Most Popular Stocks and ETFs for Day Trading.
Stocks and ETFs that day traders love.
The best day trading stock is one that provides opportunity in its price movements and has ample volume so you can get in and out of those opportunities quickly. These two factors are known as volatility and volume, and how much volatility and volume there helps you pick the best day trading stocks or ETFs for your trading style and personality.
Some day traders like lots of volume without much volatility.
The price moves one cent at a time and they scalp the small movements. Others prefer lots of action in the stocks or ETFs they trade (see Find Day Trading Stocks With the Biggest Moves). The price moves quickly, often moving several percentage points in a day, and may jump several cents or more in seconds.
Volume and volatility do change over time, though. Specific events may make a stock/ETF very popular for awhile, but when the event is over the volume and volatility dry up. This cycle may repeat over and over again. An example of this is the S&P 500 VIX ST Futures ETN (VXX). When the S&P 500 is moving higher, VXX is relatively calm, but when the S&P 500 falls, VXX jumps to life and there's a big jump in volatility and volume.
Below is a list of the most popular day trading stocks and ETFs. All have lots of volume, averaging over 10 million shares per day, but vary in volatility.
Beta is a baseline for determining volatility.
It measures how much a stock moves relative to the S&P 500. A beta above 1 or below -1 means the stock is more volatile than the S&P 500. Betas in between -1 and 1 mean the stock tends to be less volatile than the S&P 500. ETFs track their own indexes, not the S&P 500 (except for SPY), therefore Beta readings are not provided for the ETFs below.
To quickly see how volatile an ETF is, relative to the SPDR S&P 500, open a SPY chart on FreeStockCharts. Click Settings>Comparison, type in the symbol of the ETF you want to compare and check mark the box beside it. Also,​ check mark "Show percentage scale." Now you can see how many percent an ETF (or multiple ETFs) moves relative to SPY (for more see How to Get the Most Out of FreeStockCharts).
Most Popular Stocks and ETFs for Day Trading.
Consistently the most popular ETF among day traders is the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY). It routinely trades over 100 million shares per day and the huge volume allows you to trade smaller or larger position sizes adapted of the volatility. Here are other high volume stocks and ETFs to consider for day trading. Betas are provided where applicable. All numbers are subject to change. Make sure a stock/ETF still aligns with your strategy before trading it.
Screening for Stocks Yourself.
Screen for day trading stocks using Finviz or another stock/ETF screening site. On Finviz, click on the Screener tab.
To look for stocks, under the Descriptive tab go to Industry>Stocks Only. To search for ETFs only, go to Industry>Exchange Traded Fund. To look for both together, leave the field set to Any.
Under the Technical tab, alter the Beta setting to seek stocks that are more or less volatile.
On top of the Screener, there's a drop down menu called Order. Select Average Volume (3 Month) from the list, and put in descending (Desc) order.
The stocks/ETFs at and near the top of the list have the most volume, and this is where most traders will want to focus their search.
Final Word On The Most Popular Day Trading Stocks and ETFs.
There are lots of options available to day traders.
Screen or search for good day trading stocks on a regular basis, or trade the same one all time, such the SPDR S&P 500 (SPY). Knowing which stock or ETF to trade is only part of the puzzle, though, you still need to know how to day trade those stocks.

Introduction - Day Trading and Options.
Options are not a traditional component of day-trading strategy. But this is changing. These days, many day-trading companies are offering their members the ability to trade options. And traders are also discovering that they can successfully apply classic day-trading techniques to buying and selling options. It is also important to note that day trading options is one of the lowest-cost strategies available to investors, as options give the trader the ability to get into and out of positions far more quickly and often with less risk than securities like stocks, bonds, and mutual funds. One of the major benefits associated with options is that they cost far less than buying the underlying asset (such as shares of stock) outright. So rather than buy or sell shares of stock, the trader can simply buy an option and control the same number of shares for far less money.
An option is a financial derivative. It is a legal contract that gives the purchaser the right to buy or sell a security at a specific price during a certain period of time or on a specific date (the exercise date). The seller also holds an obligation to fulfill the transaction, which is to sell or buy, if the buyer chooses to “exercise” the option before its expiration. The U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission regulates the buying and selling of stock options.
What Is in an Options Contract?
An option contract should specify the following:
type of option (call option or put option) underlying security unit of trade (number of shares) strike price (price at which option can be exercised) expiration date.
Many day traders who trade futures also trade options because options have a lot in common with futures. For one, they are frequently based upon the same underlying financial instruments. They are also quite similar in their contract structures.
However, the manner in which options are traded is very different from how futures are traded. There is a lot more range in the availability of options, and the rules of trading are also different. Options can be purchased not only on futures markets, but also on stock indexes, as well as on individual stocks. Options can be traded singularly, or they can be bought in conjunction with futures contracts or stock trades, to form a type of insurance on the trade.
