Can you make money day trading?

Answer 1

You can make money and you can lose money. You need to do a lot of research. You have to work really hard to stay ahead of the market. It is not easy. You might want to see what the best traders are buying and selling at http://www.top10traders.com - this is a free site that lets you create a portfolio of stocks with $100,000 in "play" money. Each day the site ranks the best performing portfolios, so you can see how your picks perform compared to other investors. You can read posts on investing from the best traders, as well as share your own investing ideas. There is a charting feature, so you can see how your portfolio performs compared to the S&P 500. Also, you can create your own "group" so that you can see how you are doing compared to your friends.

Here are this month's best traders:

http://www.top10traders.com/Top10Standings.aspx

Good luck.

Answer 2

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Answer 3

Any market participant, including a day trader, will make money, on average, because the market trend is up. You would need to use options, otherwise you won't have any leverage. Transaction fees will reduce your gains of course, and you will have tremendous volatility.

But consider that the Vanguard Index fund has beat 80% of professional money managers over a period of twenty-years. They never trade, just buy and hold.

FYI you can model any trading system using Excel first, using random or historical stock prices to see how you'll do. I think you will be very surprised at how volatile your results will be. I have some LEAP call trading models where you can make 40% average returns, but your volatility is so high that you might as well be buying lottery tickets. (i.e. One trade you make 5x your money, the next four you lose everything.)

Answer 4

It's very hard if not impossible. Any profits you make will likely be swallowed alive by commissions and taxes and you'll have to spend an enormous amount of time glued to a computer monitor instead of doing actual work.

Look at it this way--unless you have an actual method of telling when stocks are going to move and in what direction, daytrading isn't going to make you any more money than just buying and holding stocks. And you have to pay more money and work harder for the outcome.

Just make your life easy and buy and hold some exchange traded funds that track the S&P 500 like SPY or IVV.

Answer 5

Probably just as much if you become skilled at a fast paced Casino game.

It's been tried many times, but the slight fluctuations in "bid" and "ask" prices of stocks being traded could turn out to be a losing proposition.

I don't day trade, but lost thousands of dollars trying to figure what stocks will do by buying "puts". Most expire worthless.

So, I now buy and accumulate for the long run.

Answer 6

It will require so much of your time, that you probably won't be able to keep a day job. That makes it twice as risky, because you will probably lose money day trading, plus you won't have a real job.
The Wall Street pros and Market Makers are shameless, shrewd rats and will steal your money and your shares with the ease of a hot knife in butter - and this will happen so fast that your head will swim.
Jim Cramer even recently admitted on TV that the stock market is a game, and everyone who's a pro walks all over the suckers and commit crimes on a daily, if not hourly basis.

Answer 7

Yes you can. But remember that the professional money managers and hedge fund managers out there work around the clock to do it and sometimes they lose too. If you are thinking about doing it part time it won't work. You may have up days, but for every down day you'll have to have two up days to get ahead.
Your best bet is to study business and then start researching. There are lots of resources on the net. Start with www.fool.com
www.thestreet.com
www.investopedia.com
www.investmentdude.com
and keep reading. Once you can look at that donut shop across the street and understand how it makes money, then you can invest for yourself.

Answer 8

Very few do.

The ones that do generally do very well.

Most lose their initial investment and move on.

Find a guy who can prove to you that he has made money day trading and learn from him.

Contact the guys at:

http://rematatrading.com/contactus.aspx

I am not recommending them but you can discuss the matter with them. They are good guys and they are not looking to take your money.

Answer 9

Absolutely....BUT you need the right tools. First off, get the right trading system meaning online broker with fast response. THEN you need to understand HOW to day trade and what to watch for. FINALLY, you need to read the NEWS each night and then use some online sites that give you an edge, I recommend http://www.daytradegaps.com and http://www.consensustraders.com . daytradegaps will give you an edge for sure, and consensustraders will give you an overall picture.

Answer 10

yeah, i traded a pound for 1500$ yesterday