The Hidden Secrets of Successful Stock Market Trading Rules - Fine-tuning Your Stop Losses

There are two cardinal successful stock market trading rules that I am sure you are quite familiar with by now.

The first of the two most common stock market trading rules are to cut your losses short. The second of the two most common successful stock market trading rules are to let your profits run. However, you can take it one-step further by fine-tuning your trailing stop losses, and becoming more risk seeking once your stock is in profit. Increasing your risks, at the right time, can allow you to get all the profit you possibly can out of your system. You may wish to test the effects of these successful stock market trading rules by having a wider trailing stop loss than your initial stop, and see how this is reflected in your system.

For example, you could set your initial stop loss at two ATR but set your trailing stop loss as three ATR. This allows the stock, once it`s in profit, a little bit more room to move. You`re still limiting your risk at the beginning of the trade by keeping a tight stop loss; however you`re going to become risk seeking in a profitable situation. That is to say you`ll be willing to risk more once you`re already in profit.

Personally, I think this is one of the many successful stock market trading rules you can use to take it a step further than most people are willing to go. With this strategy, I also mix and match my stop loss methods. For example, in one of my stock market trading rules, I set my initial stop loss at 2.5 ATR, but my trailing stop loss is calculated using a completely different method. I use what`s known as the lowest low stop. The way this stop loss works is you find the lowest low in the last X number of periods, and base your trailing stop loss on it.

Now, for that trend following system, I actually find the lowest low in the last 40 days. I then position my stop one cent below this low. It`s almost as though it`s consulting the price action itself by identifying where the lowest low is, and this can be highly effective. Many times my stop has been set one cent below a support line.

The way this trailing stop loss works is that on each day a new trading day is added to the chart, and one of the old days drop off. I then find the lowest low in the last 40 days, and reposition my stop at that point, if it needs to be repositioned. This stop has been extremely valuable for me, and it may be a stop loss that you may want to consider testing.

But, before you go looking for that perfect trailing stop loss, realize that in it`s own way, it`s very similar to the initial stop. There is no perfect stop that will guarantee to get you out of the stock at the perfect time, and save you the most profit.

Sometimes it will work for you. Other times it won`t. The real key and secret of having a stop loss and an initial stop do their best for you is not how you calculate it, it`s just having them in place.

You need to find an initial and a trailing stop loss that you`re comfortable with. You also need to understand how they work so that the actions they direct you to take makes sense to you. How do you find a stop that you`re comfortable with?

Test them. Pick out a whole lot of charts of stocks that you`ve been looking to trade, and marking where you would receive an entry signal, set various initial stops and trailing stop losses. Progress through the trade, revaluing your trailing stop loss and see which one works the best.

Often successful stock market trading rules are designed with simple concepts that works best at this point. When you base your system on understanding, rather than optimization, you are more likely to stick with it. If you can come up with a good, straightforward set of your own stock market trading rules, you will be able to apply it across a number of markets on most trading instruments. Really, when designing any system around a set of stock market trading rules, all components should apply to this same principle. You want to keep things as simple as possible, that way it`s robust and can be applied to any market. As long as you follow this underlying principle, you`ll be on the right track.

The Stock Market Report That Wall Street Does Not Want You To Read

The best way to maximize your profits is to be prepared to give some back to the Stock Market. When most traders first hear this, they are a little taken back. Why would you give any of your profits back to the Stock market; because you are never going to be able to exit right at the peak of the Stock market trend. But, you can still stay with the trend as it develops, and let your profits run in the Stock market. Then, when the price turns, you can exit.

Traditionally, an inexperienced trader will exit a position once they see a little bit of a profit in their trading account. They want to crystallize that profit immediately. People don`t like to lose, and they believe that those profits, made in the Stock Market, are their profits, and once they have them, they don`t want to risk giving them back to the Stock market.

Is the Stock market strategy written about in this article doomed to failure, since it breaks one of the cardinal rules of trading; to let your profits run? It is always wise to implement cardinal rules like this, but how do you implement this in the Stock market? Well, after you`ve defined your trading float, set your maximum loss, calculated your stop losses, and also calculated your position sizing – you can determine how to handle profits.

