Day Trading

You better know what you're doing and have been doing for a while. and thay you understand the maket and the rules governing it.

Here are four rules you must have, if you don't you will loose money
1 – A written sound trading/investment plan with rules that will not only help you but more importantly protect you, mostly from yourself.
2 – Sufficient trading/investment capital. Use your own money, there’s no need to go into debt so that you trade/invest.
3 – A written money management program in place. Remember never invest 100% of your capital into any one security and never have 100% of your capital invested.
4 – A full and complete understanding of the rules & regulations of the industry.

Here are some of the rules that I follow, in additiona to the four cardinal rules above.
Never buy or sell based on anyone's, including your own, market predictions.
Stick with up-trending stocks.
Never buy stocks in danger of filing for or actually in bankruptcy.
Never average down.
Always sell when management cuts sales or earnings forecasts.
Only buy stocks with real sales and real earnings.
Always diversify between industries.
Don't buy stocks just because they've gone up.
Never sell a stock because an analyst proclaims it is overvalued.
Always look for companies with new ideas, new styles or new products.
Orders after an execution – a “stop loss”
No security is to be purchased at a price that is below the 50-day moving average price.

Good luck, based on your question, you're going to need it

No. A bank will not, as you need something to legal tie the funds too…even with a signature loan, you need to explain the reason for the loan (this is to prevent money laundering). Your only option in this case is a Margin Account through your broker. But since you trade options, you would already have a margin account, which means you know you do need to maintain equity in the account.
There is an alternative. BUT, I wouldn't recommend it.
You could engage in a Carry Trade. Again!! I do not recommend you do this for Day-Trading options or stocks!
You short a currency (the JPY is pretty popular). Just like shorting a stock, you get a credit. Since Forex is not regulated by the same Margin Rules as Equities, you can get 50K for a simply $500 account. With that credit, rather than buying Bonds with a higher interest rate than the rate of the shorted currency (Fed rate is 4.25, so you could get a bond around that rate, which JPY rate is .5%..you profit from the difference) you put that money into your options account. You need to be careful that you leave some room in your Forex account, as you do not want a Margin Call on this. And you need to make sure you monitor the currency market to make sure that the JPY's flat…although if it is dropping, you have the added bonus of making money there too.

I am not suggesting you do this, but just saying that there are possibilities out there. Just don't use this one, as it you need to be aware of what you are doing.

Most people loose money bacause they do not have a strategy and money management rules in place

if u dont have disipline dont even start u will loose all your money

many people do trade and have become very very rich so it can be done

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.

SEC rules apply to broker/dealers, if you trade using a US Broker/dealer you are subject to the SEC rules and regulations.

All customers using US Broker/dealers would have to follow the rules that dictate policy & procedures to that broker/dealer.

If you going to play in the US, directly or indirectly, you have to play by the rules

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.

Before you do anything you should know what you’re doing, how to do it and why you are doing it.

To trade and/or invest you need four major programs in place before you do anything.
1 A written sound trading/investment plan with rules that will not only help you but more importantly protect you, mostly from yourself.
2 – Sufficient trading/investment capital. Use your own money, there’s no need to go into debt so that you trade/invest.
3 – A written money management program in place. Remember never invest 100% of your capital into any one security and never have 100% of your capital invested.
4 – A full and complete understanding of the rules & regulations of the industry.

Judging by the wording of your question you’re no where near being ready to do anything in the market. I’m not saying this as a put down but rather as a warning before you hurt yourself financially.

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

Have you read John Carter's book yet? Mastering the Trade.

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!