The allure to make quick money in the stock market is too appealing for some folks to pass up. As a result there has been a tremendous increase over the past couple of decades in strategies and resources aimed at short term market success. Most of these efforts have revolved around the idea of timing the market. This strategy attempts to use existing data in order to predict future activity. The ultimate goal is to buy stocks when they are down and to sell them when they are up. By successfully reaching this objective an individual can make a significant amount of money. Although there are several variations of the market timing strategy, perhaps none has been as popular as day trading.

Day trading attempts to micro-manage the market by capitalizing on fluctuations over a short period of time. In fact, it is not uncommon for a trader to buy and sell a particular stock in less than an hour's time. Due to the popularity of this method there is now an abundance of resources available to assist a day trader in his endeavors. These materials range from books and newsletters, to computer programs. Some of the programs are complicated computer models which are designed to analyze data and automatically generate buy and sell recommendations. However, if unlimited riches were simply a matter of purchasing a computer program, there would be a lot more millionaires in the world then there currently are. So as you might have guessed there are a umber of potential pitfalls in connection with this strategy.

• Commissions. Most day trading services make a good portion of their money in the form of commissions which they charge to their customers. This number can be quite significant depending on the frequency and volume of trading that occurs. 
  
• Taxes. The government requires that traders pay a short term capital gain tax on any profit that is earned. 
  
• Unpredictability. Regardless of what you might have heard or read, there is no system available today that can guarantee success. The smallest economic, political, or market factor might cause a stock to dip unexpectedly resulting in a potential loss.