I know a lot of you use "The Stockster" web site but what is your strategy? Historically, stock trading has been the domain of professional traders. Stock trading has been in essence a "private club" with restricted access. Day trading has changed that. For the first time, amateur traders have the tools (real time quotes and order execution) to compete with the professionals. "The Stockster" web site provides stock recommendations but how do they make their picks? If you follow their site, you'll need to be quick on the draw. I've found that as soon as they recommend a penny stock, it jumps and then declines later in the day. They basically hype it up, sell their positions, and then let everyone else take the loss.

Speed advantage of day trading

The key advantage of day trading "The Stockster's" picks is its speed. Now the technology is advanced enough to afford day traders the ability to receive and observe real-time price quotes tick by tick and to send electronically an execution order directly to the NASDAQ market maker. Electronic order execution is fast. Confirmations are received in seconds. Exiting trades is as easy and fast as entering the trade positions.

Control advantage of day trading

The other key advantage of day trading is the control of trading. Day traders are always in control of their own trading. They are their own brokers. They examine the financial data, ascertain the trends, and make their own decisions to buy or sell. Day traders do not have to worry about the price slippage. They monitor market prices tick by tick. During trading, at any point of time the trader always knows the stock's best BID or ASK price.

Going home "flat"

At the end of the trading day, day traders close all of their trade positions and go home "flat". Day traders do not need to worry about a "long" or "short" position - because they do not have overnight positions. Without any open positions, day traders do not carry any overnight risk exposure.

Conclusion

If you trade based on "The Stockster's" recommendations, make sure you do it quickly. They "pump and dump" once the stock makes a jump. Their site was taken down several times but appears to be back online. It's difficult to tell how credible their stock recommendations are as no company information is listed. As far as we know, it could be some 18 year-old kid chuckling as he posts the daily stock pick. (Disclaimer: I am not endorsing the Stocksters? picks so do not make your decisions based on information read here.)