What is Day Trading?

Day trading is the buying and selling of various financial instruments, such as futures, options, currencies, and stocks, with the goal of making a profit from the difference between the buying price and the selling price. Day trading differs slightly from other styles of trading in that positions are rarely (if ever) held overnight or when the market being traded is closed.

Day trading was originally only available to financial companies (such as banks), because only they had access to the exchanges and market data. But with recent technology such as the Internet, individual traders now have direct access to the same exchanges and market data, and can make the same trades at very low cost.