Day Trading

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…!!!!!!

Really you want to short the retail (domestic) A-shares. I think this is more difficult but you might be able to get an over-the-counter swap with an investment bank. That's about the only bright idea I have beyond what you suggested, and not really executable except at the institutional level.

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

Wow, a "novice" daytrading futures, that's like riding a motorcycle 'flat out' on the first try. First, find a trend, and as a beginner, find a big trend (oil or corn perhaps) and go with the flow. (never buck the trend, never)

The traders have all the news well before you do, so if you are trying to nickel and dime your way to riches by picking a little spurt to long here or a little sag to short there, don't–they've already done it and moved on by the time you spot it.

Also, be very, very careful of the proportional share you trade with, compared to the larger account value. I was trading potatoes once, um, a while back, and some rich guys tried to steer away from a long-established trend. I got a margin call during one of their 'force it' moves and the brokerage confiscated my whole account value and sent me a bill for the rest. Instead of paying off my mortgage, I was paying on my debt for two years. Without the extra traffic, the general trend was right and I would have profited nicely–but I didn't have enough reserve for when it suddenly went radically against me. I do have one consolation, though, something like 90 millionaires got caught in a still larger default, and several dozen went to jail.

Feel lucky that your account balance is "slowly decreasing"–things could be much worse. Check the charts for agricultural spreads and straddles, many of the patterns I used to rely on don't work any more, but see if you can find some of your own, then play it safe. If nothing else, go to currencies and short the dollar and go long on almost anything else. Good luck.

Nobody expects you to hold a position for weeks/months. they just need you to wait until you have settled funds (3 days).

the restriction is to make sure that small investors (i.e. people who don’t even have 25k) don’t lose their shirts, and cheat the IRS out of tax revenue, because you are totally inept and will have carry-forward losses for the next decade.

this, of course, gets re-packaged as concern for small investors who need protection from themselves. but don’t let that fool you - it’s all about the tax revenue. nobody really cares enough about you to bother protecting you.

If you are worried about timing then dollar cost average in. This means you buy over time instead of all at once, something like 8% of your money each month for the next year.

The thing about the market now is that it is making record new highs. It is either going to go up or down from here. Don't wait and then buy two months from now when it has gone another 20% up. Either buy now or wait for a low. Don't wait for it to go up more, feel the intense pain that you missed it, and then get in. The sooner you get in on a move the more likely you get to participate in it.

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).

I strongly suggest you to leave the stock trading to the Experts.

If you need help with your investments there are many Financial Advisors or Portfolio Managers that can help you.

If you trade on your own it is very likely you will lose money.

I can advice you too.

If your car brokes you don't fix it yourself. Do you?

This is just stupid (no offense).

Depending on what you invested in, you could have to register with the SEC. Additionally, you would be signing up for double taxation! You would have to pay additional legal and accounting fees, and could have your quarterlies audited by the IRS.

There are absolutely no advantages to this scheme. Never mind that if you tried to become a trader for a living, you would become homeless, as more than 90% of "day traders" lose more than 2/3 of their capital in the first year.

Not to mention that this would look a hell of a lot like money laundering to an outsider (someone who creates a shell holding corporation to avoid having his name attached to the movement of significant amounts of cash moving across state lines is a pretty good way to meet some kind agents from the FBI).

It's never a good idea to try to outsmart the federal government - sure, they might not be the smartest bunch in the room, but they sure know how to hold a grudge.