day trading

[tsimehc75]

whats up PM..anyone here ever do any day trading like on the s&p e-mini?

any experience or thoughts on that?

 

[myosin]

Some idea...

I don't have a lot of info on it, but since no one has replied for awhile, I will try to help with what little I know.

To oversimplify- it takes a lot of money to make a lot of money, and it's more of a gamble than the regular way of playing with the stock market.

The idea, to oversimplify- buy a bunch of shares in the morning, see if they go up, then sell them before the market closes.

Say you buy 1000 shares of Company X at $20/share. At the end of the day, the stock went up .10.

$20 X 1000 shares= $20,000 to buy.
.10 x 1000 shares= $100 profit

So as you can see, to make a good profit you need at least one of two things
1) A LARGE amount of cash to buy enough shares
2) A LARGE enough increase in stock price at the end of the day

If there isn't an increase in the price, and you are after the "quick buck" (which is kind of what day trading is about) you will still need to sell your shares b/c you do not know what tomorrow will bring and could lose even more money.

My brother's greatest one day profit was $30,000. I don't know what his greatest one day loss is though

 

[keenstyle1]

I use this firm commodity broker, The brokers (mine is Jonathan) day trades treasuries, less margin than the S&P, and really easy to day trade and scalp a few thousand every day.

 

[tsimehc75]

I don't have a lot of info on it, but since no one has replied for awhile, I will try to help with what little I know.

To oversimplify- it takes a lot of money to make a lot of money, and it's more of a gamble than the regular way of playing with the stock market.

The idea, to oversimplify- buy a bunch of shares in the morning, see if they go up, then sell them before the market closes.

Say you buy 1000 shares of Company X at $20/share. At the end of the day, the stock went up .10.

$20 X 1000 shares= $20,000 to buy.
.10 x 1000 shares= $100 profit

So as you can see, to make a good profit you need at least one of two things
1) A LARGE amount of cash to buy enough shares
2) A LARGE enough increase in stock price at the end of the day

If there isn't an increase in the price, and you are after the "quick buck" (which is kind of what day trading is about) you will still need to sell your shares b/c you do not know what tomorrow will bring and could lose even more money.

My brother's greatest one day profit was $30,000. I don't know what his greatest one day loss is though

thanks for the info myosin

 

[lilgreen952]

the market is a lil crazy at times but u can still make real good cash quick to

 

[Steve123]

whats up PM..anyone here ever do any day trading like on the s&p e-mini?

any experience or thoughts on that?

Well, I think it can be fun and exciting but, as a Financial Advisor, I will tell you not to use any more than about 5%-10% of your capital in this Space. You have to really know your shit to make money. A firm understanding of Technical Analysis, how markets operate and how to use the more sophisticaed retail trading platforms is mandatory! That is just the start. To really do well, you better have a strong handle on the futures and Options markets and how they interrelate with the equity markets. You can be spot on correct about the direction a stock might take but overlook the fact that Open Interest in that stocks current month Options (calls or puts) is peaking.

How day trading mainly differs from strategic portfolio management is that your opinion of a company/event can be dead on correct and you can still loose because of poor timing and not understanding other factors.

Also, look out for the rip off artists that market get-rich-quick schemes on day trading...i.e., "take my course and you'll never work again"... The main question to ask is "if you are so good at this, why are you teaching me how to do it for $39.95"??

You can do Day Trading if you set your mind to it and commit yourself to taking about a good solid year to educate yourself (assuming you have some financial aptitude to start with). Just don't jump into this...

My Two Cents.

 

[Pekkerwood]

I think the question is a little muddled. When I think of "day trading" I generally think of scalping by dealing in large chunks of equities. I don't as often hear trading of the emini or S&P contract detailed as day trading.

I traded futures contracts full time for about two years while helping automate our models and testing protocols. I haven't traded in about six years. My partner trades full time with additional employees doing testing and modeling.

I can tell you that we studied models of several top traders, attending multi -thousand dollar seminars with other traders run by well established, published traders, not people selling their "foolproof" systems.

My partner is much, much, brighter than I am and our trading has reflected it. We have not had a down year in seven years. With that said we spend a lot of money on data services, education, etc. We have gotten several certifications along the way and spent tens of thousands of dollars getting our fund registered.

