Day Trading

Day trading is opening and closing positions in the same session for short-term profits. Here's the legal definition, what separates it from swing trading and scalping, and the brutal math on why most retail day traders lose money in their first year.

A practical roadmap for someone with zero day-trading experience: the realistic capital required, the instruments to start with, the first 90 days of practice, and the specific mistakes that kill 80% of beginner accounts.

On April 14, 2026, the SEC approved FINRA's proposal to scrap the Pattern Day Trader rule entirely. Effective June 4, 2026, the $25,000 minimum and the 4-trades-in-5-days threshold are gone. Here's what's replacing it, what it means for retail traders, and what to know during the 18-month phase-in.

The rules that separate consistent day traders from one-good-week-then-blow-up day traders. Per-trade risk, daily loss caps, max-trades caps, time-of-day rules, and the no-trade conditions you should commit to before the open.

An honest tour of the named day-trading setups - opening range breakout, VWAP reversal, gap and go, momentum continuation, and reversal from extreme - with the conditions each one needs and the ones to avoid.

The most well-documented day-trading setup, with rules clean enough that a beginner can execute them mechanically. Here's the 5/15/30-minute variants, the volume confirmation filter, the second-chance retest entry, and the day types where ORB stops working.

VWAP is the volume-weighted average price - the institutional benchmark every fund tracks. Here's why it acts as a magnet level, the canonical reversion setup, the band-based variations, and anchored VWAP from key levels.

Gap-and-go is the named setup for trading instruments that gap on overnight news. Here's the catalyst-quality filter, the gap-up vs gap-down vs gap-fill rules, and why most retail gap traders get caught in the wrong direction.

Momentum trading buys strength and sells weakness. Here's the first-pullback rule that separates working momentum trades from chasing tops, the EMA-based variation, and how to tell continuation from exhaustion.

Day trading and swing trading look similar from the outside but require almost-opposite skill sets, capital structures, and time commitments. Here's an honest comparison so you can pick the one that fits your life - not the one Twitter sells you.

Not all market hours are created equal. The first 90 minutes and the last hour have most of the day's edge. Lunch is a graveyard. Here's the hour-by-hour breakdown of US session windows and which setups work in each.

A working day trader's session has six distinct phases - pre-market scan, watchlist build, opening session, mid-day journal, power hour, post-session review. Here's the hour-by-hour routine that turns a chaotic day into a repeatable process.

Scalpers take 30-100 trades a session for 1-3R targets. Day traders take 1-5 trades for 1.5-3R. The infrastructure, costs, and skill requirements are wildly different. Here's why scalping is mostly a professional's game and what makes day trading the more accessible retail path.