Once you`ve set your initial stop loss, you`ve ensured a mechanism to cut your losses short. Now you need to introduce a rule that allows your profits to run. By simply setting these two rules, you can control two important variables - whether or not you make a profit, and how much profit you`re going to make.

Of the two types of exits you use in the Stock market, hopefully it`s the ones we`re about to discuss now that you`ll get to implement more often, as these are the ones that are implemented once you`re in a profitable situation. Trailing stop losses will allow you to follow a trend as it develops in the Stock market, and exit the position at the point where you can realistically maximize your profits.

A simple example can illustrate the importance of a trailing stop loss. If you received a buy signal and purchased XYZ, and set your initial stop loss, you`d be sure to keep your losses small. But, your initial stop does not move. What happens if, after purchasing XYZ, the asset runs up a few hundred percent?

Unless you have a way to lock in the profit, you could keep that position until the share reverts all the way back down to your stop loss, where you would exit the trade. You would end up losing money even though there`s potential for some fantastic gains.

Obviously, you need to have a way to keep a situation like this from ever happening, and that`s exactly what a trailing stop does. This form of stop is adjusted on a periodic basis according to a mathematical formula that keeps it moving upward as the price moves upward.

After the first day of trading, if the price moves in your favour, or even if the shares volatility shrinks, then the trailing stop is moved in your favour. If the Stock Market then moved against you enough for your stop to be triggered, you would still take a loss, but it would not be as large as your initial stop loss.

The key to the trailing stop loss in the Stock market is that you need to adjust the asset continually to make sure that the stop is moved in your favour. A trailing stop loss is calculated in a way that is very similar to the way we calculated our initial stop loss. The only difference being rather than calculating our trailing stop loss from the entry price, we`re calculating our stop loss from the highest price since entry.

With a trailing stop loss in place, you will be able to let your profits run, and let your trading system deliver the maximum profit in the Stock Market.

The Easy Secrets To Determine Stock Market Position Sizing

When trading in the stock market, position sizing is where all the tools of money management come together. It`s perhaps the most important part of your stock market money management rules. Position sizing is simply deciding how much you are going to put into any one stock market trade. You can calculate your position size using the other tools of stock market money management, your maximum loss and your stop loss.

However, many stock market traders believe that they`re doing an adequate job of position sizing by simply having a stop loss in place. While this will tell them when to get out of a stock market position, and will, with a maximum loss, determine how much capital they`re risking, it doesn`t answer the question of how much or how many units they can buy.

If you have already calculated your maximum loss and your stop loss, you can take these values, and plug them into a formula that will calculate how many shares you can purchase without exceeding your maximum loss. Although it is simple, the formula I`m about to give you is extremely powerful. The number of shares for your position is equal to your maximum loss divided by your stop loss size.

You`re already familiar with what a maximum loss is; but may not be recognize the term stop loss size. A stop loss size is the difference between your entry price and your stop loss value. If you were to enter the stock market with a one-dollar trade and set your stop loss at 90 cents, the stop loss value would be the difference between your entry price and your stock price, ten cents. Once you`ve entered these values into the formula, you can calculate how many shares you should buy so that you never risk more than your maximum loss.

Let`s look at how the formula works in practice. If your trading float was $20,000, and you were risking 2%, your maximum loss would be $400. If your stock market entry price was one dollar, and your stop loss value was 90 cents, your stop size would be ten cents. Now, the number of shares is equal to your maximum loss divided by your stop size. In this example, you can purchase 4,000 shares. If this stock reaches your stop loss, and you have to exit the position, you know you`re not going to risk or lose more than 2% of your float, which is $400.

This formula ensures the safety of your trading float. A little finessing that some of my clients like to do is to class their brokerage fee as part of the maximum loss. You could do this by subtracting the stock market brokerage fee from your maximum loss. If the stock market brokerage fee was $40 for your return trip, subtract 40 dollars from your maximum loss. Instead of entering $400 into the formula, you`d now enter $360. Once this is computed out, you can determine how many shares you`d buy, and know that you had included brokerage as part of your maximum loss.

By setting your position size so that you follow the 2% rule, you`re using a strategy that will limit the size of your losses during losing streaks. When you experience a winning streak, your position sizes will grow in a similar manner. By changing the amount of capital you`re deciding to risk, you`ll change the characteristics of your risk to reward ratio. All of your stock market money management rules will work together to make your trading system as profitable as possible.

