Day Trading

When you start making "virtual" money, then you can risk your own.

http://simulator.investopedia.com/home.aspx

http://investopedia.com

http://investing.sitesled.com/

http://futures.tradingcharts.com/learning/

Blogs

http://winners-and-losers.com/

Training & classes

http://bettertrades.com

http://investedcentral.com

ETF news and analysis

http://ETF-World.Org/

Article: Trading is Timing

http://www.investopedia.com/articles/trading/06/TradingisTiming.asp

Stock Charts

Bigcharts.com

http://www.stockTA.com

http://www.stockcharts.com

http://www.incrediblecharts.com…

www.prophet.net
americanbulls.com

Books on Investing

"Which Is Better, Buy-and-Hold or Market Timing?"

"Do You Have What It Takes to Be a Market Timer

The Beginner's Bible in Technical Analysis is:
Edwards & McGee"Tech. Anal. Of Stock Trends"

Droke, ClifTechnical Analysis Simplified

Kahn, Michael N.Tech. Anal. Plain & Simple

Kamich, Bruce M.How Technical Analysis Works

Lefevre, EdwinReminiscences of a Stock Operator

Lofton, ToddGetting Started in Futures

Lowenstein, RogerBuffet (Warren)-The Making of a Capitalist

O'Neil, William J.How to Make Money in Stocks

Oz, TonyHow to Make Money From Wall Street

Rotella, Robert P.Elements of Successful Trading, The

Schwager, JackStock Market Wizards

Question: "Assume I purchased call options with a strike price of 105 rs when a stock was at 100 rs per share. If the stock goes to 106 rs can I sell the option at that time?"

Answer: Yes. You can sell the option any time prior to expiration. It does not matter if the stock is (or ever has been) above the strike price.

Question: "It the stock goes up to 106 then comes back down to 99 can I say it reached the strike price?"

Answer: Yes, it reached the strike price, but that makes no difference whatsoever. The price of the option depends upon several factors, one of which is the current price of the stock. Any previous price at which the stock traded is not a factor.

Question: "Should I have sold the option when the stock was at 106 rs?"

Answer: You would get more money by selling the option when the stock was at the higher price, but at the time the stock was at 106 rs you had no way of knowing if the stock would keep going up or if it would go down. Consequently, when the stock was at 106 rs you had no way of knowing that it would be better to sell it at that time.

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From your question I strongly encourage you to learn more about options trading before investing any real money in options.

Online trading has lowered commissions to the point where they are no longer the primary consideration. Ditto for good execution, if indeed they are Direct Access. If you decide later to trade commodities, options, futures, or currencies, TerraNova may be the only one that you can trade everything, 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.

What you probably should be concentrating on is the best trading software or trading platform. But even then, everyone's criteria are different.

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. Active Trader, Futures Mag, etc.

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 platform, which is free. 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.

First there are two books you should read. Way better than textbooks. The first is called "the math behind wall street".

http://www.amazon.com/Math-Behind-Wall-Street-Market/dp/1568581602/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-9307096-4545628?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1177570772&sr=8-1

Then read this one;

http://www.amazon.com/Investing-Dummies-Business-Personal-Finance/dp/0764599038/ref=pd_bbs_1/002-9307096-4545628?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1177570661&sr=8-1

If you want to jump into it right away, the University of Arizona has a lot of good materials online. The books are better, but here is the link;

http://www.studyfinance.com/

Read the books. Read the Wall Street Journal every day, highlight the terms you don't understand & look them up online. Google the term "_____ definition".

Finally play the fantasy stock market. It is a cheap way to learn.

Here is that link.

http://www.investopedia.com/

And the guide.

http://simulator.investopedia.com/stock/game/

Buy a Hewlett Packard financial calculator ($40 bucks), & READ THE MANUAL.

If you do this and like it, I'd recommend finance as a major. Although it is pretty intense.

Very cool that you want to learn.

Good luck

Pros First:

Work when you want
You are your own boss
Holidays off
If successful, you can make a ton of money
Work wherever you want as long as you have a pc and internet connection
Very low economic barriers to entry
Unlimited growth potential
Your ego will get a stroke when you tell people that you trade for a living
You'll learn more about your inner self than you would joining a convent

I'm sure there's more, but those are the big ones.

Now the Cons:

The educational learning curve is very steep.
You need to have at least $30,000 that you can afford to lose as well as 6-12 months of living expenses.
Inconsistent income with no benefits.
You will lose money for at least 6-12 months, period.
Everyone you know will think you're crazy, especially until you turn a profit which could realistically take years.
All of your personal flaws will be magnified, thrown in your face, and cost you money.
Its a very lonely job with little social interaction.
You may spend years of very hard work & study and still lose everything, can you handle that emotionally?
Just when you think you've got it, the markets will change and you're system will no longer work.
You are competing against the best professionals in the world, why would you have a chance?

There are a lot of really good pros to day trading but you need to be realistic in your expectations. Though you get to set your own hours, if you want to be successful, you must be willing to work at it just like any other job.

When things go well, don't get cocky, when things go bad, don't get down.

The odds are that you will fail, but don't let that discourage you from trying. Get as much education as you can and if possible, hook up with a profitable mentor to show you the ropes. And if you can't stand to loose everything and still be sane at the end, walk away now.

Hope this helps

Definitions time folks:

Savings – reserve funds invested in a safe vehicle to protect ones assets and receive a small return in exchange for giving up current purchasing power.

Investing – putting capital at calculated risk in order to achieve higher returns.

Trading – Speculating on short term movements of securities prices, involves high levels of personal risks but provides benefits of providing extra liquidity & effecientacy to securities market.

Now professional traders, a) have the financial ability to withstand prolonged periods of losses, b) understand there is no "perfect" method, and c) even if they had found something even bordering on effective, wouldn't distribute it freely as it would dilute the efficacy of their method (And with the current state of the mortgage markets we're learning just how falliable even those "propietary" methods can be).

Sounds like you need to back up. Start building your savings, then your investments. After that, if you must, you can start a trading account. But, honestly I've made far more in two years of investing, than I did in 10 years of trading. (Simple math lesson one, if a stock drops 50%, from that point it has to go up 100% for you to break even — meaning minimize your loses is more vital than maximizing your gains).

http://stockcharts.com/school/doku.php?id=chart_school:technical_indicators_and_overlays:moving_average_convergence_divergence_macd

Good luck