Day Trading

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.

Day trading refers to the practice of buying and selling financial instruments within the same trading day such that all positions will usually (not necessarily always) be closed before the market close of the trading day. Traders that participate in day trading are called day traders.

Some of the more commonly day-traded financial instruments are stocks, stock options, currencies, and a host of futures contracts such as equity index futures, interest rate futures, and commodity futures.

Day trading used to be the preserve of financial firms and professional investors and speculators. Many day traders are bank or investment firms employees working as specialists in equity investment and fund management. However, day trading has become increasingly popular among casual traders due to advances in technology, changes in legislation, and the popularity of the Internet.

Trade Frequency

Although collectively called day trading, there are many sub-trading styles within day trading. A day trader is not necessarily very active. Depending on one's trading strategy, the number of trades made in a day may vary from a few to hundreds.

Some day traders focus on very short or short-term trading, in which a trade may last seconds to a few minutes. They buy and sell many times in a day, trading very high volumes daily and therefore receiving big discounts from the brokerage.

Some day traders focus only on momentum or trends. They are more patient and wait for a ride on the strong move which may occur on that day. They make far fewer trades than the aforementioned traders.

Overnight Position

Traditionally it is suggested day traders should always settle their positions before the market close of the trading day to avoid the risk of price gaps (differences between the previous day's close and the next day's open price) at the open. Some day traders consider this to be a golden rule to be obeyed at all times. Some day traders, however, believe they should let the profits run, so it is acceptable to stay with a position after the market closes.

Day traders often borrow money to trade. Since margin interests are typically only charged on overnight balances, the extra costs discourage them from holding positions overnight.

Profit and Risks

Because of the nature of financial leverage and the rapid returns that are possible, day trading can be extremely profitable, and high-risk profile traders can generate huge percentage returns. Some day traders manage to earn millions per year solely by day trading.

Because of the high profits (and losses) that day trading makes possible, these traders are sometimes portrayed as "bandits" or "gamblers" by other investors. Some individuals, however, make a consistent living day trading.

Nevertheless day trading can become very risky, especially if one has poor discipline, risk or money management. The common use of buying on margin (using borrowed funds) amplifies gains and losses, such that substantial losses or gains can occur in a very short period of time. In addition, brokers usually allow bigger margins for daytraders. Where overnight margins required to hold a stock position are normally 50% of the stock's value, many brokers allow pattern day trader accounts to use levels as low as 25% for intraday purchases. This means a day trader with the legal minimum $25,000 in his account can buy $100,000 worth of stock during the day, as long as half of those positions are exited before the market close. Because of the high risk of margin use, and of other day trading practices, a day trader will often have to exit a losing position very quickly, in order to prevent a greater, unacceptable loss, or even a disastrous loss, much larger than his original investment, or even larger than his total assets.

Even when a position has made a profit, the trader has to offset the transaction costs and the interest on the margin. It is commonly stated that 80-90% of day traders lose money. An analysis of the Taiwanese stock market suggests that "less than 20% of day traders earn profits net of transaction costs".

Day trading is considered a risky trading style, and regulations require brokerage firms to ask whether the clients understand the risks of day trading and whether they have prior trading experience before entering the market.

I trade stocks full time but I am not a daytrader. I don't think you can plunge into daytrading - unless you want to run your account into the ground. Daytrading is a very specialized skill that takes a long time to develop. Most daytraders lose money and wash out.

Also, the surest way to pile up losses is to expect your trading to pay the bills.

I'm actually a fan of selling options on stock I already own. Basically if you're the guy selling the contract to buy 100 shares of x stock at y price, you:

1) Get cash up front.
2) Will make money beyond the cash you get up front if the option is actually excercised (assuming the strike price of the option you sell is greater than the current price of the stock your selling.)
3) Aren't taking any big risks that you wouldn't be taking anyway by holding the stock.

Of course you risk making less money that you'd otherwise make if you simply held the stock and it goes well above the strike price. But most options expire worthless, and quite a few of the ones that don't probably still don't make enough to cover the contract price (ie your still better off).

How much you can make doing this depends on the stocks you invest in and the manner in which you do it. Not shockingly people are willing to pay more for options on a hot growth stock like Apple (a Sept 140 call contract trades for $420, slightly more than a 3% yield) than they are for a value stock like Walmart (a Sept 45 trades at $45, a 1% yield). Also the closer the strike price is to the stock's current price the more its worth but the more likely it is that the contract will be excercised (an Apple Sept 140 contract is worth $420, a 150 is worth $140, a 160 $45, etc). I generally sell contracts that are short term and fairly far out of the money (as far as I can go while still making a decent return).

Okay, that was a lot…

Buying calls or puts is obviously far riskier. My advice would be that you should only buy options rarely, if at all, and look for options that don't expire for at least a year (more time is relatively cheap when buying options–the first month is the most expensive, as is the first year, etc).

And to answer your originial question– unless you are VERY lucky (and have taken a huge amount of risk) I doubt you could make a living in the short term off of options. But you should be able to augment your returns by selling calls and over the long term that can help the 20k grow.

Good luck.

What resources do they drain, other than their own?

The damage they do is to their own accounts, plus they add a small amount of noise to the market pricing structure, but they don't do any significant harm that I can think of.

Just because I think long term is years, and daytraders think long term is overnight, doesn't mean they don't have a right to trade that way. Their brokerage fees subsidize mine, for one thing, and lemming-like momentum moves by daytraders sometimes provide opportunities for long-term value investors to step in.

First step would be to graduate from the best name school you can. Since you are already starting(university of michigan?) I would look to get straight A's , be involved with leadership activities and transfer into a top 15 university. (michigan is an elite school…but it would make your life ALOT easier if you could get into a ultra-elite). To get into the best trading shops you'll need this badge to get in the door. The best shops have the best technology and I can buy and sell a stock 50 times before someone with an on line broker can place 1 order. You can also go into I-banking(sales and trading) or a hedge fund (they both daytrade like maniacs, i have friends at both)Continue trading and YES analyzing company fundamentals is important. Don't believe the grumpy sheep that tell you all daytraders lose money. When you have a good thing going you stay quiet(why encourage more competition?) Having gone the trading route and now being independent I would steer you towards an i-bank or hedge fund. I make a very good living but you cant do this when you're 50 years old (it takes it toll) so gear for a position where you can trade and have job security. Good luck.

TerraNova is the only one that you can trade everything — stocks, commodities, futures, forex, options — real time, online, direct access. A lot of online brokerages claim to give you direct access, but if they take more than a second to execute your trade, it aint direct.

Find the articles online that have evaluated and compared online brokerages. I found a good one online in Barron's, but you'll find others in the trading magazines.

This is worth putting a little time and effort into, because it's a pain to switch, so once you choose, you're kinda stuck with it.

Townsend Electronics, the Parent company of TerraNova, is the one that digitized and electronified the Nasdaq. They are technological industry leaders and have a powerful and well built trading system.

I use RealTick at TerraNovaOnline, but it costs $275/mo. I think the Investor package is free to use, and just uses one screen.

What you should try is a free trial of their Investor demo. Their rates are good also, but of course, it depends on how often you trade. It will take you months to learn all the bells and whistles of what this program can do.

The other top-of-the line program is TradeStation, but it costs big bucks to join and operate. Some people consider it the Cadillac of trading and technical analysis.

TerraNova is the home of the Day Trader, so they think nothing of you making several hundred trades a day. You don't have to do that, but it's okay here if you do.