Introduction To Day Trading

History of online day trading

Day trading was pretty much the domain of stock brokers and remained that way until the late 1990s, when the increasing popularity of the internet, motivated the international stock markets to move online. The birth of day trading was made possible when the computerized, over-the-counter NASD became available in 1971.

The consequence of this move was that day trading brokers became optional because anybody with Web access could execute their own trades, provided that they had an account with a registered online brokerage. The uptake was enormous, because by 1999, at least 25% of all trades made were done as online trading by individual investors. Day trading online grew in popularity as these investors started gaining online trading maturity. This growth found further impetus with the Dot Com Bubble as many traders could buy and sell the same share on the same day with three digit returns.

What is day trading?

The U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations defines day trading as "Placing multiple buy and sell orders for securities and holding positions for a very short period of time, usually minutes or a few hours, but rarely longer than a day. Day traders seek profits in small increments from momentary fluctuations in stock prices after paying commissions."

With day trading it is common to focus on short-term trading, where a trade could last for anything between a couple of seconds to a couple of hours. In day trading online, the number of trades made may vary from between just a few to a couple of hundred per day. It is also common to finish the day with a closed overnight position. This means that everything you bought gets sold, before market close.

There are many different techniques or strategies that you can use in day trading. Some of the more common online trading systems include:

?Trend following
?Range trading
?Scalping
?Rebate Trading
?News Playing

One of the techniques that started surfacing in day trading is algorithmic trading. Algo, as it is commonly called, is favoured by hedge -, pension and mutual funds. It is estimated that 33% of all US and 40% of all UK trades during 2006 were made by algo traders. Algo trading is automated, meaning that the trader leaves it up to the computer to decide when to buy and sell.

Day trading can either be done by institutions or by individuals. Individual day traders normally make use of direct trading firms that offer them direct, real-time electronic access to stock markets. For a day trader real-time access is important because it enables them to have a ?live? view of movements on the Securities Exchange of those stocks, stock options, currencies, futures contracts, interest rate futures and commodity futures that they are trading online.

What are the pros of day trading?

?Self employment ? Day trading online offers you the potential to earn really good money and it goes without saying that you will enjoy flexibility in where and when you work.

?Stimulation ? Trading online is both exhilarating and interesting. It requires analytical thinking and continually challenges your abilities. Every day is a new start ? stagnation is not possible at all!

What are the cons of day trading?

Financing ? In day trading you need money to make money ? and lots of it. Day trading penny stocks could be high risk, so you will probably need to play in the bigger leagues, or at least find a happy (and profitable) balance between the two. There are also regulatory requirements around the amount of money you need in your account. In the US for example, it is $25,000.

Latent loss potential ? You are pretty much at the mercy of economy figures, analyst comments, interest rates, and so forth. A single press release or a single comment could turn a profitable stock into a dead loss. This makes your income unpredictable.

Day trading online can be highly profitable and produce rapid returns, in spite of being high risk. The risk is mainly due to margin use, and other day trading practices. Naturally, most risks can be managed if you remain prepared, alert and focussed. In example, when you start trading online, you will probably find that you have to exit a losing position very quickly, to prevent a loss. At the same time, you will need to move just as quickly to capitalise on any winning positions you may have.

Day trading online can be a fun and even profitable adventure, provided that you have good discipline, -risk and -money management.

What they can't do is give (people) the confidence to stick to those rules even when things are going bad." Almost anybody can make up a list of rules that are 80% as good as what we taught. "The key is consistency and discipline.

Richard Dennis, on Turtle Trading

Taking An Interest In Foreclosure

While just about everywhere in the United States the real estate market has come back robust and healthy and most people can count on their house selling after a short period on the market, there are some states whose residents are facing foreclosure in record numbers.

Benefits for these service industry jobs are not nearly as good as those in the prior industrial industry, and in some cases they dont exist at all. Ohio, Georgia, Texas and Florida are reeling from recent economic havoc created by their areas industrial demise and the subsequent concentration on the service industry with its less plentiful and poorer-paying jobs.

The mid-Atlantic states have been suffering from this loss of manufacturing jobs and firms for decades now and foreclosure and devaluation of homes has become commonplace.

Foreclosure might have been staved off in many of these situations, however, had the homeowners not been the victims of some less than reputable lending plans and firms, with ill advised financing options such as interest only loans that left these borrowers with little home equity when they needed to refinance or secure a second loan to save their home from foreclosure.

The interest only loans left them with little or no equity which meant no collateral for the loan. Their homes fell into foreclosure as a result.

An interest only mortgage loan is one in which the monthly payment is exactly the amount of the interest accrued so far on the loan and doesnt touch the principal.

This interest only feature only lasts for about the first five to ten years of that loan, and while borrowers have the right to overpay at any point their overpayment only goes to future interest payments - again, not the principal.

What this means is that for the years of the interest only option the borrower isnt paying off her or his loan. A 100,000 mortgage in 2000, with an interest only option for 10 years, will still have a balance of 100,000 in the year 2010.

Were the borrower to run into difficult making these payments and find the threat of foreclosure hanging over their head, they could be in serious risk of foreclosure. Lets assume, for example, that the houses market value in 2010 was 120,000.

Since literally none of the borrowed 100,000 had been paid off the equity in the home would be at a mere 20,000. If, however, the mortgage payment made each month to the borrower included 200 towards the principal at the end of that 10 year period the borrower would have another 24,000.

Actually the equity would be much greater because as the principal was paid down the interest on the balance would decrease and the same payment would pay more of the principal and less of the interest. This additional equity might save a home from foreclosure if the borrower were to get sick, lose a spouse, lose a job or otherwise get into financial trouble that made payments late or missed.

