Day trading used to be set in a day trading pit where only the large firms and brokers could participate. However, with the advent of the internet and advanced communication technology the trade was able to reach even those people who have not even seen the actual market. It has become a popular home-based business that people with enough money and interest can invest in. However, even if everyone has an equal chance of profiting in this trade the people with the right gears are in general more competitive than those who don't. Here are some trading tools that every trader should have:
High connection speed
You participate in real-time trading so you cannot afford any time lags. You will be buying or selling trades in a market that fluctuates at all times and you should be able to get a good timing in accordance to the market behavior. Bad timing is often a problem of most traders. They either don't have the right connection speed or they just take too much time in deciding on when to enter or re-enter and when to exit the trade. Thus, you cannot rely on a dial-up connection because this won't give you up-to-date feeds. To be more efficient, you can rely on the fastest speed available for DSL or cable connection.
Hardware
A reliable computer unit is an absolute requirement if you want to be a serious trader. You have to get the basic items offered by hardware plus additional applications you want to have. The computer must be efficient enough as for its speed, memory and processor. Remember that while trading, you will be handling a lot of figures and numbers and the computer you have should be able to do the computations efficiently for you. For better feeds you should also have an excellent video card. Since you would be dealing with a huge amount of data, you may need to use two monitors or split monitors.
Software
There are various types of software available on the market today, each offering different programs. Software could be divided in three different categories: charting, data and trade execution. The trading software makes the work easier for the trader. Apart from getting stock quotes, market prices, and market indices, software will also store, retrieve and present the bits of information in an organized manner. This way, the trader could readily understand the behavior of the market, making it easier for him to make his decisions.
These tools can be bought in several computer shops or on online vendors. Take note that a trader has to pay for each tool unless they come in a single package.