Sunday, February 1, 2009

Day Traders: Habits for Successful Trading

By Tim Hunt

A job as a day trader is a great way to make money in a very lucrative field. It is not, though, an easy way to get rich quick. You will need to put effort and work into it.

As it happens, trading stocks and commodities as a day trader is great job, and a financially rewarding one. It does require certain characteristics and habits for the highest chances of success.

Time management is the first important habit. You must be able to wake up early and alert first thing in the morning and be ready to evaluate how you'll play the market that day. All of this must happen before the opening bell, which starts at 9:00 a.m. in New York, 6:00 a.m. in California, and 5:00 a.m. in Alaska and Hawaii. Getting out of bed early is only half the story; you'll also need to stay on schedule and have a good internal alarm clock. If you're the type who can't function before 11:00 a.m. or has to guzzle down multiple cups of coffee before facing the day, day trading may not be the job for you.

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.

Let me just point out that you don't have to be a mathematician to be good at day trading. You can learn certain quantitative skills, even if you were never that great at math. Certain numerical skills will seem automatic to you once you've practiced them a bit.

A third important habit for day traders is observational skills combined with good short-term memory. You'll also need patience. Keep your cool even when you miss catching a stock at its highest point, or when you lose money because an anticipated low never arrived. Likewise, you must stay calm when you make a big winning trade as well.

The fourth habit you'll need to cultivate is research skills. Day trading, thankfully, does not require the same kind of in-depth numerical analysis as long-term investments, but you'll need a handle on the flow of information so that you can use this knowledge base when making quick judgments. Doing your research ahead of time is the only way to make good judgments quickly. But, don't get bogged down so much by research that you lose the ability to think and act fast.

Bear in mind that you don't have to do all of this research on your own. Top day traders have many tools and services available to assist in the research process.

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 you think you may possess these skills and traits, day trading can offer a thrilling way of earning a remarkable income. You can really have fun at the job, and if you have what it takes to be successful, you'll come away "enriched" in more ways than one. - 15224

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