You have to decide early on whether day trading is for you or not. Firstly, we recommend paper trading before committing real monies: Remember, you can lose more than your original account balance and be in the red from being on the wrong side of the trade. Paper trade first and we recommend working with a broker or having a charting service and trading platform. Many brokers have a trading simulator on their in-house stations and can set stops to simulate actual trading activity and keep track of your P&L.

Secondly, we recommend beginner traders to trade the E-mini $5 Dow futures contract; it is easier with less back and forth then the E-mini S&P 500 futures contracts. The use of stops is always recommended – flying by the seat of your pants and relying on your

broker or your intuition to get you out of a trade is a dangerous practice. Always trade with a pre-set target such as 10-20 points to lock in gains. With all trading, especially during the slow summer months, you have to watch for chop in the market; its that back and forth 20-30 point range cut that will separate you from your money. Knowing when not to trade is as important as knowing when to trade. Trading the E-mini $5 Dow

with a 20-25 point stop works for most traders to keep them in a trade – experimentation and paper trading will help you decide which is best for you.

Thirdly, most day traders start out with 10K accounts – a big down draft can wipe you out on this size of an account and end your trading career in a short time. We recommend that beginners start with a 20K account and only trade 1-2 E-mini $5 Dow future contracts to start and get your feet wet. Realize that seasoned day traders have well funded accounts of $45K - $100K and trade from 4 – 10 contracts at a time. Shoot for a daily goal of say $200 - $400 in profits and then call it a day – making that much money on a consistent basis can add you quickly – just because its called day trading does not mean you have to trade all day and get bored quickly: keep it lively, exciting and interesting. And if you don’t feel like trading on a particular day – don’t. Don’t force your self into a losing situation.

Trading indicators, such as standard market metrics or those purchased from a talking head expert never seemed to work for us. Following the trend of the market and following the momentum of the market always seemed to work best for us and that is what our methodology shows you.

Finally, we hope this short article helps you along to realize your dream of being a full time trader – it is important to become a student of the market and read the financial websites and listen to financial radio stations in an effort to become a better and informed trader.