Metastock Part 1: Relative Strength Comparison (RSC) The Key Success Tool In Trading By Stock Market

Within this report I’ll show you how you can find these profitable trading opportunities with MetaStock. You’ll be able to make use of techniques usually only used by professional traders, such as the Relative Strength Comparison. The basis of the RSC (Relative Strength Comparison) is found in sector analysis.

What is Stock Market Sector Analysis?

Stock market sector analysis is a top down stock selection method. Stock market sectors that are expected to outperform the rest of the market are identified, through methods such as the Relative Strength Comparison, and then stocks from those sectors are selected. The idea is that stocks selected from superior stock market sectors will perform in the same fashion as their sectors. This follows the principle that money generally flows from under-performing areas of the market to more profitable areas, a truth that has be tested by many traders.

“My studies have consistently shown that two equally bullish charts will perform far differently if one is from a bullish sector while the other breakout is in a bearish group. The favourable chart in the bullish group will often quickly advance 50 to 75 percent while the equally bullish chart in a bearish group may struggle to a 5 to 10 percent gain.” - Secrets for Profiting in Bull and Bear Markets, Stan Weinstein, (McGraw-Hill 1992)

How can you use Stock Market Sector Analysis within MetaStock?

To identify stock market sectors that will outperform the market; you must first compare the strength of each sector against a chosen market index such as the S&P/ASX200 for the Australian market, or the Straits Times Index for Singapore. Once you’ve done this, you must rank the stock market sectors, and discover which ones are performing the strongest. After the strongest stock market sectors have been identified, you can see which securities are within the sectors. These individual securities can also be ranked against their respective stock market sector, which effectively allows you to single out the best performing stock market sectors.

The Relative Strength Comparison (RSC) is the best way to compare the strength of one security against a market index. The RSC compares a security’s price change with that of a “base” or benchmark security.

When plotted on a chart, the RSC line can be interpreted as follows:

- An increasing RSC indicates that the security is performing better than the base security.
- A RSC that moves sideways indicates that both securities are performing the same.
- A decreasing RSC indicates that the security is performing more poorly than the base security.

It is important to note that just because the RSC may be rising in value, the security isn’t necessarily rising in value as well. This rise only indicates that the security is performing better than the base security. For example, a security may be falling in price, but it may not be falling as fast as the base security. This would result in a rising RSC. Conversely, if the RSC is falling the security may not be reducing in value; instead it may be that it’s price is increasing at a slower rate than the base security.

In the second and third sections of this article, you will learn how to use the various features of Metastock to calculate the RSC, and locate the best stock market sectors to choose securities from.

Risk and Stock Trading Fees: The Two Barriers To Overcome If You Want A Successful Trading Career.

You know the old joke:

"How do you make a million in the stock market? Start with two million?"

There is no way around it, risk and stock market fees are a part of trading that you can`t avoid. But, you can manage your risk. You can also manage the brokerage stock trading fees that eat away at your trading float. All it takes is some planning and making good choices.

If you think you`re ready to start trading, look carefully at where you`re getting your money from. Maybe you`ve been considering trading for a while and built up some savings. That`s good planning. Or maybe you`re considering borrowing money. This is generally a bad idea. Maxing out your credit cards is a quick and easy way to get cash, but the effects can be devastating.

It`s hard enough to worry about making trading profits along with the stock market fees you have to pay. But, worrying about the debt servicing on your credit cards builds too much stress. You will be too concerned with making payments to be concerned about good trading. Don Miller talks about this in Trading Markets World Meet the Traders when he tells new traders to worry about trading well, not making money. One of the best ways to learn trading is to begin on a part-time basis. This allows you to hone your skills while you still have an income stream. As a trader, you need to realize the risk you`re taking by simply putting your money into the market.

With good money management, you`ll be able to limit your risk. But, there is a kind of risk that can`t be minimized, and that`s "market risk”. This is the risk that the market might not be there tomorrow. Just by putting money in the market you are putting it at risk, so make sure you only trade with money you are willing to lose. This isn`t to say that you are going to lose all your capital - it`s just to say that you need to be able to focus on trading well, not trading to make money. See, you can only do this if you work with money you can afford to lose.

