Day Trading - Are you?
 

Anybody here currently doing any day trading?? I've recently been thinking about getting into it myself..I saw this though....

google "day trading"

#4 http://www.sec.gov/answers/daytrading.htm

Under the rules of NYSE and NASD, customers who are deemed "pattern day traders" must have at least $25,000 in their accounts and can only trade in margin accounts. For more information, you can read the NASD's Notice to Members and the New York Stock Exchange's Information Memo


Is this true? I only wanted to mess around with a few thousand... :helpme

Play craps. Or black jack. At least you'll have fun losing your money.

Yeah, I lost $3,000 in like 2 weeks lol
Not doing that again

No I am an investor now not a trader.

I've read up plenty in the past few years on stocks, so I know a thing or two. I also follow a few but I have never had any money on the side that I could invest until now.

The stock market is a waste of time and a scam. Better off investing in something that has value.

Go on...

:1orglaugh

Look into options instead, with only a few thousand you won't have enough leverage to turn a profit if trading stocks...

yeah let's talk about options...

Options are a great investment if you have some time and money to spend. I used to trade but you gotta watch yourself. Buy low, sell high. And don't watch your quotes too much, lol.

yes, its true. none of US brokers will allow you to make more then 3 trades in a 3 days, or some bullshit like this. i day trade pennies, but only sometimes, when there are some big news, anyway i rather invest in good penny stocks

no because you need a few hundred thousand dollars that you dont give a shit about to day trade properly..

stock options is the only way to go

And why do you want to daytrade? What is your strategy? Have you build an automated buy/sell system? Are you going for volume? Value? Optionstrategy? Did you see any deficiencies in the market? Are you going to play exchange rates? Stocks? LEAPS? Short term options? If you can't answer those with a clear answer and writtendown model... don't do it. Shortterm investing is a fulltime job... If you only got a few K to lose, go for something simple. If you want to start daytrading/going for deficiencies, you need at least a few hundredK$ for your model to work, and quite some expensive softwate (tradestation). Can you leverage?

If not, buy some gold or oil and leave it at that.

And why are options a great investment? Options of what? Are you going to leverage oil? Trends? Or just chace every stock you got a hot tip on like every other slow money loser on the block?

Where do you see yourself in 6 months, 1 year? 5 years? 10? 20?

Start thinking :)

forgot to add that is valid, only when you have less then 25k in your account.
if you have more, you can daytrade as you want. Just made today 800 bucks in two hours with this one:
http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=TCLL.OB&d=t
:)

Not strictly daytrayding, but swingtrading.
Basically this means that I don't necessarily close any open trades at the same day but keep the stocks/options/whatever in my account for a few days or weeks until I think it's time to sell them again. Sometimes this may be at the same day, sometime two or three weeks later.

Personally I don't touch Pennystocks or anything which isn't listed in some major index - too risky for me. Mostly blue chip companies and related options during the last months.

Turned out I seem to be pretty good at doing those things. I made 4-5 times more during the last 6 months with my portfolio than with my daytime job (which does pay quite well itself) in a whole year. Then again, it's currently a bullish market around here, so it doesn't mean that much. :1orglaugh

some real financial geniuses in here. why am i actually suprised though?

I am considered a day trader. I trade S and P index options. Not making enough to live, but I play safe and have a winning record. I will hold the options for days sometimes. Just trying to ride waves of volatility. Time value can eat you up with options, so do your homework.

What companies do you peeps use to trades?

I use tradestation. I used to use ameritrade, but they pissed me off. ;)

One of my local online-brokers. They suck - but the suck a little less than their competition. :1orglaugh

If you're going for short-term investments or daytrading, make sure to compare transaction fees and don't even think about opening your trading account at a "regular" bank instead of a online broker. At least around here they charge at least twice the price (per transaction, which adds up FAST!) as their most expensive online counterparts and usually suck even more. It may take hours to actually place or cancel a order instead of 1-2 seconds, no realtime data, unstable online-interfaces, ...

It pays off to take a few days to choose your broker - it may very well decide if you make or lose money, especially if you're not starting with a few hundred grand to trade with.

I used to day trade naked options - I'll say this much: if you know the stocks you're getting into - you might do well (and you only have to be right 70% of the time to do well) - but when you start looking for something to trade you are in trouble.

And trust your instincts - as soon as you start second guessing yourself you're finished.

Get an account @ www.interactivebrokers.com

Daytrading on margin from 25k on, I pay less than 1 cent per share. I buy/sell 100 shares @ 75 bucks each = $7500 for $1 in fees. Hard to beat.

Remember: 95% of "daytraders" quit after 6 months, with less cash than they started out with.

another great trade today:
http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=PGPM.PK&d=t
now screaming that i invest only 2K in this hot stock at the begginig of its run, it will be 1000% gainer today for sure. the most quickly earned money i ever made.

I think that they put limits on day trading, because a lot of people in there garage with a computer, and a thousands bucks were getting rich.

my brother does it, I tried it once.....and I sucked. So now he does it for me

I've daytraded via interactive brokers around 2 years ago.. made some nice money on home security hype.. lost some nice money on daytrading SINA and SOHU.

LOL

daytrading is good game, but do you have the nerves to do it ?

25k in account is the minimal for daytrading, unless TIP* you find some offshore broker who will allow you to daytrade for less and give you leverage*.. its possible to find them , I have no idea where..

I daytraded with interactive, they have standard 25k minimum.

I've daytraded via interactive brokers around 2 years ago.. made some nice money on home security hype.. lost some nice money on daytrading SINA and SOHU.

LOL

daytrading is good game, but do you have the nerves to do it ?

25k in account is the minimal for daytrading, unless TIP* you find some offshore broker who will allow you to daytrade for less and give you leverage*.. its possible to find them , I have no idea where..

I daytraded with interactive, they have standard 25k minimum.

HAHAHAHAHA, for a minute there, I almost believed you could afford 1 cent per share.

:2 cents:

Do not forget you can also make money in falling markets. Get a margin account that allows you to short sell stocks so you can pretty much run your portfolio market neutral. The market wizards using this strategy really don't care where the market goes, their goal is to make a profit every quarter. In my book it's more important to always have results >0 (every week, month, quarter whatever) than beat some benchmark (like the NASDAQ or SP500). What good is it if I did 15% better than the SP500 if the same index tanked 50% in a year?

On the other hand I will be happy with 20% in a year when the market does 75%. I will not cry one tear. And I laugh all the way to the bank next year when I'm up another 20% and the market is down 35%.

Remember: 50%+50%-50% is WORSE than 5%+5%+5%. Whoever understands this is set to make money in any market conditions.

Have you done a trading simulation to see if you'd actually consistently profit?