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.

Www.sharebuilder.com or www.moneypaper.com

When trading stocks, bonds or tulip bulbs you need a buy and a sell. It does not matter what order you execute this in. A buy and a sell result in a zero sum. If you buy first you are "long". You do not actually take possesion of anything, it is only a paper position. Once you sell, your net position is 0.
Likewise, if you sell first you become "short". You theoretically borrow the shares you are short. Once you buy you net position is again 0.
In both cases the ideal scenario is to buy low and sell high. Or better yet to buy high and sell higher!
The opposite is also true. If you believe that the market you are trading is going to drop then you sell first, hoping to buy back at a lower price.

Day trading, basically, is profiting from small differences (and sometimes big ones) in the prices of stocks etc. on one day (sometimes 2 or 3 days). It requires experience, a lot of knowledge and constant up-keeping your information. It's taking constant working if you want to do it right, not only a couple of hours per day. It's not for the faint hearted and not suitable as a fast money maker. It can be profitable though, as I know having a staff of good people now that make my trading lighter (so that I don't have to do everything myself anymore). It took me over 20 years to get to the level I'm now. If you really want to do it, start small and/or with a practice account, read a lot of papers (not only one), follow and take in all the news you can find and read some materials and books about the different parts of trading (e.g. technical analysis, trading-systems, product-info etc.).
I wish you good luck. Don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.

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.

7) Goofing off, surfing the internet.

A friend of mine is a self-employed CFA and she does all of the above. #2 is probably the most important and takes the most time until you build up a client base, which could take many years. She runs her stuff through Fidelity so I think that takes care of most of the back office stuff.

Here are a few basics:
- Concentrate on a few, liquid and volatile stocks only.
- Buy or sell intra day trends with at least 3:1 reward-risk ratios.
- Use mental stops placed under the last minimum (above the last maximum, when shorting) and stick to them.
- Use a decent money management scheme, write down the rules and stick to them.
- Develop a system, trade it on paper only for some time, before risking money.

Here are some more, that I found useful too:
- Don't trade the first and last half hour.
- Stop trading on a given day when you have reached a set target amount or when you have lost a fixed amount.
- No more than two ongoing trades at one time.
- Take breaks, it's a stressful activity

Ah the lure of daytrading! The funny thing about watching the market is that you always remember the trade you should have made. There is something professionals say all the time when someone starts discussing a trade they wanted to make you will be interrupted with "shoulda, coulda, woulda".
Unfortunately you are right, you do need money to day trade and as a previous writer noted you need $25k for a broker to allow you to consistently day trade. I believe that is a Fed Reserve requirement not SEC. Note that I say consistent though. The broker can't prevent you from selling a position you recently bought but if they identify you as a daytrader you will have to bring your equity up to $25 before they let you do it again.
Try the top 10 trader thing below or any kind of honest papertrading. And while your at it try a long term paper portfolio for kicks. I'll bet in a year you'll wish you really invested the long term ideas – its amazing!

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.