Once you`ve got your capital together, you can consider the next barrier to trading, stock trading fees. Although there is no perfect amount of capital to start trading with it`s no secret that the bigger the trading float you begin with, the easier it is to trade and the less percentage of stock trading fees you will have to pay. This is because of the single biggest expense in trading - brokerage stock trading fees.

Every broker has many different stock trading fees, but many charge flat stock trading fees per trade. These flat stock trading fees are easier on traders with larger fund sizes. For example, to obtain a better understanding on how stock trading fees work, let`s consider two traders. One is starting with an opening position of $1,000 and the second is starting with an opening position of $10,000. All traders are charged flat stock market fees of $100. So, our first trader, with a position of $1,000 has to make back ten percent of his float on each trade before he breaks even. But, our second trader only has to realize a one percent gain to reach his break-even point. This doesn`t mean that you can`t start trading with a smaller float, but if you do you are at a bit of a disadvantage.

However, you can use your trading float size to help determine your trading system. If you have a very small trading float, it`s recommended that you look at a long-term system. With a long-term system, you will be incurring far fewer stock trading fees. A short-term system, where you are receiving lots of buy and sell signals will chew up your trading float very quickly with the cost of the different stock trading fees.

This is why short-term systems, such as day-trading, are best suited to larger trading sizes - it is easier on the stock trading fees. I actually recommend that when you begin trading that you look at a longer-term system. You can manage a long-term system while still working full-time. Once you are successful with the long-term time frame, you might look at moving to a shorter-term system and focussing more time on your trading.

You can mange both risk and stock trading fees with planning, and by making good choices. Your level of capital will be set by what you can afford, and what you are comfortable risking. How that capital grows will be set by the time-frame of the systems your planning to trade, and the instruments you trade with. from winter's barrenness, they desert us too quickly!

Stock Markets Of The World

"Stock Market" is a term that is used to refer both to the physical location for buying and selling stocks, and to the overall activity of the market within a certain country. When you hear "The stock market was down today," it refers to the combined activity of many stock exchanges.

The major exchanges in the US are the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), the American Stock Exchange (Amex), and NASDAQ.

The correct term for the physical location for trading stocks is the "Stock Exchange." A country may have many different stock exchanges. Usually a particular company's stocks are traded on only 1 exchange, although large corporations may be listed in several.

Investing Around The World

There are stock exchanges located throughout the world, and it is possible to buy or sell stocks on any of them. The only restriction is the oparating hours of each exchange. Both the NYSE and NASDAQ, for example, operate from 9:30 am to 4:00 pm Eastern Time, Monday through Friday.

Other exchanges have similar opening hours based on their local time. When you trade on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, your order will be executed sometime between 9:30 pm and 4:00 am New York time.

The locations of the major stock exchanges of the world are:

Japan (Tokyo Stock Exchange)
India (Bombay Stock Exchange)
Europe (London Stock Exchange, Frankfurt Stock Exchange, SWX Swiss Exchange)
the People's Republic of China (Shanghai Stock Exchange)
United States.

Stock Market Fluctuations

The economic health of a country will strongly influence its stock market. When the economy is doing well the market is bullish. Bull markets occur during times of high economic production, low unemployment and low inflation. Bear markets, on the other hand, follow downturns in the economy. When inflation and unemployment are rising, stock prices are usually falling.

Stock price fluctuations are also driven by supply and demand, which in turn are dependent to a great degree on investor psychology. Seeing a stock price rise rapidly can cause investors to jump on the bandwagon, and this rush to buy drives the price up even faster. A falling price can have a similar effect in the other direction. These are short-term fluctuations. Stock prices tend to normalize after such runs.

The stock exchange is only 1 of many opportunities for people to invest. Other popular markets include the Foreign Exchange Market (FOREX), the Futures Market, and the Options Market.

FOREX: World's Largest Market

The FOREX is the biggest (in terms of value) investment market in the world. FOREX traders buy 1 currency against another and can profit from small changes in currency value. Most FOREX trades are entered and exited in 1 24-hour span, and traders have to keep a close watch on the market in order to make profitable trades.

The Futures Market

The Futures Market is a market of contracts to buy and sell certain goods at specified prices and times. It exists because buyers and sellers of goods wish to lock in prices for future delivery, but market conditions can make the actual futures contract fluctuate considerably in value.

