Joe Stocks-
All day long, day traders must deploy hundreds of thousands of dollars to try to make "a daily bucker," as Zeev puts it. In fact, if you consistently make a buck a day, that would probably put you in the top 1% of all traders. Therefore the idea that, today for example, MMM would have given you a buck on $140,000 in an hour, is important. It would be wonderful if we could all locate issues that trade for $10 and move 10% on any given day, but those are rare.
You inquiry is food for thought though. We each assemble our list of potential moneymakers according to our own needs. I have chosen Dow components because I can go short or long without any serious worries. Thinking along the lines that you suggest, would I be better off working with issues--on whatever exchange--that have the highest betas?
I have only been day-trading about a year, so I don't pretend to have all the answers. Still, I think that if you can identify a situation where you are almost guaranteed a buck in about an hour, you should make use of that play.
If my thinking is seriously flawed, I would be eternally grateful if you or some of the more seasoned traders would set me straight.
schloss