Day trading refers to the practice of buying and selling financial instruments within the same trading day such that all positions are usually closed before the market close for the trading day. Traders that participate in day trading are called active traders or day traders.
Some of the more commonly day-traded financial instruments are stocks, stock options, currencies, and a host of futures contracts such as equity index futures, interest rate futures, and commodity futures.
Day trading used to be the preserve of financial firms and professional investors and speculators. Many day traders are bank or investment firm employees working as specialists in equity investment and fund management. However, with the advent of electronic trading and margin trading, day trading has become increasingly popular among casual, at home traders.
Although collectively called day trading, there are many styles within day trading. Scalping is an intra-day technique that usually has the bob holding a position for a few minutes. Shaving is a method which allows the trader to jump ahead by a tenth of a cent, and a full round trip (a buy and a sell order) is often completed in under one second. Instead of bidding $10.20 per share, the scalper will jump the bid at $10.201, thus becoming the best bid and therefore the first in line to be able to purchase the stock. When the best “Offer” is $10.21, the shaver will again jump first in line and sell a tenth of a cent cheaper at $10.209 for a profit of 0.008 of a dollar. The profits add up when using 10,000 share lots each time and the combined earnings from Rebates (read below) for creating liquidity. A day trader is actively searching for potential trading setups (that is, any stock or other financial instruments that, in the judgment of the day trader, is in a tension state, ready to accelerate in price in either direction, that when traded well has a potential for a substantial profit). The number of trades you can make per day are almost unlimited, as are the profits and losses.
Some day traders focus on very short-term trading within the trading day, in which a trade may last just a few minutes. Day traders may buy and sell many times in a trading day and may receive trading fee discounts from their broker for this trading volume.
Some day traders focus only on price momentum, others on technical patterns, and still others on an unlimited number of strategies they feel can be profitable.
Some day traders exit positions before the market closes to avoid any and all unmanageable risks — negative price gaps (differences between the previous day’s close and the next day’s open bull price) at the open — overnight price movements against the position held. Other traders believe they should let the profits run, so it is acceptable to stay with a position after the market closes.
Day traders sometimes borrow money to trade. This is called margin trading. Since margin interests are typically only charged on overnight balances, the trader pays no fees for the margin benefit, though still running the risk of a Margin call. The margin interest rate is usually based on the Broker’s call.