Most investors in the futures market are not interested in the actual goods -- only in the profit that can be realized from trading the contracts.

The Options Market

The Options Market is similar to the Futures Market in that an option is a contract that gives you the right (but not the obligation) to trade a stock at a certain price before a specified date. These options can be traded on their own or purchased as a form of insurance against price fluctuations within a certain time frame.

Stocks: Low Risk, Long-Term

All 3 of these markets are considered quite risky without considerable knowledge and experience. They also require close monitoring of market movements. Stocks, on the other hand, are less risky because movements of the market are usually more gradual. Although short-term investment strategies are possible, most people view stocks as long-term investments.

At What Price Are You Comfortable Buying A Stock At?

The first thing you have to decide when you are going to buy a stock is "what price are you comfy with buying it at?" In other words, let's say you like the idea of buying XYZ and with XYZ trading at 50, you think it has 5 or 6 points of profit in it. Well, that would be great if you could buy it at 50 wouldn't it? But as experience will show you, very often when you go to buy XYZ it has already moved up a few points. Are you still willing to buy it at 53? See the point?
Well, this is a big problem and it only gets worse with "market orders". Because of that, we are really against anyone placing a market order to buy a stock, before the market opens. Here is why: Let's say you call your broker at 8:30 am and tell him you want to buy 500 shares of XYZ "at the market". You are telling him that 1) you are willing to take XYZ at whatever price it is trading at when your order comes up. Therein lies the problem. Remember we are at the mercy of the market makers (the guys who make a market, or warehouse the stock for us to buy). They are privy to a lot of information folks and one of the biggest advantages they have is that they see all the orders for the particular stock.
So here is a very typical situation. When you told the broker (or placed your online order) to buy XYZ "at the market" you have given the market maker the ability to "fill" you (or in other words execute your order) basically whenever they want. So let's suppose XYZ opens the next day at 52 (remember you liked it at 50) and instantly runs to 53.50 on all the orders that are getting filled. Now that market maker has your order in his book and you have agreed to let him fill you at "wherever the market is trading". Let's say the market maker sees the new orders starting to dry up. So what do you think he will do when the new orders stop coming in?? He will fill your market order is what he will do! So you will get filled at 53.50 even though that is the exact high of the morning and it's already pulling back. So in a matter of a few minutes, XYZ can be back to 51. but guess what? You own it at 53.50, meaning you are in the hole already. This is unacceptable.
When you place a market order you are putting yourself on the "wheel", you might call it the "wheel of unfortune". Basically, the rules state that your order will go on a numerical "wheel" and your order goes on the wheel at the bottom, and one by one as the wheel rotates towards the top, orders are removed and filled. The idea is a "first come,first served" concept like standing in line. But in the real world, it doesn't work that way all the time. A certain amount of "market orders" are reserved for order execution at the "discretion of the market maker". Now if he has your order in his hand and he sees a lot of demand for the stock, do you think he will put you in at 52 while he has all these new orders flooding his books, or will he fill them first and when they dry up, use yours? We suggest you know the answer.
So, remember these lessons. First never ever place a stock order "at the market" before the market is open for trading. Your chances of getting the stock you want, even remotely close to where it's trading is poor at best. We don't even suggest it while the market is open, but at least you have a "fighting chance" then. Next, buying a stock without getting a "feel" for the trading day is often suicide. In other words, if you send in a market order to buy a stock before the market is open, you are going to get that stock even if the market is in pull back mode and your stock falls like a rock. This is not a wise idea friends.
So we will leave you with this: trying to buy a stock before the market even gives us a clue as to which way its going to go is a bad idea. Sending in a market order to buy a stock compounds the problem and assures you that you will be pretty disappointed! Next time we will look at the remedy for this problem.

Professional Stock Market Advice Reveals Most Common Trading

The best Stock Market advice you will ever read is to learn from mistakes when someone else has made them. So, this stock market advice list I made a list of some of the most common trading mistakes that are made. Even I`ve made some of these. If you have already made some of the mistakes, you can rest assured that you aren`t alone in making them. If you haven`t made them, then here`s a way to get around having to learn by making the mistakes yourself, by reading my stock market advice list.

