I'm not sure if there are still people out there aspiring to be full-time day traders, but for those of you who still have faith in the stock market, you may be interested in reading this guest post posted at Bargaineering written by Matt of Steadfast Finances: "A Typical Day in Life as an Independent Trader".
As I've said before, I'm one of those long-term investors, however, I'm very fascinated with day-trading and the potential to make a great deal of money quickly. That's been my perception of daytrading anyways.
What I do realize is that day-trading takes a great deal of patience. It also requires a high-level of risk. In essence, if you're a good gambler, you can probably be a good trader. At least, that's what I think.
Dave Manuel offers some sound advice on becoming a day trader that I think is worth reading.
In this video clip, Mark Griffith, a futures and options floor trader at LIFFE (London International Financial Futures Exchange), offers tips on how to become a day trader...
Related Post:
The Dark Side of Day Trading Stocks
Great Tip, I appreciate your advice....Thank you
Thanks for the link and mention.
If I may clarify, there are independent traders, and among this diverse group, there is a more specific group known as day traders.
I'm very rarely a day trader. However, there are the rare good luck days when a stock will pop 10% after a purchase, then maybe I'll take my gains and move on. As you could imagine, this happens very rarely and usually something major is going on within the market (e.g. the crash in Oct 2008).
I'm a fairly risk averse guy, so 99% of the time, I'm using a "buy on the dips" strategy that takes weeks or months to see a profit (if at all).
Daytrading is fun and exciting, but it's been proven that only 20% of day traders can make money over the long term. Since you're a longer term investor, I'd suggest starting a stock market simulation game where you test out your trading strategies first, so you're risking any of your own capital. It's also good to remember that fake money doesn't translate the same emotions as real money, so take this into consideration.