Day Trading

One other thing, I use scottrade and am very happy with them.

There's a special address for Canadians, https://www.thinkorswimcanada.com/.

Simply the best for swing trading stocks and options. There's even an audio program all day (9:15-11:30AM & 1:30-4:00PM, EST) . The program also answers questions on specific technical questions (on specific stocks) & there's a video/chart which you can see the "ShadowTrader" actually show what he's referring to.

The platform is great (really great!!!). Charts are great (both TOS and Profet). Service is great.

They have many conditional order types including;
Blast 6
One Cancells Other (great for putting in a stop and limit price at the same time).
1st Triggers next
Chose by time & date execution.
Market Close
and many more

There graphs art great. Service is great. You'll be amazed. This platform was rated #1 by Barron's in their March 2007 best online broker article ((for software based brokers).
They were an incredible hit in Las vegas at the TradersExpo this past November. More people were checking them out more than any other broker.

I've been with them since April 2007.
(I have used Schwab (active trader program), Ameritrade, Scottrade and Fidelity).

The only thing they lack is "BackTesting" and that's coming out in this month.

Other ideas for good platforms;
TradeStation (good charting, backtesting + much more)
Iinteractive Brokers (fair charting, over 40 order types).

Not all traders are day traders, and most are not, but they are not opposed to taking a profit when a position hits an early exit point.

Day traders get much press, good or bad, because many amateurs are amorous of the title and the action, but realistically they are not in the majority.

Many traders also are investors, and do buy for the long term. But long term to a trader is 9 months to a year. They'll use their equity positions to write cover calls especially playing the dividend. The equity is long term and the option is held only for a week or so.

Trading can afford one a very nice living and an above average life style.

Also read Tom Busby's book, Winning the Day Trading Game.

They'll give you a good primer. Fantastic books to get you started. After that, you'll have a much better sense on what and where to go next.

One option would be to work with a mentor. Todd Mitchell looks interesting at tmitchell.com or tradingconcepts.com for trading.

Though if you go to daytrading, you'll need to practice a lot more than a couple of weeks. Most successful day traders I know practiced at least months before being somewhat successful as there's all sorts of nuances, the shorter the timeframe that you trade in.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Hope that helps!

Market timing is very tricky business. You have to be right twice. You have to know when to get in & then when to get back out again. If you wait for the market to go down, and then get out, all you are doing is locking in your losses. Then you wait for the market to go up for a few days, and then get in. Now you've missed out on a few days gains.

Market timers increase their risk, while lowering their returns. It is really the worst of both worlds.

Personally I would rather take advantage of a down market, and buy my mutual funds and/or stocks at a discount.

Any mutual fund or ETF that is based on that particular index will need to make trades in order to make sure that it doesn't drift too far from the index. That's why there is so much trading around rebalancing days.

As for why the Russell indexes are important – the DOW (30 stocks) and the S&P (500 stocks) are an indication of how the large capitalization stocks in the US are doing. The Russell indexes give one a better idea about mid caps and small caps as well. If one wants exposure to smaller companies then these indexes are better suited than the more narrower large cap indexes mentioned above.

Unbeknownst to you, you are being a risky (also unwanted) customer given your trading with "unsettled funds."

Good luck.