FAP Turbo

Make Over 90% Winning Trades Now!

Saturday, September 26, 2009

Day Traders: Habits for Successful Trading

By Tim Hunt

There is excellent money to be made in day trading, but, unlike what some may think, it is not a simple job. To be successful, you'll need to put in some work.

Day trading stocks and commodities is a great job and a quite profitable one as well. It requires certain traits for success, and certain habits will need to be internalized.

The first habit that must be cultivated a good sense of time. Day trading is not the sort of job for someone who is always late, or can't get out of bed before 11 AM. The best time for determining how you'll strategize to play the market on a given day is right before the opening bell. The opening bell rings at 5 AM in Hawaii and Alaska, at 6 AM in California, and at 9 AM in New York. Getting up early isn't the only requirement; you'll need to be alert and ready with a good internal clock.

A second critical habit is a good set of numerical analysis skills. Making and losing money based on gut hunches is a given, but you'll also need to make educated choices based on what you've read, summarized, and synthesized so that you can make good judgments quickly with this background knowledge. All of this needs to be done fast, and you'll need to quickly judge trends in financial markets and apply these snap analyses to your trading decisions.

Although you'll need some good quantitative skills, you don't have to be a mathematician to be a successful day trader. You can cultivate your quantitative skills with just a bit of practice.

A third habit that breeds success for day traders is patience and the ability to make keen observations. These habits must be combined with an excellent short-term memory. Patience can be tough to muster when you face the disappointment of missing a stock at its peak, or when you lose money because your low never came to pass. Try not to let these challenges drag you down. Also be sure to keep your cool when you score a winning trade.

Dedicated research is the fourth important habit for day traders. While you won't need to perform in depth analysis of accounting statements as in long term conventional investing, you will need to analyze the constant inflow and outflow of data to have a good knowledge base for making judgments on the fly. On the other hand, don't get so caught up in research that you lose the ability to think and act quickly.

Remember that you don't have to do all of this research and analysis alone. High level traders have many research tools and tricks, and various data analysis tools close by.

If you decide to pursue a career change in the field of day trading, you'll need to start by building a support team, including a broker, and some investors who can help you apply leverage to the market. Recognize that you will need to work, and it's a kind of work that requires focus, drive, and dedication.

If, after reading the skills listed above, you think you have what it takes to be a successful day trader, day trading may offer you a challenging and fun way to make a great living. It's a job that can be a ton of fun, and can provide tremendous riches ? in more ways than one. - 23229

About the Author:

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home