I ran across a particularly well written and insightful column in the NYTimes a few minutes ago and I urge you to read this and follow this guy. He is clear and to the point and cuts through the gunk.
My last position was helping some hapless idiots in Florida try and market a trading group. They ran a private hedge fund and simply needed more bodies to make the numbers work. I'll explain. Daytrading done right is labor intensive and when you buy in or sell out correctly, its a constant set of decisions, like every few seconds when things get going. Since you are buying and selling (renting actually) other people's stock you have trouble doing it in huge volumes. Where it might make sense to trade 100,000 shares of Apple and make 3-4 pennies you can't because no one will loan you 100,000 shares so you have to have either a lot of stocks in play or buy/sell in high volume. The answer of course is having 200 monkeys typing the bible so to speak and that's what they were doing.
You know of course that these trading floors rule the market. Yesterday the reports were that the $10,000 Dow was being tested and lo and behold the market ended a few pennies under 10. What? You think that was by chance? Half the opening volume this morning will come from the day-trading community...not the nickle dime stuff like Besttrades..but the big player floors...there is one, Schoenfeld's in NYC that does about 10% of the marekt daily...1 floor 200 traders max.
These guys thrive when the market gets crazy a they make money up and down..just as long as there are swings ... and today will be one. It is a tight community and big ticket paying is not for the faint at heart...my last guys in Florida had a series of -$100k losses and it wiped out their "business capital" for instance so I know.
So it is 6 now. coffee is brewed. gonna go find a bagel and watch Becky Quick and Co. and the talking heads who will see a buy opportunity like it matters if a company is worth it or not...like value has something to do with what is going to be - and you heard it here first - an absolutely horrible day - that is of course unless a few hundred day traders of hedge funds decide otherwise.