day tradingsoftwareday traderstock day trading
I want to invest in some stocks, I am a first timer. I recently was looking through the paper and saw there were a couple of stocks around just a penny, so why not take a chance a get acouple thousand shares at that price, but I don't know how to go about purchasing those stocks, and the fees involved I am not reall worried about that risk, due to the fact I am only going to invest abut $100 can some one please stear me in the right direction.
Day trading


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.

Most people say economics, but that does not go in depth into trading and others say any thing in finance, but thats normaly banking or accounting.I found that financial mathematics is a degree to consider.Can anyone help me get on track with which degree or education is most suitable in becoming a Day Trader! Thanks!!
Day trading


Finance is as close as you can get, but the subject is too broad to learn how to effectively day trade. My suggestion is to read books on how to day trade and how to effectively use day trading strategies.

Some strategies you can research are:

Trend Following
Scalping
Momentum Trading
Range Trading
News Trading (buying/selling on news or anticipation thereof)

All but news trading involve some form of Technical Analysis which I would advise you to read about as well.

I would also recommend you start looking into an ECN (electronic communication network) to use as your primary trading platform.

Wiki has a lot of information you can use, but I would always recommend reading independently and doing research online. Some authors you can look up are Alexander Elder, Michael Covel, Curtis Faith and John Murphy to name a few.

If one was trying to sell short or be long any stock ie.OTCBB, PK, Nasqd, AMEX, NYSE, or other American listed stock what would be the best screen to use to find the ones under $2.00 in the first stages of a rally for buying or droping quickly to sell short in the first few minuits after trading starts in the morning? Paid for or free does not matter, wich screen is the best? Will it require more than one screen?
And thank you all in advance for your sharing of information.
Day trading


If you have to ask this type of question on Yahoo! Answers then you are probably not going to have the know-how to day-trade successfully. Why would anyone who had the key to making easy money in the market be on Yahoo! Answers giving away the key to making money.

My recommendation… get a full-time job… save some money in diversified mutual funds and retire early.

Good luck!

If you are, how much is the minimum should I use? What books did you read? What did you do? Are there any mentors I can learn from? I want to take care of my family, especially my parents who are retired.
Day trading


This can work - it depends on how much attention you're willing to devote to it. I have found that any time I take my attention off of the market for a few hours or a few days, I'm punished by an opportunistic turn that I missed. This is not a maybe - it will happen if you're not at your desk. And when I focus 9:15 through 4:15, I perform, with a couple hours homework a night.

The books recommended by others here are great. It's hard to advise you further not knowing how much you do/don't know about the market. The paper trading practice sites are an essential. Try those out in earnest and you'll save yourself from unnecessary mistakes later when errors cost real money.

I find that it's important to do a few things:

1. Chart the S&P for uptrends and downtrends - when you see an established trend the market will tend to move that way, and stay within the down slope and up slope "channel" in its daily activity for multiple days. This gives you added confidence as to when to "buy", when to "add to" your position, and when to cash out. When a stock busts out up or down that can be the opportunity to get in or out (depending on direction) of a given index, ETF, or stock. This will also help you stabilize your stock monitoring because you will focus on the stocks at present which are near "support (floor)" or ceiling (resistance)" positions. To help me do this, I've found it is incredibly valuable to have a second computer screen (I use two PCs because I'm mobile when I want to be) with several key screens of data/chart references.

One screen has no more than 6 stocks I'm watching that day, with charts on each screen.

One screen has all major sectors' charts on it - by sector fund (USO, OIH, etc.)

One screen has 52 week uptrending stocks I'm monitoring for pullbacks

Other screens are categoric (e.g., AG companies)

2. Using other resources such as the 52 week high stocks (WSJ, YahooFinance, Google Finance, etc.), and Top 100 (IBD.com) are also opportunities to check for trends, and determine whether to jump on this momentum during a given day, or to wait for a pullback and get in before a multi-day upswing for a multi-day "swing" trade. If you put in the time, you will identify pending breakouts.

3. Listen to Fast Money to pick up on hot trends and expert interviews that can indicate stocks to watch since they have such a wide audience.

4. Keep track of volume levels and beware of low volume days.

5. Track sector movement and rotations. Institutional buyers will dictate what will move, whether it "makes sense" to you or not.

6. Listen to Art Cashen (sp?) - every morning about 9:15 AM EST before the market opens. His insights are usually good indicators to align with or watch for. Good pulse on the market.

7. Know that a margin account can be traded every day with no interest if you don't carry it over night. Non-margin accounts will have a 3 day carry cycle until you can reinvest the funds.

Best wishes for success. Cramer can be a goof on some topics, but knowing what he's tracking can also give you one or two key stocks to watch for the next day if conditions align to support those stocks. His trading rules lists are very good.

In other words, are there restrictions on short selling an IPO on its first day?
Day trading


Inorder to sell short and company has to have an establish upward momentum in there trading and stock price history. Or no broker will lend you the stock, allso to be able to short a stock, you usually need to borrow it from an institution such as your brokerage firm. For them to lend it to you, they need an inventory of this stock. Odd's are they wont have it on an IPO's first trading day.
Allthough most day traders lose, it seems to me all day traders are a drain on resources and not improving productivity compared with a potential world in which trades were limited to longer time periods. why not make stronger laws limiting day trading or tax them more… out of existence?
I realize i am being a bit judgemental, but compared to a distributor of materrials or someone investing in a company because they think the company will do well they seem to be more just noise makers
their own resource of time, cumulatively is considerable, their brokerage fee subsidy enables excess trading even if it reduces my costs
yes, there already are significant legal impediments to day trading for reasons law makers (and I) deem reasonable, drug laws. I have not seen any comments that convince me that day traders are productive
http://www.sec.gov/investor/pubs/daytips.htm
Day trading


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.

Ok im usally inside the box and follow ben graham and phil fishers techniques but i have found in the past 2 years that this has been working highly speculative low cap stocks look for ones that gone up 10 - 15% before lunch on a trading day read the chart figure out a good enter point ride it up 1% in one day do this atleast 200 days and in five years with an initial investment of 10000 you a millionaire in 6 your a billionaire
Day trading


Momentum trading has already caused some of the world's largest hedge funds to close. They lost so much money that they couldn't pay back their investors.
If only there was some magic way to always earn money in the stock market.