In the world of finance a trader is defined as someone who buys and sells financial instruments like stocks, commodities, derivatives and bonds in the capacity of an agent, speculator or hedger. A day trader, then is a trader who specializes in buying and selling these instruments within the same trading day. Trading begins and ends with the opening and the closing of the markets and may include a few or into the hundreds of orders per trading day.
Day traders belong to one of two groups, institutional and retail. A trader who is an institutional part of the equation works for a financial institution like a bank an has access to many resources, tools, and equipment, not to mention a large amount of capital with which to trade. They can trade continuously throughout the market day since they always have fresh fund inflows at their disposal.
On the other hand, those on the retail side of things use retail brokerages and trade with their own capital. It is easy then to see how institutional day traders have a certain advantage over their retail counterparts.
If you have ever watched the market you will know that it goes up and down throughout the day. World events have a lot of influence on which way the market will go. They are trained to take these little price movements and make them into something big, like big profits for their clients. When you are only trading within a day period the experts say that the more volatile the market is on a given day, the better a day trader will do. If the market is flat or not moving much on a given day, the opposite is true, and a day trader may not be able to work those great deals.
To be a day trader you need a certain know how of the markets, and the proper equipment, tools and insight to trade the right platform every day. The successes go to those with the most information on any given day. Traders also have to know when to move, when not to move and when to get out of a trade which can be a thrilling experience or one fraught with stress and panic, especially with a new trader.
Trading is a tough world to get into and is one that is often associated with burnout among its members. You can win big or lose big, it's all in the markets and how a trader works them.
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