up" of daily activity on the web).
http://www.tradingwithtk.com/ (good teacher, dangerous stocks).
http://streamer.thinkorswim.com:8000/shadowtrader.m3u
(great market comentary during the day, 9:15AM - 4:00PM EDT).

ya@eriestocktrader.com