I would agree with most of what was said previously, especially the fact that options are too risky and volatile. As far as the timing goes, it isn't great. The market has been so unpredictable lately with all of the economic uncertainity (debt ceiling debate, europen debt crisis, etc) that day trading is probably the last thing I'd be trying to do right now. I do mutual fund accounting for a large financial services company and it honestly doesn't matter what you invest in, if it is anything other than fixed income, sometimes you will lose large chunks of money unexpectedly and occassionally you will make a decent profit. Investment and portfolio managers aren't nearly as good at their jobs as they'd like you to think. I suppose if you have a large budget to work with and a very high risk tolerance, day trading might work for you but personally I would avoid it right now and look for something with a fixed income stream if you absolutely have to invest your money. Hell if you're just trying to make some extra cash and have a few grand to play with you'd probably be better off buying bikes on craigslist and flipping them than doing day trading