What is day trading in stocks and forex?

In stocks and forex, day trading is basically the practice of buying and selling financial instruments within the same trading day. It is usually done in such a way that all positions will generally be closed before the market closes on that particular trading day. Traders who participate in day trading are called day traders. Financial instruments include stocks, currencies as well as equity index futures, commodity futures and interest rate futures.

The professional investors, financial firms, and speculators are the ones who have a firm hold on day trading. However, many day traders belong to the banking sector or investment firm. These employees work as specialists in equity investment and fund management. Day trading is just the opposite of after-hours trading.

Currently, day trading has become very popular among casual traders mainly because of the popularity of the Internet and changes in the law. There are many sub-trading styles that fall under the category of day trading. The number of trades made in a day may vary from one to numerous others depending on trading strategy of the day trader.

Some day traders go for short-term trading, in that case the trade last for some seconds. The short-term traders buy and sell multiple times in a single day and receive big discounts from the brokerage.