Day Trading

I use investopedia.com or www.virtualstockexchange.com

The best way to get started: LEARN as much as you can about the market. And then start trading on a paper trading account to gain experience.

If you are new to trading, then you should definitely take a look at trading systems.

Here's why:

Every minute more than 150 Million Dollars change hands in the electronic index futures markets like the e-mini S&P and e-mini NQ. You can win or lose thousands of dollars in a few minutes; the futures markets can make you rich in a few weeks or months or wipe out your account with no mercy.

If you want to compete in the “game of games” and play against the best traders in the world, then you need to get ready. Too many gamblers are entering the arena without any plan or strategy, completely unprepared, and that's why they lose.

Trading a system will dramatically increase your chances to succeed in trading, because it eliminates five of the top six reasons why unprepared traders fail.

Here are the top six reasons why traders fail,
and how a trading system eliminates them

Let's take a look at the reasons why traders lose money:

1. Lack of a Trading Plan
2. Lack of Discipline to Follow the Plan
3. Failure to Control Emotions
4. Failure to Accept and Limit Losses
5. Lack of Commitment
6. Over-Trading

By all means you have to avoid these mistakes if you want to win.

Here's how a trading system eliminates 5 of the 6 top reasons why traders fail:

Solution #1: Having a trading plan

Having a trading system means having a pre-defined set of rules you have developed to guide your trading. Therefore you HAVE a trading plan, eliminating the No.1 cause for failure.

Solution #2: Following the trading plan

The easiest way to follow a trading plan is to automate it. Almost every trading system can be automated, and you could let the computer trade for you. You won't have to worry about your discipline any longer, as the computer mechanically trades every setup for you.

Solution #3: Controlling emotions

Trading with a system removes emotions from trading. If you don't have a strategy and you try to make decisions when the market is moving, you are liable to become emotionally attached to positions. You may experience panic and indecision when the market does not move in your favor, as you do not have a prepared response. That's when most traders lose their money. If you follow a system you will know what to do no matter what the market does.

Solution #4: Controlling your losses

You probably have heard the saying “Let your profits run”. Unfortunately most traders let their losses run. A trading system will get you out of a position when the predefined stop is hit. Unless you override the system to “give the trade a little bit more room” it will stop the loss and therefore limit your losses.

Solution #5: Commitment

You won't believe how many traders show a lack of commitment and therefore lose money. Lack of commitment means that they stop trading after the first loss, and don't give their system a chance to make back the money they lost. Trading is not a one-way street, and losses are part of our business. If you can't accept the fact that there will be losses, you shouldn't trade. Fortunately a trading system can help you to overcome this problem; an automated trading system continues trading according to the rules, and therefore adds much more consistency to your trading.

As you can see, five of the six top reasons why traders lose money in the markets are simply eliminated when you start trading with a system.

Without any guarantee, your chances of making money rise incredibly when starting with a profitable trading system.

Hope that helps.

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.

Don't do it.it takes a lot of practice and time.if you must, do some paper trading first for about 3mos.yes you do have to have at least $25grand to open an account and be considered a day trader. i do it and have alot of stress,
sh— can happen faster then you can blink.you need enough money to have a cushion over your $25grand bank,because if you fall below that amount,the broker will change your status to non-day trader.that means you will only have a 2-1 margin for spending,but if you can maintain your day trader status the benefits are great,the broker will give you a 4-1 margin.that means they will front you $75,000 grand on top of your $25grand to spend.think twice before you day trade.i think you have to be a special type of person to do it.apparently i'm not,cause i can't make much.

remember the two biggest problems with investing is FEAR and GREED. so keep your emotions out of it.

good luck
p.s.if you are considered a daytrader,you can trade multiple times, as many times as you want in a one day period. remember the broker charges you a fee for each trade,i.e a buy and a sell of the same stock,that's considered 2 trades. and if you are a swing trader you can only trade 3x a week.

First, you'll have to prove that you're good. You don't need money for that, you can prove it with paper trading, for example at:

http://www.marketocracy.com

Once you've done that, have your performance audited by an independent third party. It could look like this:

http://www.inside-alpha.com/support-files/ifsa_perf_summary_2003-2005.pdf

With this in hand, you can start looking for investors. There's so much money around that it shouldn't be too much of a problem if you're good.

Let's make money!

Good luck

Marc

What does CMBS have to do with Halry's?

PS – You look ridiculous in your photo! What is with the goatee? That is so 2006!!!

Your chances are good if you;
Take 6 months to a year reading, learning and paper trading.
You fully understand the fundemental and technical aspects &(just as important) use very exact money management techniques.

Ignoring the above will put you with the 95% of people that blow their FX accounts (usually very very very quickly).

Consider yourself warned!

This is a great market for those that take the time and make the effort. All others lose big.

Based on these answers to your question, you can see how helpful investing forums can be. Others are not much better, but there are a handful of people here that are really helpful.

There's not really a big problem in beginning to daytrade, but you need to be cautious. I'd advise you read this http://www.nyse.com/pdfs/im01-9Microsoft%20Word%20-%20Document%20in%2001-9.pdf

Then, you may want to continue paper trading, but you can trade for real if you set up strict losses. When I kick up my live account, I will close all my positions immediately if I lose 20%. Then, I will go back through my journals, the charts, and more paper trading until I get it right.

You can get all expenses lists from the individual sites under their fees + comissions and/or pricing tabs. If you are unclear of what they all are, just email the brokerage (I did this with several of tradeking's fees). You will need to get used to emailing and contacting people and services you will use or look into. Half of the battle of trading is finding everything you need — brokerage, information resources, software, data feeds, etc.

I've probably spent about half my time doing those kinds of things.

It doesn't really matter how much money you have in your trading account, as long as you are making money.

What's good about starting with a small amount is that there is less ego and emotion involved with your trading.

When I was getting started trading forex, I started with only $300. I made good, and was able to grow that account 220% in a span of 14 months. I haven't been that lucky since.

Day traders, active traders and "scalpers are all lthe same type of trader. They have the knowledge AND money to buy and sell the same shares in the same company or many companies throughout the trading day.

Stock brokers are the folks who bring the BUlls [BUyers] and BEars [SEllers] together. By doing this they earn their fees and commissions.

A free site: http://investopedia.com . It’s recognized by Y! A as a "Featured Knowledge Partner".

As you are doing research about the investments you are interested in, sometimes you'll come across a financial or investment term you never heard before.. You can usually find excellent, easy-to-understand definitions of many financial and investment terms by going to Investopedia’s dictionary.

It probably won’t be long when you’ll feel you’re ready to invest your hard-earned money. Before taking that step, you really should do research about what you are investing in. It also has a free, paper trading platform. You can set up a virtual account and almost trade as though you were trading with real money.

http://finance.yahoo.com is also recognized by Y! A as a "Featured Knowledge Partner".

If you want examples:
A] Go to the yahoo finance site.
B] Under the "HOME" tab is a blank box. Begin typing the symbol or the company's name. As you are typing a drop down menu will appear with symbols.
C] When finished click on the "GET QUOTE" button. The quote for that stock should be displayed.
D] On the left side is a blue box. The 3rd line down is "Options". Click on that.

IF that company has options, the option chains will be displayed. Not all companies have options. In fact I don't think there are too many companies under $5 which have options.

Thanks for asking your Q! I enjoyed answering it!

VTY,
Ron Berue
Yes, that is my real last name!