Many people are attracted to day trading on the futures market with the prospect of rapid immediate results and large profits from the leverage enjoyed. It needs a particular type of approach and trading strategy to withstand the pace and emotion of day trading, but the rewards can be high.

By definition, daytrading means that no positions are held overnight, and the trader does not risk the possibility of a gap open and potentially large losses. Staying in a trade only while the markets are active means that at all times the day trader is in control of the trade, and can exit if the trend turns against him or her.

There are several different strategies that can be used for day trading. For really fast action, or sometimes from automated trading, scalping is one ploy used. This entails diving in and out of the trade in seconds, or at most a few minutes, usually riding a trend to make rapid small gains. For this to succeed, you need to deal in large quantities of shares or contracts in order for the small gains to mount up and offset the number of commissions that will be due.

Other successful strategies can include trading the news and seeking arbitrage opportunities. For the lone trader, trading the news can be difficult, as institutional traders may have access to faster and more numerous news sources, and thus beat the trader to the punch. However, with high-speed Internet access this becomes more an issue of knowing which of the news channels to watch for the latest updates and being fast on the keyboard.

Arbitrage opportunities are again more appropriate for institutional traders, who will have specialized computer programs constantly seeking price differences and acting upon them. This does not mean they are impossible for the lone trader, but it is hard to move faster than the program trading computers.

This means that the best strategy for the aspiring futures day trader may well be to stick with more conventional trading wisdom, and adopt trend following strategies along with pattern recognition. Rather than seeking to exploit faults in the systems, such as the arbitrage strategy, these trading plans depend on following the natural movements of the market.

For success in day trading, your day trading strategy should be simple to understand and easy to implement. The key to successful day trading is to be able to follow your day trading plan all day long without uncertainty or distraction. Though it is hard sometimes to put into practice, the other secret to success is to keep a trading record that can be reviewed after the trading day and used to refine your techniques. While trading in a timely manner should be the priority, often there are times when there is no obvious setup and the records can be updated.