Day Trading Most stocks only fluctuate 1-2% every day. So if you put $1,000 into the stock and made a profit of 1%, that would only be $10. Now if you put $50,000 into the stock, you would make $500. That is where the danger in day trading lies, however. Let's say the company suddenly reported bad news or something major happened in the financial world and your stock drops 8%. You just lost eight times your normal profit of 1%, which would be $4,000 on a $50,000 investment.