Day trading
Day trading is a style of trading where investments are traded in one day and rarely held onto overnight. The goal is to make a profit between the buying and selling price of the investments. Such things traded in day trading are futures, options, currencies, and stocks.
There are different styles of day trading, which also carry along a different personality. Some positions are only held for a few seconds, which is called scalping. This is in the category of short term trading. Sometimes the position will be held a few seconds or a few minutes. Longer term trading styles are called swing and position trading. In these types of trading styles, the position can be held throughout the day.
While some traders will use all of the different trading styles, some will just stick to one style. Some day traders may only make one trade per day, after they watch the market and make many decisions and considerations. Lots of different markets can be day traded, through different exchanges across the globe. As mentioned above, futures, options, currencies, and stock market indexes are all types of markets that can be day traded. There are direct access brokers who make information available to traders.
They provide currency exchange rates between different types of currencies and can also make the execution of a trade faster. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission warns anyone who is considering day trading because of the risks involved with losing substantial amounts of money.
They also require you to have $25,000 in your account to participate in day trading and you can only trade in margin accounts. Day trading involves long hours spent looking at the tickers on a computer and also a day full of making split second decisions in regards to buying and selling stocks.