Day trading is the practice of selling financial instruments (be they bonds, loans, stocks, futures, or options) at a price higher than when you bought them, to others who are participating in the market. Actually that’s over simplifying a little – you can profit from selling at a lower prices as well, but that’s beyond the scope of this article!

The number of day traders has grown recently as more and more people become aware of websites like Stockcharts and Google Finance, and become involved in watching the business news and following financial markets.

It can be a pretty addictive game that some call akin to gambling, though if you learn the methodology behind it it becomes more of a game of numbers than gambling.

With the advent of new trading sites like Etrade and Ameritrade, almost anyone can open an account and start investing in the stock market. Most of these sites come with tools that allow you to monitor your stocks and follow the ups and downs of the market, however many of these tools must be paid for.

If you are looking for free trading software, it’s generally better to search Goggle for it rather than scouting on trading giants like Ameritrade which will usually seek to sell you their own products instead. New software comes and goes all the time, which is why it’s worth searching regularly to see what’s new.

Day trading software often proprietary, and is linked to in-house systems in places like the New York Stock Exchange where a broker will take your order and place it for you on your behalf. Many people with very large portfolios have the option of having specialized software built just for them with options of data analysis and charting that come with it.

Day trading can be a very profitable but also a very risky hobby. Nearly anyone with a bank account and computer can start trading stocks today and this is what makes the system so risky. An individual can get very lucky and get a huge return on a stock within a single workday, or they can lose their entire investment and potentially many times more than their investment through the use of margin buying/selling. Buying on margin means you can buy more stock that you have funds to actually buy, which results in greater earnings/loss by the end of the trading day.

In fact, you’re better off going on sites like Stockcharts and The Motley Fool and reading investing news and strategies. These sites will teach you how to read stock charts so you can make predictions in the market and buy stocks that you picked out, not some financial advisor picked out for you.

The best way to learn to day trade is to do it yourself, and the risk free way is to start out with a virtual stock market game that mimics actual stock market prices. This will allow you to gauge your skills before putting your real money on the table and to the test.

The point of day trading is that the trade is made within the day, meaning you buy in the morning and sell in the afternoon or sell at any time before the day is done. This means you’re not subject to any risk during overnight movements in the markets.

Many people who try day trading are often unsuccessful at first and may say that it doesn’t work and just give up. These people haven’t put enough time into it to know whether or not it works. That said, day trading can either be a very profitable or an immensely risky venture that you have to consider before getting into.

The amount of money you can make in a single day varies mostly with market forces and you can make hundreds of times your initial investment just by getting lucky, or you can lose your entire investment and sometimes even more than your investment if you’re buying on margin. Buying on margin means you can buy a stock for 25% or 50% of its actual value, meaning you can buy more stock than you have physical money to buy and this can result in great gains or even great losses if you’re unlucky.

Day trading is a risky game that can be mastered by the hardest and most patient of workers.

Here we present our top picks of courses for all styles of day trading.

Stock Trading

Veteran day trader Harvey Walsh has a formidable reputation. He was the first trader to post live trading videos on YouTube. His so-relaxed-he’s-almost-horizontal trading style is a breath of fresh air, and has been a hit among his many students,

His Day Trading Freedom course is the complete package for anyone who wants to get into trading stocks, and more specifically, US stocks.

Walsh trades primarily the Nasdaq. His course is presented in two parts (both of which are included in the very reasonable asking price). Part one covers the basics, whilst part two goes in depth into how to pick stocks and trade them.

It’s a simple system, which is one reason it works so beautifully. Walsh’s writing style is informal and easy to digest. The course is easy to follow, and there’s video content too.

Forex Trading

If you’ve ever looked into trading forex, you’ve probably noticed one name coming up again and again – Peter Bain. That’s hardly surprising, his Forex Mentor course has been around longer than most, and it’s sticking power is testament to the solid content.

Bain himself was the original “mentor”, but over the years his course and site have grown and grown, and now there are many teachers. There are good and bad points to this. On the one hand, it can be confusing seeing different methods and styles, particularly when starting out.

On the other hand, having a membership of Forex Mentor means you have all the forex information you could ever need in one central location. Chat rooms and videos enhance the learning experience, but be careful not to become dependent on chat room tips.

Futures Trading

Woodies CCI Club is a free site that teaches mainly futures trading using only the CCI indicator. When we say “only”, we really mean it – many of Woodies students actually turn off the prices on their charts and watch just the indicator!

Woody has been around for years, and his CCI Club has grown up from being a little paltalk chat room to a sprawling website with many contributors. There are paid rooms too, but you don’t need them.

The site is somewhat anarchic, there’s a distinct lack of organisation. Even so, it’s worth persevering with it because all the information is there, and the strategies most certainly work.

Options Trading

Our honest view is that if you are learning day trading for the first time, you should steer clear of options. They’re complex, and even many seasoned traders have trouble with them. You’re better off with stocks or forex (and we’d go for stocks every time, they are just simply easier).

That said, if you want to go with options, our recommended course is the options Income System. It’s a video based course presented in 11 parts. The initial sections, like with all the other courses we’ve recommended, cover off the basics, ensuring the course is suitable for beginners.

Then comes strategy, and unusually, advice on which broker to use. There are some bonus strategies that are bundled with the course, but these are essentially just variations of what has already been taught in the main part.