The short definition
A day trader buys and sells the same instrument inside a single trading session. The goal is to capture intraday moves and end the day flat, which removes overnight gap risk but concentrates decision-making into a few fast hours.
What a day actually looks like
Most day traders follow a routine rather than a hunch: a premarket scan, a written watchlist with levels, a risk plan per trade, then execution during the highest-volume part of the session.
- Premarket: scan for volume and catalysts
- Plan: entry, stop, target, share size
- Execute: follow the plan or stand aside
- Review: journal every trade the same day
Why most of the difficulty is not the entry
New traders spend their time looking for setups. Experienced traders spend it on sizing, stops and daily loss limits. Risk control is what makes a strategy survivable across a losing streak.
Educational content only. TradeCaster does not provide financial advice and past results never imply future performance.