In the article Book Takes a Look Inside Professional Day Traders, national columnist Joel Stein is spotted $100,000 to try his hand at professional intraday trading for one day. Matt Nadell, @tradecrushers, a guest blogger at SMBU Blog, in Chicago gives Joel a taste of the nerve-wrecking excitement that trading can offer while teaching him basics along the way.

Highlights:

• Joel learns that day trading is a stark divergence from his initial perception of its essence.  For example, Joel learns that Matt is interested not in P/E ratios, who the CEO is, or sales figures, but in price action.  He learns Matt is not investing, but buying stocks for a few seconds at a time and hoping to catch 5 to 20 cent moves.
• Joel learns of algorithmic trading, that “algo-bots” do roughly 70 percent of stock and bond purchases, and that 90 percent of algo-bots orders are cancelled immediately to attempt to fool the day trader.
• Joel concludes that he loves trading and the rush and anxiety that comes with it.

Click here for the full article

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