Here’s one of the best day trading tips you’ll ever hear: When you make a serious decision to learn day trading, commit yourself to getting an excellent trading education.

Day trading is a profession, and as such, if you’re honestly going to learn to day trade stocks, Forex, futures, commodities or options, you’re going to need the best trading education you can find.

If you’re completely new to trading, I recommend a good, inexpensive book like Day Trading for Dummies. It won’t make you a successful day trader overnight (nothing will do that), but it will give you the basic concepts and vocabulary you need when you pursue a more in-depth education.

If you want to be one of the few who can successful do day trading for a living, then you’ll also need the proper tools: at least one fast computer with multiple monitors, a fast Internet connection, and an excellent broker.

You’ll also need day trading software (a Forex platform, stock trading software, or futures trading charts), to help provide you with trading signals through the use of technical analysis (chart reading).

As you journey through your trading education, you’ll have to decide what type of trading you want to do: Trend trading, swing trading, momentum trading, etc. This takes time as you won’t really know what style fits your personality until you try each of them.

In addition you’ll have to decide which market(s) you’ll want to trade. Do you want to do emini trading, Forex trading or online stock trading.

After getting the basics, you need to learn how to day trade by taking advantage of the study, research, and experience of successful traders who have come before you. You’ll also need to go beyond that to learn a specific trading methodology that has clear, objective rules and money management techniques.

Finally, before you begin trading with real money, you should test your methodology and get used to it by paper trading. Actually that’s an old term. Now there are many software programs available in which you can trade electronically using fake money. They are called “simulators” or your broker may provide a “demo account” that will do this for you.

As you can see, despite a lot of the marketing, learning how to day trade is not something you will do overnight. It is a career that requires a serious education and the commitment of a good amount of time and effort.

Trading is always risky, and there are never any guarantees, but for those who commit to it, learning how to day trade can provide a great income and lifestyle not found in many other professions.

For more from Barry, visit Top Dog Trading.