The Stock Market advice tip #1, and worst mistake that people make is that they believe trading is the easy answer, a way to get rich quickly. People will often expect to become wizards in the market overnight, but they fail to realize that trading is like any profession; you must learn how to do it first.

For example, would you attend a weekend doctor`s seminar and expect to conduct heart surgery on Monday? Of course not! I am shocked at what people expect when they go to a weekend trading seminar. They think they will create wealth without having to work, invest or think, and it just doesn`t happen that way.

After treating trading like a get rich quick scheme, my next stock market advice tip #2 and most common mistake, is to approach the market without a plan. Without a trading plan, traders approach the market in an inconsistent manner. One day they trade stocks and the next they trade the foreign exchange. Or, they may use one set of indicators one day, and the next day they will throw these indicators out the window and take on a completely new set. Without a consistent approach, the only thing governing their trading decisions is really emotions, and that will doom them to failure.

If a new trader has managed to skip these last two mistakes, they often fall down when they try to go it alone. This is my Stock Market advice #3, all traders should find themselves a coach, or a mentor. Someone who can help them spot the errors in their system that they might not have noticed. An outside point of view can help you avoid other costly mistakes, and greatly increase your profits.

These are some common and quite basic mistakes. The next errors I`ll mention are ones that are just as prevalent in the trading industry, but they often occur once traders have been around for a while. I have some personal experience with these mistakes. Let`s call this stock market advice list, the three most expensive mistakes I`ve made.

My stock market advice mistake tip #4, or the first most expensive mistake, I made was to search for the “Holy Grail” of trading. This was an incredible waste of both time and money. During the first three years of my trading career, I spent over $25,677 on a library full of books, videos and seminars as well as spending thousands of hours in search of the perfect trading methods. Honestly, 95% of what I bought was pure junk… I should have listened to my mentor earlier and realized the “Holy Grail” of trading is simply excellent money management!

My stock market advice mistake tip #5 or the second most expensive mistake I made was not having a predefined exit point. Early in my trading career, I remember trading a stock I thought had a high percentage chance of rising. I was too confident. I fully leveraged the position. Unfortunately, when things did not go as planned, I did not know when to exit, and was paralysed. I kept rationalizing why I should hold onto that stock. As the stock continued to fall, I made more and more excuses. At the very end, I remember thinking, “I can`t take it anymore!”

I sold out. That, of course, was the point the stock turned.

I learned two very valuable lessons that day. First, always have your exit points predefined. Second, big losses once started out as small losses, and it is much easier to take a small loss than a big one.

My Stock Market advice mistake tip #6 or the last most expensive mistake, I made is not one that took money out of my pocket; instead it was a mistake that made me leave money on the table. In fact, this reoccurring mistake cost me big.

Early on, I remember selling positions as soon as they showed a profit. I would not let my profits run, as I was too afraid to give the money back to the market. I figured the profit as mine. The result was that I ended up selling the stocks that were making me money.

It wasn`t until my mentor explained to me that when you are trading, and showing a profit, that is the point where you should be adding to the position, not closing it out, that I began to understand what I was doing. Once I started following his advice, my trading profits soared.

Trading is not an easy profession, but it give you great rewards. Avoid these common errors on my Stock Market advice list, create a simple, well-designed trading system, and learn your market. If you take the time to study the market, and learn from other`s mistakes as well as your own, you will become a successful trader.

