In order to successfully day trade you must have access to real-time market data. Relying on stale information will result in poor trades.
Day trading is the practice of buying or selling throughout the day, but completely out of the market by the close of the trading day.
Skills and Training
As a career, day trading attracts individuals from many walks of life. Because it is stressful, day traders must be self-disciplined, confident, and patient; they must also have the ability to accept losses, learn from their mistakes and quickly move forward.
Seminars, books, college courses, and Internet-based tutorials all offer the opportunity to learn what you need to know to become a successful day trader—for a price. And the learning never stops. You have to keep up to date on market trends, emerging technologies, and learn new methodologies continually to stay ahead of the game.
Getting Started
As a beginner online trader, as a minimum, you will need a computer, a reliable and fast Internet connection, access to real-time data, an account with a brokerage service, and funds to open a broker account. Never trade with funds you cannot afford to lose. Before jumping into the day trading milieu it is advisable to practice by paper trading. Paper trading simply means virtual or simulated trading. You can find paper trading websites on the Internet that will let you hone your trading skills and get a feel for the tools and methods used by day traders before you invest your cash.
Paper trading is useless if you are not simulating real-life day trading as much as possible. For this reason you should try to approach paper trading as if you were committing real money. This involves setting up a plan dealing with such items as:
- entry & exit points- stop loss limits- profit targets- your desired risk/reward profile- amount of capital to be committed to trades
How long should you paper trade before commencing to "real-life" day trade. There is no set rule in this regard. You should continue paper trading until you become completely comfortable with the trading system and confident in your ability to use such techniques as "buy/sell orders" and "stops”.
It is important to note that success in paper trading does not ensure success when trading in the real market. Many have observed that it is generally easier to profit in a paper trading environment than in the real markets - in large part because emotions tend to cloud trading judgments when real money is at risk. Nevertheless, the proper use of paper trading can be a very useful tool to increase your likelihood of success (or limit your losses) when you begin trading for real.
Most successful day traders are those that have a system or method and stick to it over and over and over. There is no "magic formula" that will result in fantastic results. Most day traders that I know, plan their trades around a theory or method they have faith in and continue this process over and over.As a beginner day online trader, you will want to use a really simple strategy or method to trade. Matching a method of trading with your personality is the only way you will ever feel comfortable in the markets