What is Day Trading - Introduction & Tips for beginners

FOREX trading can be done via day trading, but a very specialized form of it. Day trading is concerned with opening and closing market positions, or buying and selling securities on the same day. It is the job of day traders to buy and sell stocks rapidly throughout the day, and hope that, for the short time they own the stocks, which can be only a few minutes, or even seconds, their value will continue to climb or fall in order for them to make quick profits. However, day trading is a very risky form of trading, which can result in considerable financial losses over a short period of time. Their losses are all the more important, as day traders generally buy stocks on borrowed money, hoping to reap profits, but standing the risk of losses as well.

Day trading is not illegal or unethical, but it can be very risky. The bottom line is that day traders should not risk the money that they cannot afford to lose. Large losses can come as a result of owning stocks overnight, because the risk that their prices may change over this interval is extremely high. This is the reason why true day trading is not concerned with owning the stocks for more than a few hours, and definitely not from one day to the next.

Day trading is also a very stressful job, not only on account of the huge loss perspective, but also because it requires great concentration on the part of the traders, when they have to watch price fluctuations and ticker quotes in order to spot market trends.

The same potential for huge losses is present with FOREX trading as well. Traders have access to high margins with FOREX, which means they only need small outlays of cash to control large amounts of currency. This is why FOREX traders stand to gain huge profits, just as they run the risk of huge losses.

FOREX trading is unique for a number of reasons. One of them is that this market is impossible to manipulate, as it is free of any external controls. Another advantage is represented by the fact that the FOREX market is the largest liquid financial market in the world. The trading performed daily on this market reaches almost two trillion US dollars. The possibility to open and close positions in the market extremely quickly, due to its liquidity, is yet another advantage of FOREX trading.

Not all investors participate in the FOREX market for long-term hedge positions. There are FOREX traders who utilize margin trading in their attempt to gain large profits over a short period of time. This is the reason why the FOREX market has been associated with speculative investments. However, this combination of short-term and long-term investors, each with different investment strategies, generates an attractive environment.