Learn How to Start Day Trading

What is Day Trading?

Day trading is the process of buying and selling in the stock market/futures market/other markets all in the same day. You can buy one minute and sell the next minute or you can buy and hold for as long as you want before the close of the day. Traders who specifically day trade usually do not hold positions over night for many reasons. They want to profit from intraday moves and go to sleep at night knowing they don’t have any big positions open to worry about major news or movements.

Some people also refer to this as short term trading, but to me short term is a very relative term. Short term for one person can be weeks and for another months. For someone like Warren Buffett, short term probably means a year or two. So I personally prefer to call day trading anything that is bought and sold during the same day. Most of my own trading in the e-mini futures and forex market is day trading. I get in for specific moves and get back out. I do not hold anything overnight in those two markets.

What Market to Day Trade?

This really depends on your comfort level, experience and needs. From my experience, the markets that are day traded the most by new traders are the actual stock market company shares, futures market (mainly the E-minis S&P 500 or ES, E-Mini Dow or YM, E-mini Nasdaq or NQ, E-mini Russel or TF) and Forex or the foreign exchange market. My personal start in day trading started with the e-minis simply because there is a lot of liquidity (easy to get in and out), the money requirements are not a lot and easier than Forex.

My recommendation is pick one market to start; become profitable & consistent before moving on to another market. If you do not have a big account, you will probably start in either the eminis or the forex market. Day trading stocks requires a lot more capital. Jumping from one market to another will not only bust your account, but you will be out of trading before you know it. You have to study the market, get familiar with it and how it moves and reacts. You have to get a feel for it. I remember when I first started out, I sat and looked at the emini ES, YM, NQ for hours and hours everyday. With time, you will feel a lot more comfortable. You can even just concentrate on one market from the e-minis or 1 currency pair from the Forex market.

What is Needed for Day Trading?

In order to day trade or to start day trading, you will need a few things:

• You will need to set up a brokerage account with a stocks/options/futures broker. This is fairly easy and can be done with as little as $1000.
     
• You will need a decent computer and a fast Internet connection. Nowadays, a regular DSL or cable Internet is fast enough to meet this requirement. Depending on what kind of trading you do, you might need multiple monitors to keep an eye on different things, but you can definitely start with just 1.
    
• Aside from the above, you will need a plan or strategy. You can not simply just buy/sell. You will need to have a reason for why you are doing what you are doing. This can be a long learning curve. Remember you have to educate yourself. Members of other professions go to school for multiple years before becoming qualified to do something. In trading, you can not enter the market and expect to make a killing.
    
• Some traders decrease their learning curve or simply do not have the time to spend learning the markets. They simply join trading rooms where they are giving signals for when to buy and when to sell. This allows them to continue their day job/business, but when there is a trade, they simply follow instructions. This also works great.
     
• We offer a profitable emini trading signal service where you are told exactly when to buy/when to sell. This is the easiest way to “sit” next to a professional trader and follow their trades exactly and make money. Take a look at our trading results page, sign up for a free trial of our emini signal service and start your future towards becoming a profitable trader.