Some of his old college buddies were day traders, so one day he went to their office to see what it was all about. It looked tough, but he thought he could handle it. He borrowed $80,000 from his father, said goodbye to Polo and took a desk at Momentum, a day-trading brokerage in Houston where independent traders pay commissions in exchange for a desk with a PC and market access.

Instead of taking a course like so many others do before trying their hand at this business, Rowe just sat down in front of a Level II screen--which shows all the market makers' bid and sell prices (rather than just the best bid and sell prices)--and started trading. His friend at the next desk offered a blow-by-blow account of what he was doing, and Rowe followed his every move. "He'd say things like, 'I'm offering here,' 'I'm bidding here,' and 'O.K., you own 1,000 shares of Cisco--now get out of it,'" Rowe recalls. "It was no way to make money, but I was just getting my feet wet."

Some days Rowe would be able to cover his commissions, but most days he was in the hole. "That third week really stuck with me," he says. "I had left a job where I had been the top salesman for 10 years. And there I was, no paycheck coming in, no insurance benefits, no security whatsoever. And instead of earning money after a week's work, I was down $1,500." He sat and stewed all weekend. When Monday came, he was back at his station, staring at the screen in a panic.

Two months later, he was down $6,500. His losses were often the result of hitting the wrong buttons on the keyboard--a common blunder for newcomers still getting used to the system, he says. Other times his ego got in the way: when his shares of Applied Materials dropped 3/8, he hesitated--and sold an hour later, when it was down 7/8. "I lost $900 because I didn't want to lose $350."

Today Rowe compares day trading with running a marathon: try to sprint out of the gate, he says, and you're dead. All day traders should expect to lose money in the beginning--expect it and plan for it. "I have yet to meet anybody who's made money in the first couple of months," he says. "I don't have to make $1 million a year, but I'm supporting my family and putting some money away."

Kimberly Hoover, 41, at left, was day trading before she knew there was a name for it. It was 1996, and she had opened an account with Charles Schwab. When the company started letting its customers execute their own trades online, she was hooked. "I just noticed that some companies would move three or four points in a day, and that if you could get in at the bottom and out at the top, you could make some good money," she says. She kept her Schwab account, and she looked into getting a Level II screen but decided that it would have meant giving up her day job as an attorney--something she didn't want to do.

The experience was fun--until one day last August, when she lost $18,000. She was trading in shares of Dell Computer, one of the blue-chip high-tech stocks. The company suddenly went on a slide, and rather than sit it out, Hoover bailed.

To day trade, "you have to have a strong stomach and realize that there is a cycle to all of this," she says. "The reason I lost all that money was that I panicked. I thought the market slide was going to be long term, that I'd better get out, but the stock rebounded higher than when I sold."

That rush to judgment--par for the course for day traders--has reduced investment decisions to instinct, she says. Overall, Hoover made money day trading, but the Dell debacle had a chilling effect: she now holds on to a stock for several days, even weeks. "I've decided that's what brings the best results."

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