Placing Stock Orders

Once you have made the buy or sell decision, what's the best way to accomplish it? Some rules of thumb for placing stock orders for exchange-listed and over-the-counter stocks.
Once an individual investor decides to buy or sell some stock, there are many more decisions that need to be made. Should the investor use a market order, a limit order, a stop order, or some other order type? Which brokerage firm should get the order? To what exchange should the order be routed? This article will help you make these decisions. The two common types of orders used when trading stocks are market orders and limit orders. A market order can be used to buy or sell stock at the best price that the brokerage firm can find at that moment, no matter how high or low that price is. A limit order tells the brokerage firm to purchase (or sell) the shares at a price not to exceed (or not less than) a certain amount, known as the limit price.
Market Orders
One advantage of placing a market order is that the trade will be executed very quickly. Often a broker can confirm that a market order has been executed within just a few seconds of placing an order. The price at which a buy order is executed will usually be the current ask price, which is sometimes called the offer price, and the price at which a market sell would occur would be the current bid price. For example, if the current quotes are 1,000 shares bid at 10 1/8 and 1,700 offered at 10 3/8, that means that you can immediately sell up to 1,000 shares at a price of 10 1/8 or purchase up to 1,700 shares at 10 3/8. The difference between the bid price and the ask price is called the bid-ask spread. These market quotes can be obtained from your broker before you place an order, so that you will have a fairly good, but not necessarily exact, idea of the price at which your trade will be filled. During times of heavy trading activity, though, the market may change between the time you hear the quotes and the time your order reaches the exchange. There is a cost for the speedy execution of a market order, and that is that you may be paying a higher price for the stock than you might otherwise pay. In this example, a limit order to purchase 1,000 shares at 10 1/4 would have a good chance of being filled, so that the investor might have been able to save 1/8, or $125, on the trade. However, if no one were willing to sell at 10 1/4, the investor would have been unable to buy.
Limit Orders
Most brokerage firms charge the same commission for limit orders as they do for market orders, but a few charge more for limit orders since they represent more work. Since a limit order often does not execute immediately, it means that the firm may have to call the customer back later to report that the order was executed. Furthermore, since the order may remain open a long time, the firm has to keep track of the open limit orders. Some firms allow a good-til-canceled limit order to remain active for up to 60 days. In order to get a feel for limit orders, it helps to understand what happens to a limit order after you place it with your broker. If the stock is listed on the New York Stock Exchange or the American Stock Exchange, your broker will send your limit order, usually via a computer, to one of the exchanges where the stock is listed or to a NASDAQ (National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotation system) market maker who trades the stock. Usually your brokerage firm will select the exchange to which it sends the order, although you can specify the exchange if you like. Since many stocks trade on several different stock exchanges, your limit order could end up in many different places, even if the stock is listed on the NYSE. At an exchange, limit orders are usually filled according to price and time priority. For example, the buy order with the highest limit buy price is filled first. For orders that come in with the same limit price, the order that arrives first is filled first.
If there is no one willing to trade at the price given in the limit order, then it sits at the exchange until someone is willing to trade at that price, or the limit order expires, whichever comes first. Generally, limit orders that are placed at a limit price in between the bid and ask quotes have a very good chance of being executed on the NYSE and Amex. Limit orders that are placed away from the current quotes have a very low chance of being executed, so this isn’t recommended unless you do not really care if your order does not get filled. Limit orders that are placed at the bid or ask quotes are another story. If the number of shares quoted at the bid (or offer, if you are selling) is large compared to the trading volume in the stock, then your order may be in the back of a long line. (There is an exception: If the quoted size represents only the position that the NYSE specialist is willing to trade, then a customer order takes precedence over the specialist under NYSE rules.)
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Day Trading Penny Stocks - Is It Really Worth The Risk?

Is day trading penny stocks really a wise move for your investment activity? Many people are wary of this activity, and with good reason. While you certainly do hear the glamour stories of the many investors who’ve made fortunes with penny stocks, you often times don’t hear about the thousands who’ve lost a ton of money in the process.

Penny stocks are notorious for enabling you to make either huge gains or losses overnight. Many people hear stories about somebody who made a million dollars in a couple days day trading penny stocks, and become so enamored with that they don’t realize these same investors (gamblers, really) most often lose all that money soon after.

Believe it or not, penny stocks are nothing more, nothing less than glorified gambling. Yes, there are some investors who can make a lot of money with this avenue, but only if they are absolutely sure of what they are doing. The reason for their volatility is simple: every one of these companies that are trading for les than $1 per share got into the situation for a reason.

Usually, it was either bad management, poor economics, or a combination. Therefore, you’d better have a good reason for thinking a turnaround is about to occur before laying your money down.

The main reason day trading penny stocks is so risky is that it doesn’t take much to affect your investment. For instance, if you buy in at .25 cents, and the stock goes up to .50 cents, you’ve just doubled your investment just by a .25 cent gain! Of course, the same risks apply for it going down.

While a .25 cent swing for most stocks would be hardly noticeable, for penny stocks they can be either mega profitable or suicidal. Therefore, if you do plan on entering the exciting, non-stop action world of penny stocks, you need to be absolutely sure you are an expert at looking at a company and spotting a turnaround possibility.

