Day Trading

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Online InvestingWhat is day trading?

Day trading is the act of buying and selling the same stock (or other investment type) within a single trading day.

This activity has become very popular among traders. It can be very profitable - you can make thousands of dollars in a very short amount of time. On the other hand, you can lose that money just as quickly.

One of the main challenges is that stock prices usually change very little throughout the day. In order to make a sizeable profit, you must put large amounts of money into the stock. Most stocks only fluctuate 1-2% every day. So if you put $1,000 into the stock and made a profit of 1%, that would only be $10. Now if you put $50,000 into the stock, you would make $500. That is where the danger lies, however. Let's say the company suddenly reported bad news or something major happened in the financial world and your stock drops 8%. You just lost eight times your normal profit of 1%, which would be $4,000 on a $50,000 investment.

  Practice Day Trading! with our free Virtual Stock Exchange!

Below is an example of a stock's chart towards the end of a trading day. You can see how different patterns emerge in the chart, even in just a few minutes. Trading decisions can be made based on these price movements.

Day Trading Graph

 
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