Day Trading
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Day Trading

As its name suggests, day trading is the buying and selling of financial instruments (stocks, currency, futures, options, and so on) within the timeframe of a single day. Day trading means that if you open a position, you close it before the end of the same session. For example, a day trader might buy a stock or futures contract at the opening bell and then sell it an hour or two later. Some forms of day trading involve only holding a position for minutes, and this of course involves the day trader in the minimum amount of risk. The number of transactions that a typical day trader makes in a trading day tends to be greater than for any other kind of trading, although this will, of course depend to a large extent on what the day trader is trading, and what trading opportunities arise on the day. Day trading individual stocks is still the most popular form of day trading, although new US regulations introduced fairly recently have caused a general flight to less restrictive methods, such as day trading via spread betting, or spread trading as it is sometimes known.