Options offer leverage and the ability to hedge and limit losses. However, without proper understanding and correct trading strategies, options can be classed as risky investments, and this reputation often intimidates new traders.
Challenges of Day Trading with Options.
Day traders will encounter a couple of problems when using options, none of which are insurmountable.
Price movement can become dampened due to the time value element of the option premium, such as with near-the-money options. Although the inherent value may go up along with the underlying stock price, this gain is undermined somewhat by the loss of time value. Keep in mind, however, that the time value for day trading is quite limited. The bid-ask spreads are usually wider for options than they are for stocks. This is mainly due to the reduced liquidity of the options market. This can vary as much as half a point, which will cut into the limited profit of the typical day trade.

Daytradingshares options

Stock future trading -
Let’s first understand what the meaning of futures trading is. In simple language one future contract is group of stocks (one lot) which has to be bought with certain expiry period and has to be sold (squared off) within that expiry period.
Suppose if you buy futures of Wipro of one month expiry then you have to sell it within that one month period.
Important - Future contract get expires at every last Thursday of every month.
You can buy maximum of three month expiry period.
For example - suppose this is month of October then you have to buy till maximum month of December expiry and you have to sell it within last Thursday of December month. You can sell anytime between these periods.
As you can do future trading on stocks likewise you can do trading on different indices like Nifty index, IT index, Auto index, Pharma index etc.
Expiry period can be of one month, two month and three month and not more then of three month.
Its not compulsion that you have to square off your positions on the expiry date or wait till the expiry period but in fact you can square off at any time even, at the same day, or you can hold as long as you want but remember to square off before expiry date.
Most of the times on 3rd month expiry future you may see very less trading volumes.
Generally most of the traders/investors trade or invest on current month future or second month future contract and you may see very low volumes on last month means third month expiry .
For example Reliance Industries future lot size has 150 quantities of shares while a Tata Consultancy service has 250 shares.
In the same manner all futures have different lot sizes decided by SEBI (Securities Exchange Board of India).
The margin (in other words price of one lot size) varies on daily basis based on its stocks closing price.
The price of future contract is determined by its underlying stock.
Important - You can’t buy future contract of expiry period of not more than 3 months.
You can also buy and sell or sell and buy future contract on the same day of any expiry month. This is called as day trading or intraday in futures.
Selling future contract before buying is called short selling. Short selling is allowed in futures trading.
In future trading you get margin to buy (but can hold only up to maximum of 3 months), while in stock trading you must have that much of amount in your account to buy.
For example - If you plan to buy stock XYZ at Rs. 100 and quantity 1000 shares then you have to pay 1 lakh rupees (RS 100 x1000 qty). But if you plan to buy XYZ future contract and that contract.
lot size has 1000 quantity of shares then instead of paying 1 lakh rupees you have to pay just 20% to 30% of whole amount which comes to 20 thousand to 30 thousand rupees.
In short in future trading you have to pay just 20% to 30% of the whole amount what you pay if you buy stock of that price. But limitation for this is your expiry period. Means if you bought future of one month expiry then you have to square off within that one month likewise you can buy maximum of three months expiry.
You can short sell futures - You can sell futures without buying them which is called short selling and later buy within your expiry period, to cover up your positions.
This is not possible in stocks. You can’t sell stocks before buying them in delivery (you can do in.
intraday). You can short sell futures and can cover off within your expiry period.
For example - If expiry period of your future contract is of 1 month then you have time frame of one month to cover off your order like wise if your future expiry period is of two months then you have.
time frame of two months and this continues till three months and not more then three months.
In short selling of futures also you get margin as you get in buying of futures.
Brokerages offered for future trading are less as compared to stock delivery trading.
For example - If you buy or sell future contract of one month expiry period then you have to square off your position.
before your expiry date of that month, so in this example you got one month period. So likewise if you go for two.
month expiry period then you get 2 months and if you go for three month expiry then you will get 3 month expiry.
period to square off your position.
trade goes wrong then you may have to suffer huge loss.
Its no need to wait till the expiry period, you can even square off on the same day (if you are getting profit) or anytime whenever you feel to book profit, no compulsion to cover off your order on the last day of expiry.
2) Check out for Futures current market price.
3) Futures Lot Size (number of shares in that particular Lot).
4) Futures Lot price (this is the amount you must have in your account to buy one lot of future) also called as margin amount.
5) Selection of expiry period - you want to trade on expiry of one month, two month or last 3rd month.
6) No need to wait till expiry period can book profit wherever applicable.
Method of Short Selling.
In future trading you can do short selling and buy (cover) later when price comes down from your selling price you can short sell stock future as well as index future. But again same restriction will apply and that is of expiry period.
