Day Trading

A pivot point is a price that someone thinks is important, usually based on price history like the highest high of the past x days or yeterday's close. A lot of gay people throw this word around without defining what they are talking about and it is annoying. Like Bill O'neil does this in his famous and lame book, "How to Invest in Stocks" He just goes on and on about pivot this and pivot that without actually defining it. So don't get thrown off by all the douchebags who do this.
Just about any point that jumps out at you from the chart could be a pivot point for someone, the more obvious, the more powerful the action can be around that point. So all time highs or lows definitely qualify.
Also a lot of people look at the moving averages so, for instance if price bounces off of the 20 exponential moving avearge, the high of that price bar could be a pivot.
For intraday trading, any highest high or lowest low over the past one or more days is a pivot, as well as the intraday high and low. Pivots that are also major pivot levels from the daily chart like the all time price high or low of bars around the 20, 50, and 200 day moving averages are all the more powerful intrady.
Traders either look to fade the price at a pivot (sell when the price comes to a pivot from underneath or buy when price reaches the pivot from above)and make profits when it turns back away or they bet on the breakout of a level - when price keeps going past the pivot.
Those who "fade" the pivot believe price will reverse - that a price trend is turning or that prices will be stable on the higher time frame and thus will gravitate back to more typical prices. Those who take breakouts believe the price reaching the pivot point is evidence of stronger forces at work that will push prices even further in that direction.
As an example of an intraday pivot that has the added power of being at an important daily level, consider the recent prices of GOOG. When you chart the daily chart with the 200 day exponential moving average (exponential seem to be followed by more people and in faster stocks), you see the "test" of that level 3 days ago. Note that GOOG has never traded long under this level.
For intraday traders yesterday, the high of that "test bar" on the daily chart, 346.00 was a pivot point that had explosive "breakout" potential since longer-term buyers come in at these levels and push up prices so often. Obviously, this bore out yesterday as you can see from the 5-minute chart.
PS — All kinds of levels might work AND what works can change over time. In Jesse Livermoore's book, he says that for a while it was his bread and butter to buy for a quick pop every time a price multiple of 100 was passed by a stock (a pivot not even based on the price history of the stock). Nowadays, this seems like more of a resistance level.

Indonesia Fund (IF) has had major intraday gyrations recently but liquidity is bad, at least on odd lots. I had to wait several minutes for a market order to fill a few days ago. I have had better luck buying and selling with limit orders.

Ballard Power (BLDP) volatility has spiked to an extreme this month. FCEL, AMSC, and EMKR can generally be counted on to move somewhere every day–I just wish I could figure out which way. These aren't penny stocks. The spreads are decent. I don't trade them enough to comment on liquidity but market orders have always filled right away.

Usually the software platform is part of the account itself. so if you get an account from Scottrade or E-Trade you will use their software. With new regulations forcing cleared funds to be in suspense for 72 hours, today's day trader needs about 40-50K in liquid funds if you want to bring home a few hundred dollars a day. Scottrade is the best platform I've seen if you have a powerful computer, but they all work about the same.

TerraNova is the only one that you can trade everything — stocks, commodities, futures, forex, options — real time, online, direct access. A lot of online brokerages claim to give you direct access, but if they take more than a second to execute your trade, it aint direct.

Find the articles online that have evaluated and compared online brokerages. I found a good one online in Barron's, but you'll find others in the trading magazines.

This is worth putting a little time and effort into, because it's a pain to switch, so once you choose, you're kinda stuck with it.

Townsend Electronics, the Parent company of TerraNova, is the one that digitized and electronified the Nasdaq. They are technological industry leaders and have a powerful and well built trading system.

I use RealTick at TerraNovaOnline, but it costs $275/mo. I think the Investor package is free to use, and just uses one screen.

What you should try is a free trial of their Investor demo. Their rates are good also, but of course, it depends on how often you trade. It will take you months to learn all the bells and whistles of what this program can do.

The other top-of-the line program is TradeStation, but it costs big bucks to join and operate. Some people consider it the Cadillac of trading and technical analysis.

TerraNova is the home of the Day Trader, so they think nothing of you making several hundred trades a day. You don't have to do that, but it's okay here if you do.

To "bundle" most of your Qs into a few phrases:
Since you asked this in the U.S.A. forum: To day trade an account MUST have AT LEAST $25,000 U.S. in cash on-hand every trading day. This does not include any positions or any unsettled transactions.

The time it takes to settle stock trades is 3 business days.

As soon as the balance goes below $25,000, the trader must fund the account with more money OR a whole new set of trading rules applies. This varies from broker to broker, but the $25K is a hard. fast rule.

Your Q2: In the U.S. this is referred to as "swing" trading.

Broker electronically track every trade by every trader. When the trade is placed, you confirm the trade AND you have the iopportunity to print every trade placed, confirmed and completed. Yuor account also reflects the balances.

Your Q3. Day trading is in and out [entering and exiting] the same shares in the same company on the same trading day - regardless of the price.

Your Q4. You decide your own buying and selling prices through various kinds of orders.

Your Q5. Refer to my remarks.

Your Qs 6 & 7: I DON'T believe they apply to the U.S. exchanges.

You can usually find excellent, easy-to-understand definitions of many financial and investment terms by going to this free site, recognized by Y! A as a "Featured Knowledge Partner":
http://investopedia.com

Investopedia also has a free, paper trading platform. You can set up a virtual account and almost trade as though you were trading with your own hard-earned money.

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

Thanks for asking your Q! I enjoyed answering it!

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

All broker/dealers maintain their books and records a settlement bases

ALL trades SETTLE on the settlement date, the settlement date is three business days follow the trade date.
This is a federal law and ALL broker/dealers follow this law at all times.

Even if you have a margin account ALL trades settle on the settlement date, not the trade date (although margin is calculated on trade date)
Unless a trade is done for cash, it will settle on settlement date,

The reason it "takes so long" it's federal law and this pratice has been in effect since the buttonwood tree.