Day Trading

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!

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.

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!

Muncie raises many good points. It may well be the market vs. limit order issue.

I don't know your level of expertise trading, but another possible issue is, even with a limit order, I do find that my Fidelity trades usually take longer than with my accounts with other brokers.

I think Fidelity does some simple stuff very well, but with more complex stuff, they're very far behind their competitors.

I've put through spread orders into Fidelity and other brokerages at the same time (giving Fidelity the first crack) and I've gotten filled on other brokerages before Fidelity, with the Fidelity order still sitting there. But it could just be me.

So if you are, or plan to do a lot of more complex spread or other trades, you might start looking elsewhere.

As Muncie says though, give them a call. Some of their folks can be helpful.

If you want to daytrade in the United States of America the answer is yes.

I do not know the laws in Canadian Stocks. You should consult a lawyer before you daytrade in Canada.

If you daytrade in the United States of America by Law you will get a Credit Line of at least $100,000.00 (This is called a margin account)

However, if you don't have assets of at least $75,000.00 (For example, a $25,000 car and a $50,000 property) that you can sell in case things go wrong I strongly suggest you NOT TO DAYTRADE ON MARGIN WITHOUT LIMITING YOUR LOSSES TO A MAXIMUM OF 25% (This means you will only lose your original $25,000)

If you want I can email the Daytrading Laws.

Do not listen to cgimwei.
You need at least $500 to open a brokerage account in Scottrade.com

Example 1:
You cannot invest all your money in just one company. Therefore we are going to invest $225 in each company.
You buy 10 shares for $225 in Wal-Mart
You buy 10 shares for $225 in Target

Let's say you got lucky and both stocks actually went up 5% that day.

Your stocks are now worth $236.25 ($11.25 Profit)

However, you already paid $7 when you bought them and you need to pay another $7 when you sell them

Therefore in this example you actualy lose money.

You also need to consider you have to pay taxes on your capital gains. (Consult your Accountant before you start daytrading)

If you need more detailed advice about daytrading drop me a line.

The situation you describe is not "day trading."

According to the NYSE definition of "day trading" the sale of an existing position from the previous day is a liquidation. The repurchase of that position is the establishment of a new position. It is not subject to day trading margin requirements.

If you are using a cash account, settlement rules would still apply.

I am a long term investor and not into daily trading. So this answer below, is probably not teh best answer for what you have asked.

But there will be important pointers to what should also be considered while deciding on the trading platform. So here goes.

I have personal experience with ICICIDirect, HDFC Securities and Motilal Oswal. I don't trade on a daily basis and am a long term investor. So for me brokerage rates don't matter much.

For me what matters are the following:
1. Reliability of the platform -I can transact when I want
2. Correctness in transaction records, account debits, demat credits, shortfall management
3. User-friendliness of interface - you can find what you want quickly
4. Promptness of customer helpdesk in replying to emails
5. Ability to do everything from one single place - like demat account, trading account, and bank account are all managed by the same entity, so there is single place of accountability

Given all these in my experience ICICIDirect still scores the best. It has the highest no of subscribers. It used to have some transaction problems earlier, but over the past year, I cannot recollect instances where I couldn't execute a buy/sell when I wanted it. (HDFC Securities & Motilal OSwal both have miles to go on this front, systems cant keep up with the load on exceptionally high traffic days -jan 22/23). Their User interface is the best, you can locate what to do and where very fast, almost intuitively. Their transaction records are impeccable, you have peace of mind. Couldn't say the same for Motilal Oswal (I had to track and remind them to make good the shortfall when I bought and paid for 20 shares of Wyeth Pharma but demat was only for 16 after a week). And single place of accountability makes sure i deal with the same party and can get things resolved faster.

No matter what arguments you hear against, perhaps the biggest argument in favour of ICICIDirect is that they have been operating these services from 1999. That's close to a decade of experience in handling extremes of load, variety of software and technical issues, customer complaints , and have matured over the years.

The others may give you cheaper brokerage rates (and that matters if you are a day trader) but have much more to cover before they can reach similar levels of maturity as a service provider.

My 2 cents. Hope they were useful & happy investing!

I'm confused. She wants a company that trains, yet "she has many years of daytrading experience"? Which is it?

Companies hiring trainees, in my experience, generally want people straight out of school, preferable with athletic credentials. They feel this means that the trainee has physical stamina and is competitive.

Experience means working on the proprietary trading desk of a firm, not sitting at home with a personal account. That's a way to develop bad habits. It's a different word when you're dealing with size.

Besides, if she's making money in her own account, why would she want to work for somebody else? So, I'm assuming she's not making money. So, why would a firm want to hire her.

By the way, "churn and burn" is a term that applies to retail stock sales people, not traders.

Here's something many traders don't know:
To "day trade" or "scalp": A trader MUST have - AT ALL TIMES - AT LEAST $25,000 U.S. CASH in his/her/their trading account.

This does not include any stocks or trades the trad err might be in. This is cold, hard U.S. CASH.

As soon as the account goes one cent below $25K, a whole different set of rules comes into play.

Check with your broker or any broker to confirm what I write. There MAY BE exceptions.

As far as penny shares:
They are far, far, far too risky and volatile.

Thanks for asking your Q! I enjoyed doing my best to answer it.

VTY,
Ron Berue
Yes, that is my real last name!

No you can not. but you can lose hundreds in seconds. 30 years investing.