There are a few simple rules to be relatively successful at Day Trading: 1) Spend as much time as you can learning about the markets areas you are interested i

There are a few simple rules to be relatively successful at Day Trading: 1) Spend as much time as you can learning about the markets areas you are interested in trading. Practice paper trading until you understand what you are doing. 2) When you actually put in real currency, do NOT change what you were doing when you were paper trading. Any changes in the habits you built paper trading when you use real currency will ensure that you will fail. 3) If the market is volatile, take the day off and go do something else. 4) Don't be greedy - if you break this rule, you will fail. 5) Expect losses as they WILL happen. The corollary to this is : Don't get emotional. 6) Remember this is always a gamble and there is always risk involved. 7) Market makers are NOT your friend. They can/will disrupt any patterns that you are looking for as they are after their profits at your expense. The above is the consistent advice I received from many different people who were successful at day trading. I did paper trading for quite a while for the training purposes. I didn't get into full day trading as my own individual circumstances changed. Friends who did get into this and who failed tended to break one of these rules, especially 4.