Day trading stocks is often a loser's game

— -- Q: Are there any stocks that can be picked for day trading, that go up and down daily by a large amount?

A: Day traders aren't looking for a long-term relationship with a stock.

Day traders are looking for stocks they can buy or sell sometimes many times a day for a quick profit. They place bets on volatile stocks that tend to rise and fall a lot during the trading day.

Some short-term speculators also magnify their bets using options, which, when used for speculative purposes, allow investors to profit, or lose, large sums with small upfront costs. You can read more here about options.

Speculating on stocks isn't something I recommend. Rather than making a fast buck, most day traders end up quickly losing their shirts. But if you're looking for stocks that are on the move, USATODAY.com's Money section has several resources to help.

You'll want to check out the Stock, Fund and ETF Screener, whose Market Screener tab lets you see stocks that are trading most heavily. You can get that information for all the major stock market exchanges, including the New York Stock Exchange.

From this same screener, you can choose a list of the stocks that have risen or fallen most during the day.

Some day traders are most interested in raw price changes, and not percentage gains or losses. Thisis also available. Changing the View drop-down, you can get a list of the biggest price gainers or losers.

I can't emphasize enough that day trading and speculation usually end badly for most investors, as you can read here. But if you want to try it, the information you need is available.

Matt Krantz is a financial markets reporter at USA TODAY and author of Investing Online for Dummies. He answers a different reader question every weekday in his Ask Matt column at money.usatoday.com. To submit a question, e-mail Matt at mkrantz@usatoday.com. Click here to see previous Ask Matt columns. Follow Matt on Twitter at: twitter.com/mattkrantz