The general rule of thumb is that interest only loans should not be considered unless you know for a fact that your earning power five to ten months down the road will greatly increase and your outstanding bills will decrease.

You wont be risking foreclosure. Then the risk of paying a little bit now and a lot later isnt as great.

Why Are Currencies And Forex So Popular?

This makes it one of the most exciting, volatile, and engaging markets in the investment world. However, with almost $2 trillion dollars being exchanged on the Forex each and every day it is open (from Sunday through Friday, the market trades 24 hours a day), those pips can quickly add up to big profits???or big losses???really quick. Now you might find yourself wondering what the Forex market actually is and why anyone would possibly think chasing pips was ever going to be a profitable endeavor. A pip in the Japanese Yen is 0.01.

It is called a pip and its value is the equivalent of 0.0001 of a dollar, in most currency pairs, and it is the smallest increment on the Forex market.

dollar does not equal a Euro. However, one U.S. dollars into Euros. For instance, if an American corporation wanted to fund their payroll account for an office in Paris, they would need to convert U.S.

Well, the Forex is just a big market where corporations, nations, and investors can exchange money. So what exactly is the Forex anyway?

To convert the money, the business would need to buy Euros with dollars on the Forex. The USD/EUR currency pair is what the company would need to buy in order to raise the money for payroll. A typical transaction on the Forex is called a lot and is $100,000 and the USD is behind 90% of all trades on this volatile market. So, if the currency pair was valued at 1.2500USD, that means that the business would receive 80,000 Euros for every $100,000 lot of the USD/EUR currency pair at that exchange rate.

Now remember those pips? Although a pip is a very small number, the sheer size of the lot means that a 1 pip movement equals $10 ($100,000 X .0001). Thus, an investor can get in and out of a position very quickly if the price fluctuates by only a few pips and still make a profit (Forex scalping). It is very possible for a Forex trader to double their investment in a very short period of time???but they can lose it just as easily!

Until recently, retail Forex investors did not exist. Because of the size of the transactions, traders on the Forex used to be limited to large investment firms, central banks, etc. Now, however, a Forex investor can typically secure a position for as little as $1,000 (or 1/100th of the total transaction amount). However, because there are always interest charges associated with any leveraged position, that means that an investor can quickly lose their capital if things swing the wrong way.

No matter what investment strategy you choose to use when trading on the Forex???it is very wise to place stops on every order because the volatility of the market can sap a highly leveraged account very quickly. While profit potential is unlimited, stops are typically placed on orders to prevent unacceptable losses. Of course, no one has a crystal ball and can predict the future but Forex traders use a number of strategies to help them determine when to exit and enter positions.

New investors are highly encouraged to start out with mock accounts or even mini-lots ($10,000) in order to learn the market better before jumping in with both feet. However, because of the margins and volatility of the market itself, the Forex can make or break an investor quickly. Trading currencies on the Forex is so popular because the action is non-stop and the opportunity for profit is unlimited.

How Forex Software Can Help You Make Amazing Results

You also need money to feed your family, to pay for food, to buy gas for your car and also to purchase the things you want in order for you to live a comfortable and contented life. You also need money to feed your family, to pay for food, to buy gas for your car and also to purchase the things you want in order for you to live a comfortable life. In today???s society, money is one of the most important factors that you need in order to live a comfortable life.

Some people working for a company trade their services for money while others prefer putting up businesses to earn the money they need. Since money is a necessity in life, you need to know how to earn money.

However, there is another way to make money and a good one at that. There are some people who trade money for a living in order to make a sufficient amount of income. Some are very good at it that they actually made millions of dollars in a very short time.

This kind of trade is called Forex trading. Forex is the largest and the most liquid financial market in the world that operates 24 hours a day and generates monetary exchanges that amounts up to 2 trillion dollars in a single trading day.

Unlike the stock market, the Forex market has no centralized location. Markets open and close at different parts of the world which means that it is open 24 hours each day. Trade starts in Australia and ends the next day in New York.

It is a fact that the Forex market is one of the best money making financial markets in the world. There are people who made millions of dollars in the Forex market in just a short period of time. The Forex market is considered as one of the best career that you can ever get in to. Some people are known to have quit their regular jobs and ventured in the Forex market to get a piece of this very large pie.

However, with all the great money making opportunities that you can take advantage of in the Forex market, you have to realize that the risk of losing money is equal. You have to consider that the Forex market is equally risky as it is profitable. It is a known fact that many people who have also ventured into this very large financial market have lost a lot of money and some even suffered huge financial losses. This is why you should think hard about it first before you even consider entering this financial market that offer huge potential to make money and also equally risky market.

In order to be successful in this financial market, you should have the right knowledge and skills to trade currency. The basics of a Forex market is that you should buy low and sell high in order to make a profit. However, there are also different strategies involved in the Forex market. You should also have this knowledge in order for you to trade efficiently and minimize the risk of losing money.

Thanks to the improvement and the advancement in communications technology, everyone who has the money and the skills to trade in the Forex market can now trade online right in the comforts of their own home.

To start trading in the Forex market, all you need is a fast computer that you need to dedicate in your Forex trades alone and a fast internet connection to avoid lags in updates in prices. You will also need a software program to assist you with your trades in the Forex market.

You can obtain the software when you register and open a Forex account with your preferred Forex broker. The broker or the brokerage company will provide you with either an online software program or a software program that you need to install in your desktop computer first.

You have to determine if the Forex trading software program should enable you to see real time charts, real time price updates, and also the different tools you need to effectively trade in the Forex market. You have to determine if the Forex trading software is right for you. You have to realize that you first need to determine if the Forex trading software is right for you.

With the right knowledge, skills, and the right Forex trading software, you can be sure that you will increase your chances in making a profit and decrease the risk of losing money. These are some of the things you need to know in order for you to effectively trade in the Forex market.