Bottom Line. If you are looking to day trade stocks, the best time to do that may be in the morning, right after the market opens at 9:30 a.m. ET until about 11 a.m. ET. It's when you will end up seeing the bulk of your gains.
Nobody loves waking up early, but if you're serious about becoming a successful day trader, waking up early is necessary. When you take on the life of a day trader, your job starts at 9:30AM EST and you need to be prepared.
A day trader could trade off of 15-minute charts, use 60-minute charts to define the primary trend and a five-minute chart (or even a tick chart) to define the short-term trend.
If the market is trending down, they would short securities that exhibit weakness when their prices bounce. Most independent day traders have short days, working two to five hours per day. Often they will practice making simulated trades for several months before beginning to make live trades.
Regular trading begins at 9:30 a.m. EST, so the hour ending at 10:30 a.m. EST is often the best trading time of the day. It offers the biggest moves in the shortest amount of time. Many professional day traders stop trading around 11:30 a.m., because that's when volatility and volume tend to taper off.
Traders often fail because they do not take trading seriously enough. Most inexperienced traders seek get-rich-quick methods and do not adequately prepare how they would approach the market. In reality, some inexperienced traders are gambling without even realizing it.
Between 9:00 AM to 9:15 AM is when the pre-market session is conducted on NSE. During the pre-market session for the first 8 minutes (between 9:00 AM and 9:08 AM) orders are collected, modified, or cancelled. You can place limit orders/market orders.
Day traders get a wide variety of results that largely depend on the amount of capital they can risk, and their skill at managing that money. If you have a trading account of $10,000, a good day might bring in a five percent gain, or $500.
Some day traders do make money. However, the odds are definitely not in your favor. One research report published by several university professors determined that in any given year, only about 13% of day traders achieve a profit. Even worse, the study found that less than 1% of day traders consistently make money.
Average Salary for a Day Trader
Day Traders in America make an average salary of $118,912 per year or $57 per hour. The top 10 percent makes over $195,000 per year, while the bottom 10 percent under $72,000 per year.
Main takeaway: the 10 or 15-minute chart is for people who want to focus on the large price movements throughout the day. They don't mind waiting longer for trades to open and close. They prefer cleaner movement and are likely after only one or two trades over multiple hours of trading.
First off, both SMA and EMA are some of the best indicators for 1 minute chart. The Simple Moving Average (SMA) tracks the average closing price of the last number of periods. For example 50 day SMA will indicate the average closing price of 50 trading days, where all of them are given equal weight in the indicator.
In reality, 5-minute charts are great for stocks with lower volatility. However, if you are trading low float stocks you will want to use a one-minute or two-minute chart to track price movement. While you are monitoring price movement on a lower level, you will also need to monitor the bigger trends.
The upshot: Experienced traders often view Monday as the best day of the week to buy and sell stocks because of the time and pent-up demand since the last trading session the previous Friday.
Is day trading a good idea? Day trading is not worth it for the vast majority of day traders. Anecdotally, it's been widely estimated that 95% of day traders ultimately lose money, and it's been empirically demonstrated that about the same percentage of unprofitable day traders continues despite losing money.
If you sell a stock security too soon after purchasing it, you may commit a trading violation. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) calls this violation “free-riding.” Formerly, this time frame was three days after purchasing a security, but in 2017, the SEC shortened this period to two days.
Starting Capital of 100k – 250k
Average Day Trader Salary = 20% annual return. This breaks down to 20k to 50k for an annual salary. Above Average Day Trader Salary = 50% annual return. This breaks down to 50k to 125k.
Aside from the statistical improbability that all good traders can be millionaires, there are other more tangible reasons why even great day traders aren't millionaires. These reasons include the “personal ceiling” and “market ceiling.”
The bottom line
Despite troubles with the SEC, Robinhood remains positioned to drive investor profits. However, given its large-cap status, this fintech stock will likely not turn small investors into millionaires without help from other names. 10 stocks we like better than Robinhood Markets, Inc.
Some financial experts posture that day trading is more akin to gambling than it is to investing. While investing looks at putting money into the stock market with a long-term strategy, day trading looks at intraday profits that can be made from rapid price changes, both large and small.
Despite being able to make $1,000 or $5,000—depending on starting account size—over and over again, most day traders end up being like a recreational fisherman who catches a fish but then throws it back.
Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and National Stock Exchange (NSE) remain close on Saturdays and Sundays except any special trading sessions announced by the exchange i.e. Diwali Muhurat Trading or to test new technical platforms.
Who Can Trade After Hours? Individual retail investors and institutional investors alike can trade after hours. There aren't any restrictions on who can trade after hours, although retail investors generally weren't able to trade after hours until mid-1999.