Day Trader

Isn't there a Beatles song with this title? "She was a daaaaaay tripper..." Eh, maybe not.

OK. It’s 9 a.m. You check your email to find a rather unexpected solicitation. “Become a 7-Figure Day Trader.” Seven figures. Which seven? And you wonder, "Could this be related to The Deadly Sins?"

Day traders buy and sell stocks...in the same day. Shocking, yes. Buy MSFT at $105.32 at the opening bell; sell it at $105.89 an hour later. Great. You made 60 cents (less the 3-cent commission) on that trade. And then you pay ordinary income tax on the gain.

Day traders are generally retail-level-knowledge "investors" who didn't quite finish their application to grad school; didn't quite get the job at Morgan Stanley; didn't quite...make it on Wall Street. Very few day traders survive more than a few years, trying to scratch out a living on their own. The big money makers in the field are those who sell education books and materials and supplies to the would-be millionaires, filled with self-unawareness. Yes, you want to be selling picks and shovels to miners in a perceived gold rush.