Day trading can be an amazing way to make good money, or an amazingly stressful occupation. No matter what some may say, it’s not an easy ride. You have to put some serious work into it.

Day trading in commodities or stocks is, at base, a job. While it can be a highly lucrative job, it’s also one that means you need some basic traits to succeed. You also need some specific habits, and they have to be so ingrained they’re automatic.

The first thing you need is a great sense of time. Anyone who has trouble getting up first thing in the morning or needs to jumpstart with that first cup of coffee will only be miserable day trading. That’s because the best time to figure out what you’ll be doing on the market on a particular day is right before the opening bell. That happens at nine am in New York City - six am in California and five am in Hawaii and Alaska. You can’t just be an early riser, though. You also have to have an excellent internal scheduling system and clock.

The second necessary habit is having good quantitative thinking skills. Working on hunches will allow you to make or lose money in day trading. You need to be able to read and understand the numbers without thinking about them if you want to make good decisions. You have to be able to convert and analyze the numbers in your head carefully, so you’ll be able to tell if something is a blip or a lasting trend, and you have to be able to act accordingly.

I should point out that you don’t have to be a mathematician to do this. You can learn how to analyze the numbers correctly, even if you’re not fond of math. There are quite a few numerical skills that can turn into second nature, as long as you get well into the game.

Successful day traders also have to have patience and skills of observation, and combine them with a short memory. This can be pretty hard to learn, since you have to avoid feeling disappointment when you don’t catch a stock at the top, or when you lose money because the short you’re intending just never shows up. Don’t get caught up in things when you lose, and don’t allow winning to take over your life, either.

Dedicated research is habit number four. You won’t have to consume accounting statements the way someone in long term conventional investing does, but you have to constantly be getting new data and analysis. You also have to be proactive about your buying and selling, and make fast, accurate judgments, then act on them just as quickly. The only way to make the correct decision is to have the right research. Just don’t let it paralyze you.

Remember that a lot of the research and analysis won’t need to be done by you directly. The best traders always have a number of tools at their disposal, as well as many different data services and research sources ready to access.

If day trading appeals to you as a new career, you’ll have to build up a support network. You’ll need to find some investors willing to help you apply leverage, as well as a good broker.

If you’ve got all these skills and can develop these habits, day trading could be a great way to make a fantastic income. This is a job you can call fun honestly, and it can be pretty enriching, too.

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