Day Trading

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.

Go to : www.investopedia.com

Parabolic SAR is what i use on 5/30 min chart

test it with quotetraker freeware

Welll..i would suggest u not to involve yourself with Day trading if you are just starting up investing in stock..also beware of yourself with the derivatives…..
if u have are thinking about earning some money out of your investment u need to think and act smartly..by investing for midterm and long term…all the transactions(buying and selling that u do must result in a positive long term investment…i mean your short term trading must ensure that your long term investment goals are achieved.for this remember these things carefully while trading …

when it comes to making profit..it depends on ones strategy of investing…
people can make good money if they invest properly …and if ones foolish and more greedy he might loose out every thing…things always happen in extremes in stock markets…
remember this one thing before investing….
dont hurry ur self…think about the stock fundamentals(like its financials like balance sheet or in simpler terms the profits that it made during recent times..its managing style..people in the business…competetors industry as whole etc)
when once u feel that the stock is fundamentally good..then u move on to technical aspects like how is the stock performing in recent times..take the history of atleast past 3 months…and then invest if u feel thats good..u can get the recommendations in investment channels like CNBC watch it carefully during the market hours.
when u invest u have to watch the price carefully..keep a target level..say fro example u bought it at 100..keep a target for that stock say 130…sell it at that level..i dont recommend u to sell it entirely(in bullish market when the market is goin up..sell a partial amount of your holding..and when the market is falling down..book the entire profit by selling it…)
then u can pick another stock…
even while buying the stock its necessary for u to pick up the stock when ever the market is down..it has to be systematic..by this u can average out ur buying price…by doing this u can average the price..if u see n compare the total market movement..which will be more profitable….
i hope ive given u sufficient information to start off..feel free to ask if anythin else is necessary…
Happy investing…!!!!!!

I would not recommend you to jump into day trading. It’s not for beginners, and you could potentially lose a ton of money in a matter of minutes. In addition, day trading would require a lot of money, and trading with $1,000 would definitely not be enough to cover for the commission costs.

You will need a broker to make stock trades for you but different types of brokers will charge different amounts. Full-service brokers will provide you with a lot of advice. However, their commission rates are much higher than the ones from discount brokers, who only make the transaction of the trade. Personally, I prefer discount brokers because they are cheaper and they allow me to make my own decisions.

I currently use Firstrade ( http://www.firstrade.com/ ). I prefer them over Scottrade because they offer free dividend reinvestment (DRIPs), which is essential for long term investments. They also have slightly cheaper commission rates and much lower commission rates when compparing to ther big name brokers such as Etrade, Ameritrade, and Schwab. Their customer service and website are great as well. I would definitely recommend that you check them out.

If you aren’t comfortable with your invest skills, instead of getting a full-service broker, I would suggest that you try mutual funds. Mutual funds are diversified, thereby less risky. They are also professionally managed so you don’t have to worry about what to buy or sell. To learn more about mutual funds, you could visit Investopedia ( http://www.investopedia.com/ ).

No.

$3000 is too high a cost to pay to learn what's all free and available all over the net.

Go and download the "OPTIONS TOOLBOX" and play with it. Everything you need to know is there.

You can get this from http://www.cboe.com/LearnCenter/RCTools.aspx

Explore CBOE - Chicago Board Options Exchange, for wealth of free information on options. There you have links to other sites too - Options institute etc.

Buy the book - Options as a Strategic Investment by Lawrence G. McMillan, for lot less than $3000 ( think it's $50 at Amazon.com )

p.s.
Mr.DowJones assessment that Option trading is riskier cannot be more wrong. On $ for $ basis, with respect to Risk & Reward, stock trading is lot riskier than option trading. Options goal is to minimize risk and maximize reward. No such thing with stock trading

Barrons did an article last November called "What Free Trading Costs". I'll put the link here but you'll probably need a subscription to see it. The upshot is that they pay you 1% interest on your cash balances. Their execution "may" be slower. If you keep $1000 in cash on average, the 4% lost interest (since rates right now are about 5%) will be $40/year. If your cash balance is higher, you get hit worse. Just make sure that the lost interest is not greater than what your commissions would be.

Picking a trend in just one day is almost impossible. You don't want to hear this, but starting out daytrading like this, you are like a little league football player lining up against the pros.

When you spread your time frame out a bit, you even the odds a little more and give yourself a better chance. It's still not easy, but why start off against impossible odds?

Here's some ideas that might help you manage risk a little better and actually have a chance: http://www.srsfinance.com/Smart_Money_Principle.html

Sorry if I'm raining on your parade. I don't mean to. GRMN, BTW, looks great. Just make sure you keep a stop loss under $95 and trail that up higher as the price moves higher. Nothing worse than letting a winner turn into a loser.

Best of luck

If you trade after hours, the transaction is immediate during the after hours trading period. If you are NOT trading after hours and simply put in an order for the next days market, you will get the opening (or close to it) price.
Usually one is not charged for a buy, sell, limit, stop, etc until and unless the transaction is completed. And only charged once.
P.S. Try ZECCO.com for commision free trading.

Whatever disocunt brokerage firm you go with absolutely make sure to demand a money market fund for your cash account. ETrade and TD Ameritrade recently changed their policy and now pay less than 1% on cash…the income they earn by paying their customers less than 1% on cash and simply turning around and depositing "your" money into a money market account earns them huge profits (for ETrade it accounted for nearly 1/2 of their net income for the recent quarter)..Great way to treat their customers don't you think….I can't believe so many investors let them get away with this practice…I can't stress enough that all discount brokerage customers need to look into what their firm is paying on cash and either demand a money market fund return (4.5-5%) or take your business to a place like Wells Fargo Investments that offers money market funds for idle cash and up to 100 free trades per account/year if you have over $25k between deposit, loans, and brokerage (including IRAs).