I could not conceive of doing this "part time" as often with our style of trading we may average two trades a day and be in a trade and out in often 5 to ten minutes. Please understand we are purely technical traders.

I am on the sidelines now as far as day to day activities and run other aspects of our investing, but I will say to copy a phrase "Its a hard way to make an easy living".

 

[Steve123]

"Its a hard way to make an easy living".

Very well said. I traded Equity OPtions for my own account for a while and concluded that you have to be allot smarter than I am to make any money.

 

[mung]

I do a simple version of trading while in my office at work. I own my business so I am pretty flexible at getting in and out of the market quickly if needed. I am teaching myself to understand the financials, look at competitors, read the charts and try to make safe, educated decisions. Don't we all! If you are disciplined, have a buy-in point and a plan to get out to minimize ALL losses, you can make some decent money. You just have to know when to take your profits, or get the hell out of a loser. Let the market tell you what to, it will if you learn to "read" it. Don't get greedy.

I really think to build wealth, you have to participate in the stock market. To some degree, at some level you have to participate. Simply put, if you only made $200 per WEEK trading anything, that adds up to $10,400 a year. Compounded interest over time, make money work for you.

My old training partner did this while working the front desk of my old gym. He was an absolute genius, rain man, beautiful mind kind of thing, but it can be done. He made a decent amount of money for himself, but that was also during the dot com bubble. He was also a genetic mutant.

It's interesting as I was waiting to see what the market would do after todays unemployment numbers came out. The December number were ok, but they decided to re-adjust Novembers numbers and it was basically a wash. So nothing really happened early. Then Obama was giving his "speech" at 1:40, so I thought I'd see what happens there. This guy says nothing! We have an enconomy that borders a Ponzi scheme, a hugely expensive war, a housing melt down, trillions in hand outs and a health care bill that is going to do who-knows-what to the eceonomy and all this bozo can talk about is some wind farm in Newton, Iowa! I live an hour or so down the road from Newton and this is what he talks about? There's not much going on there that compares to the national and global EMERGENCIES at hand...but I digress.

The big war is going to be Obama and his admin. versus the Wall Street crooks who only pay 20% taxes (or whatever it is) on their compensation packages. He wants their fair share of their pay, and they don't want to give it up. If he pushes hard on this tax issue, you watch the signal Wall Street will shoot over his bow. They will send him a very clear message, that they are in charge, and they don't care how many others get stepped on during the battle. Just don't be one of the guys that gets stepped on! Clinton tried the same thing when first in office, however, he learned very quickly who's in charge. Obama doesn't seem to get it...no surprise there.

Number one rule: BE PATIENT!

 

[summersgold]

In my 5 years experience in the stock market, I find that day trading and selling stocks short is the best way to make money. Stocks go up , but they seem to come back down quicker than they went up. You need a good online broker, I use Scottrade, they keep lists of the stocks you are watching and you can see which stocks are the movers for that day. I have made more money selling short than I have selling long.

 

[kbtoy]

In my 5 years experience in the stock market, I find that day trading and selling stocks short is the best way to make money. Stocks go up , but they seem to come back down quicker than they went up. You need a good online broker, I use Scottrade, they keep lists of the stocks you are watching and you can see which stocks are the movers for that day. I have made more money selling short than I have selling long.

If someone wanted to start learning about day trading futures, stocks, or whatever does anyone have a good place to start reading or learning about it? Any books or a website maybe? Thanks

 

[summersgold]

If someone wanted to start learning about day trading futures, stocks, or whatever does anyone have a good place to start reading or learning about it? Any books or a website maybe? Thanks

Barnes & Noble or Books a Million have all kinds of books on every type of stock market trading.

 

[mung]

If someone wanted to start learning about day trading futures, stocks, or whatever does anyone have a good place to start reading or learning about it? Any books or a website maybe? Thanks

This is one of my favroties, and to me was one of the more comprehensive books. I know very little compared to others on this board, but this got me to where I understood the basics, and the big picture of trading. We all learn differently, but I "understood" a lot in this book that really helped me. Hope it helps you as well! Hopefully others will add their favorites, can never read too much!

Amazon.com: How To Make Money In Stocks: A Winning System in Good Times or Bad, 3rd Edition (0639785337751): William O'Neil: Books