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Please read at daytradingshares/disclaimer. php before using any material or advice given at daytradingshares.
Earning money in share maket requires appropriate knowledge and experience, so it is highly advisable to gain adequate knowledge before start trading and investing in share market.

Day Trading using Options.
With options offering leverage and loss-limiting capabilities, it would seems like day trading options would be a great idea. In reality, however, the day trading option strategy faces a couple of problems.
Firstly, the time value component of the option premium tends to dampen any price movement. For near-the-money options, while the intrinsic value may go up along with the underlying stock price, this gain is offset to a certain degree by the loss of time value.
Secondly, due to the reduced liquidity of the options market, the bid-ask spreads are usually wider than for stocks, sometimes up to half a point, again cutting into the limited profit of the typical daytrade.
So if you are planning to day trade options, you must overcome this two problems.
Your DayTrading Options: Near-month and In-The-Money.
For daytrading purposes, we want to use options with as little time value as possible and with delta as close to 1.0 as we can get. So if you are going to daytrade options, then you should daytrade the near month in-the-money options of highly liquid stocks.
We daytrade with near-month in-the-money options because in-the-money options have the least amount of time value and have the greatest delta, compared to at-the-money or out-of-the-money options.
Furthermore, as we get closer to expiration, the option premium is increasingly based on the intrinsic value, and so the underlying price changes will have a greater impact, bringing you closer to realising point-for-point movements of the underlying stock. Near month options are also more heavily traded than longer term options, hence they are also more liquid.
The more popular and more liquid the underlying stock, the smaller the bid-ask spread for the corresponding options market.
When properly executed, daytrading using options allow you to invest with less capital than if you actually bought the stock, and in the event of a catastrophic collapse of the underlying stock price, your loss is limited to only the premium paid.
Another Day Trading Option: The Protective Put.
If you are planning to daytrade a particular stock for short upside moves for the next few months, you can purchase protective put options to insure against a devastating stock crash.
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Buying Straddles into Earnings.
Buying straddles is a great way to play earnings. Many a times, stock price gap up or down following the quarterly earnings report but often, the direction of the movement can be unpredictable. For instance, a sell off can occur even though the earnings report is good if investors had expected great results. [Read on. ]
Writing Puts to Purchase Stocks.
If you are very bullish on a particular stock for the long term and is looking to purchase the stock but feels that it is slightly overvalued at the moment, then you may want to consider writing put options on the stock as a means to acquire it at a discount. [Read on. ]
What are Binary Options and How to Trade Them?
Also known as digital options, binary options belong to a special class of exotic options in which the option trader speculate purely on the direction of the underlying within a relatively short period of time. [Read on. ]
Investing in Growth Stocks using LEAPS® options.
If you are investing the Peter Lynch style, trying to predict the next multi-bagger, then you would want to find out more about LEAPS® and why I consider them to be a great option for investing in the next Microsoft®. [Read on. ]
Effect of Dividends on Option Pricing.
Cash dividends issued by stocks have big impact on their option prices. This is because the underlying stock price is expected to drop by the dividend amount on the ex-dividend date. [Read on. ]
Bull Call Spread: An Alternative to the Covered Call.
As an alternative to writing covered calls, one can enter a bull call spread for a similar profit potential but with significantly less capital requirement. In place of holding the underlying stock in the covered call strategy, the alternative. [Read on. ]
Dividend Capture using Covered Calls.
Some stocks pay generous dividends every quarter. You qualify for the dividend if you are holding on the shares before the ex-dividend date. [Read on. ]
Leverage using Calls, Not Margin Calls.
To achieve higher returns in the stock market, besides doing more homework on the companies you wish to buy, it is often necessary to take on higher risk. A most common way to do that is to buy stocks on margin. [Read on. ]
Day Trading using Options.
Day trading options can be a successful, profitable strategy but there are a couple of things you need to know before you use start using options for day trading. [Read on. ]
What is the Put Call Ratio and How to Use It.
Learn about the put call ratio, the way it is derived and how it can be used as a contrarian indicator. [Read on. ]
Understanding Put-Call Parity.
Put-call parity is an important principle in options pricing first identified by Hans Stoll in his paper, The Relation Between Put and Call Prices, in 1969. It states that the premium of a call option implies a certain fair price for the corresponding put option having the same strike price and expiration date, and vice versa. [Read on. ]
Understanding the Greeks.
In options trading, you may notice the use of certain greek alphabets like delta or gamma when describing risks associated with various positions. They are known as "the greeks". [Read on. ]
Valuing Common Stock using Discounted Cash Flow Analysis.
Since the value of stock options depends on the price of the underlying stock, it is useful to calculate the fair value of the stock by using a technique known as discounted cash flow. [Read on. ]
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