Many people today are interested in online day trading. Day trading is the speculation of securities. This is when people buy and sell financial instruments on the same day, rather than holding it overnight. Day trading usually focuses on either price momentum, profitable strategies, or technical patterns when trading. Frequently sold instruments include stocks, currencies, and commodity futures. Forex trading, or trading on the foreign exchange market, is common.

Many day traders buy on margin, which is a way of borrowing money. Brokers often allow for day traders to borrow higher amounts of money, since the yield can be greater. However, it can also increase the severity of a high loss if and when one occurs.

In the past, day trading was restricted to professionals such as bank employees and financial firms. Today, many people participate in online day trading from home because of the ease of access that comes with the internet. Day online trading allows many people to work from home. Many people also appreciate the use of online day trading as a way to create a supplementary source of secondary income.

Day traders are sometimes referred to as gamblers by other traders because of the risky transactions they participate in. However, most online day traders are able to make a consistent living from their trading. Although they often experience huge gains or losses in a single day, a good trader has enough assets to offset this temporary setback in the case of losses.

One example of an online day trading plan is called scalping. This occurs when a trader keeps a position for a few seconds or minutes. Shaving is another technique, which allows traders to bid a cent below the asking price, in a buy share process usually lasting less than a second. The trader only makes a cent profit, so for techniques like this traders must buy large amounts of stock in order to generate a sizable profit.