The key to investing in the hangseng (or any market) is to NOT trade daily. Buy and hold, after very thorough investigation.

Trade first on a simulator to test your theories at Investopedia.com

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

I'm not sure if I understand your question….
Are you asking if its possible to have a career in day trading?
Sure, you can be a stock broker…
Or
Are you asking, if you can make a living (support yourself), by trading stocks.
In this case, I would say probably not.
Even professionals that have spent their lives studying the stock market have trouble predicting changes. What hope does that give to an average person? Furthermore stocks are meant to perform well in the 'long run' and not from day-to-day.
I suppose its possible to make constant gain if you index the 'entire market', however it probably won't be enough to let you quit your day job.

Nothing. You bought stock. You own the shares until you sell them. The stock price can fluctuate up or down–no way to tell in which direction–if you own it for more than a day.

If you trade on margin you borrow some of the funds that you use to purchase an investment. If the stock drops below a certain threshold, your broker may decide that you don't have enough equity to hold the investment and may force you to sell the stock. But that hopefully won't happen.

My experience has been that a "trade" is considered to be the order ans all of its fills. In the attached link, the SEC makes it very clear that a pattern day-trader is supposed to be a real day-trader. Counting each fill would snare too many customers in the net.

From Rule 2520:
"The term "day[-]trading" means the purchasing and selling or the selling and purchasing of the same security on the same day in a margin account"

"The term "pattern day trader" means any customer who executes four or more day trades within five business days. However, if the number of day trades is 6% or less of total trades for the five business day period, the customer will not be considered a pattern day trader"

It's pretty clear to me that to "execute" a trade. I place an order and get fills. The order and the fills are a "trade". Now, if your two "buys" are based upon two separate orders, then the pattern you ask about would be two day trades.

Further info:
Interactiveborkers gives clear examples of day trades on their website. Another reason why I like that firm so much. Looks like your two buys and one sell example is just one day trade.

Day trading is tricky, whether your doing it for real or as an exercise like you are doing here. The primary problem is that over very short periods of time, individual stocks as well as the stock market indexes can be extremely volatile. You might as well throw darts at a dart board marked out with all of the stock symbols because it pretty much is sheer luck over such a short time frame anyway.

I'm not familiar with CNBC's Million Dollar Portfolio Challenge, so I don't know what their investing time horizon is like for this task. Depending on how long that horizon is, I would probably make different sets of choices for your million dollars. Over a longer horizon, I would probably do some research and then pick 20 stocks, $50,000 each, and then let them sit there and do nothing for several months as that is, historically, the best way to get a return on investment. Too much "in and out" of the market would kill you on commission costs alone anyway.

Day trading is very risky and you should only try that with extra income that you can live without. Since you are asking this question I know you are not qualified to trade at that level. Most brokers will want you to have at least $25,000.00 deposited in your account before you can Daytrade so you need to be aware of that. The stock market can be very lucrative but you must know what you are doing.

You need to take into account that a day trade that has
made a good profit can go into the floor broker‘s or
desk trader‘s pocket. This is possible as he can leave
buyer/seller‘s name in blank and only fill it in when
reported or taken from the runner (the boy that picks up
the slips from the floor). In some markets this is not
possible since the whole deal (except the shouting) is
immediately recorded. But when trading is wild, a fast
light is put on, which allows 15 minutes to conclusion
instead of only five. I could give you many examples
but this is sufficient to convince you to change both
your trading house and/or floor broker or, better still
both. Find a floor broker that you know and trust, this
is the only solution. It is almost impossible to always
be the loser, so think twice and change your servers.

You better know what you're doing and have been doing for a while. and thay you understand the maket and the rules governing it.

Here are four rules you must have, if you don't you will loose money
1 – A written sound trading/investment plan with rules that will not only help you but more importantly protect you, mostly from yourself.
2 – Sufficient trading/investment capital. Use your own money, there’s no need to go into debt so that you trade/invest.
3 – A written money management program in place. Remember never invest 100% of your capital into any one security and never have 100% of your capital invested.
4 – A full and complete understanding of the rules & regulations of the industry.

Here are some of the rules that I follow, in additiona to the four cardinal rules above.
Never buy or sell based on anyone's, including your own, market predictions.
Stick with up-trending stocks.
Never buy stocks in danger of filing for or actually in bankruptcy.
Never average down.
Always sell when management cuts sales or earnings forecasts.
Only buy stocks with real sales and real earnings.
Always diversify between industries.
Don't buy stocks just because they've gone up.
Never sell a stock because an analyst proclaims it is overvalued.
Always look for companies with new ideas, new styles or new products.
Orders after an execution – a “stop loss”
No security is to be purchased at a price that is below the 50-day moving average price.

Good luck, based on your question, you're going to need it

>>How, with only 10 billion shares outstanding, can XXX be so actively traded at this volume and why would XXX sit at the same price and trade billions of shares, when all press and reports about the company are positive?

The market is at a price consensus or is in a consolidation phase. The bulls and bears are in consensus; no one is more powerful than the other.

You will also find that penny stocks are usually less volatile than bigger value stocks.

>>My take is that someone is deliberately swapping shares, huge chunks at a time, at ridiculously low prices to keep the stock price down? Why go to the expense?

No I doubt anyone would be doing that deliberately. There is no point to such exercise – waste of time and money.

Maybe people who bought earlier at a cheaper price are taking profits and people who are hearing the news are buying in.

Good Luck!