Product Description
When it comes to stock market trading, people entering the business have
one thing in common. They all expect a high return on investment and are
indeed fully confident about themselves being the one who will strike it big,
despite the failures of many before them. To many, sadly, this remains a
fantasy.
This book is not promising you to become the next millionaire if you follow
my or anybody else’s strategy. Instead, it will offer rich insights … More >>

Master Trend Following – Basics & Tactics for the Rookie

Product Description
This is an audio CD recorded at one of Steve Nisson’s live seminars on candlestick charting. Learn candlestick charting from a trading master! Steve will take you through the basics of candlestick charting and spotting early reversal signs in this informative audio tape. A great supplement to his best-selling title ‘Japanese Candlestick Charting Techniques’ and his video workshop ‘Strategies for Profiting with Japanese Candlesticks’…. More >>

Audioseminar CD “Candlestick Charting Basics” with Steve Nison

Product Description
What is Day Trading? Most financial markets are open between certain hours on a daily basis. Wall Street, for example, officially the New York Stock Exchange, is open Monday to Friday from 9am to 5pm Eastern Standard Time. Between those hours, Monday to Friday, hundreds of people trade units, buying and selling in accordance with the shifts and trends of individual markets. People trade everything from stocks to currencies, stock options to future contracts. Some m… More >>

Day Trading Basics – Do You Have What it Takes to Be A Day Trader?

Day trading is an extremely risky way of investing in the stock market. Day trading is carried out by day traders who rapidly purchase and sell stocks over a single day period in the hope that for the very short period over which they hold the stocks (ranging from just a few seconds to a couple of hours) the value will continue to climb or fall thus allowing day traders to secure quick profits.

The method of buying and selling stocks over a very short time period can create huge profits or losses for the day trader in just a couple of minutes or hours. Statistics show that 80-90% of all day traders make a loss at the end of each trading day. However day trading has become an increasing popular form of trading in recent years as a result of the internet and increased access to information. So while day trading used to be a marginal form of stock trading reserved for the most part to financial firms professional traders and an elite group of private investors it is now also very common method of trading among casual traders.

Day traders are defined as traders who place four or more round-trip orders over a five day time period and the total trading activity over a day is 6% or more of the total value of all shares held.

Brokerage fees for day traders can be substantially lower than fees for other types of traders. While margins for most traders are usually around 50% of the value in traders account, day traders can face levels as low as 25%. This means that a trader can by lets say, $1000 worth of stock from an account of only $250.

Tips for success

The five most common strategies adopted by day traders who seek to make are profit are

* Trend following – used by all trading firms this strategy assumes that stocks that having been rising steadily will continue to rise.

* Playing news – this strategy is to buy stock in a company which has just announced good news

* Range Trading – this is where stock that has been rising and falling is bought near the low price and sold as it hits the high price range.

* Scalping – it is commonly defined as a very quick trade.

* Covering spreads – To play the spread or the make the spread simply means to buy stock at the Bid price and sell the stock at the Ask price. The difference between the bid price and the ask price is known as the spread. Because there is an historical tendency for the stock market to rise profit can be expected for this form of trading.

Opinions about day trading vary widely. Some people swear it is the best way ever to make a profit in the stock market…others, including the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) advise strongly against day trading, insisting it is too risky. As with many things having to do with investing and the stock market you will hear all kinds of things about day trading. The trick is to sort the information out.

But what exactly is day trading and why do so many advise against it? Day traders literally trade everyday, all day, buying and selling sometimes very rapidly. They hope to see a stock going up, for instance, quickly buy a block of that stock and then sell it again as soon as it has risen enough to make a reasonable profit. If everything works right the trader makes a profit every day from the normal movement of stock prices up and down.

Day traders try to concentrate on certain stocks that are particularly suitable for day trading. The most important thing is that the stock must be one that is highly liquid, which means it is bought and sold often. This allows the day trader to buy and sell easily. Liquidity varies with market volume and the size and nature of the business. In general almost all stocks on the major exchanges are more than liquid enough for day trading purposes.

To be suitable for day trading a stock also needs to be sold in sufficient volume that the buying and selling activity of one trader won’t affect the market price of the stock. Day traders usually buy and sell big blocks of stock so a good day trading stock needs to have at least 500,000 shares traded a day. Day traders also look for stocks that have high volatility, which means that the price goes up and down rapidly. A stock with a rapidly changing price is perfect for day trading. The ideal is at movement of at least $2 a day.

A day trader also needs to be able to find sufficient real time information of the orders for a stock. This is sometimes called price transparency or market depth and lets the trader know how much stock they can probably move in a certain period of time. Traders need to have access to the NASDAQ level II quote screens in order to gather this information.

There is nothing illegal about day trading but it can be extremely risky. Almost all day traders are working with borrowed funds which they hope to increase through their buying and selling. If the NYSE and the NASDAQ classify someone as a “pattern day trader” then that trader must trade through a margin account with at least $25,000 as a deposit in it. The broker who handles the account will require that further deposits be made if the trader’s holdings drop too far in value.

Because day trading is so risky the Securities and Exchange Commission has devoted quite a bit of energy to spreading warnings about the practice. Their fear is that people will become involved without understanding how much money they can lose in a very short time.

Anyone who decides to try day trading can expect to suffer huge losses as they try to learn how to do it successfully. Very few will succeed and make money in day trading. No one should ever try day trading with money that they cannot afford to lose without any problems.

Day traders are not really investors. They buy and sell over the span of time as short as seconds or minutes. They never hold stock after the close of the trading day because the risk of overnight price changes is too great for them. Day trading is really speculating; some call it gambling.

Be sure to avoid websites which promote day trading by talking about the great profit potential and then offer you ‘expert information’ or ‘hot tips’ for money. The recommendations are usually actually paid for themselves and the advice is worthless.