How To Start Day Trading

Individuals who attempt to day-trade without an understanding of market fundamentals often lose money. A working knowledge of technical analysis and chart reading is a good start. But without a deep understanding of the market and its unique risks, charts can be deceiving. Do your due diligence and understand the particular ins and outs of the products you trade.

News provides most of the opportunities. It is imperative to be the first to know when something significant happens. The typical trading room has access to all of the leading newswires, constant coverage from news organizations, and software that constantly scans news sources for important stories.  

For the average investor, day trading can be a daunting proposition because of the number of risks involved. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) highlights some of the risks of day trading, which are summarized below:

A trader needs to have an edge over the rest of the market. Day traders use any of a number of strategies, including swing trading, arbitrage, and trading news. They refine these strategies until they produce consistent profits and limit their losses. There also are some basic rules of day trading that are wise to follow: Pick your trading…

Individual traders often manage other people’s money or simply trade with their own. Few have access to a trading desk, but they often have strong ties to a brokerage due to the large amounts they spend on commissions and access to other resources. However, the limited scope of these resources prevents them from competing directly with…

Wise day traders use only risk capital that they can afford to lose. This protects them from financial ruin and helps eliminate emotion from their trading decisions. A large amount of capital is often necessary to capitalize effectively on intraday price movements, which can be in pennies or fractions of a cent. Adequate cash is required for…