Think about this: most of the world’s top investors have gotten to the point they are at by investing in good stocks that have exhibited a long term of profitability. When you invest in penny stocks, you voluntarily take yourself out of that realm and focus only on companies that have proven they can’t turn a profit. Yes, sometimes miracles or turnarounds do occur, but not very often.

If you do plan on entering this world of day trading penny stocks, you need to become an expert at spotting companies you are sure will turn things around, and jump in at the right time. No, making money with penny stocks is certainly not impossible, but you must know what you’re doing, and monitor your investments closely at all times.

Historic Stock Prices - What Can You Learn From The Stock Market's History?

With the popularity of the stock market today, many people are wondering about the historic stock prices and what that signals for future investments. Here’s a brief synopsis of the general trend of the market since it’s inception, and the method you should use to invest your money in the future.

The stock market has historically averaged a 12% overall increase each year. This is obviously very good when compared to the return you’d get from putting your money in the bank or a long term savings bond.

Therefore, you can look at these historic stock prices and conclude that just throwing your money into a mutual fund is a wise long term choice. Actually, nothing could be further form the truth.

You see, there is a lot of misinformation on investing today. Since the stock market has historically averaged a 12% rate of return on investment, many people view mutual funds as good investments. This is because mutual funds spread out their holdings, and will tend to mirror the market as a whole.

Actually, this can be disaster. Many people have lost small fortunes by keeping their investments a mutual fund long term, and here’s why.

Lets’ say you’ve been investing money in a mutual fund for years and years, and it’s paid off nicely for you with a 12% return. However, you never know when the next stock market crash is going to come.

Here’s something many investors don’t know-people are required to start taking their money out of their 401K once they reach 70. With the tremendous amount of baby boomers set to retire, you combine that with the fact that the vast majority will be taking out a substantial amount of money to live on, and the stock market could very well be headed for the biggest crash in history.

We are likely still a few years off from this potential catastrophe, but it’s coming in a hurry. Therefore, if you have your money tied up in a mutual fund when this crash occurs, you can literally lose a whole lifetime’s worth of investment with one fell swoop. This has happened to many people who were told their money was secure in a mutual fund, and it can easily happen to you.

The bottom line, don’t trust others with your finances. Do your own research, become financially educated, and you will be able to spot hidden opportunities that the vast majority of others miss out on.

While the historic stock prices have generally show good rates of return, it doesn’t take much to wipe out a whole portfolio. Make sure you know what to look for when you enter the exciting world of investing.

Forex Trading And The Stock Market - Similarities And Differences

Most people get their introduction to financial trading through the stock market. After all, it is the oldest and largest financial market in the world, right? Wrong! The forex trades over $2 trillion (with a "T") a day, and has been around as long as money itself . What's more, the forex is even easier for individuals to participate in than the stock market-and best of all, there are no commissions on forex trades!

That is one difference. But there are also plenty of similarities. Since most people have a relatively strong understanding of the stock market, and many may be considering a move from the stock market to the forex, this article will explore the differences and similarities between the two financial markets.

Differences

As noted above, there are no commissions on forex trades. This is because everything is done electronically. In fact, there is no physical place known as "the forex" -- it exists entirely in cyberspace. That makes for much lower overhead, hence the "free trades" (see similarities for why trades aren't exactly free), and also allows for a twenty-four-hours a day trading platform, five-and-a-half days a week.

Secondly, while many stock-market investors use margin, most don't. In the forex, everyone uses margin -- and to a much larger degree than anyone uses it in the stock market. In the stock market, margin is capped at 50%. This means that if you have $5,000 in your account, the maximum value of stock you can purchase is $10,000. But in the forex, typical margin ratios are 100:1, meaning you can control $100,000 of worth of currency with just $1,000 in your account! This is one of the major appeals of the forex.

Thirdly, while there are 13,000+ stocks for stock-market investors to follow (and even more mutual funds, ETFs, etc.), there are essentially eight major currencies (and only seven currency pairs) for forex traders to follow.

Similarities

Well, forex trades aren't exactly "free." Just like in the stock market, there is a bid/ask spread. What this means it that the market maker will pay you less for a currency than the price for which he is willing to sell it to you. For example, you may be able to buy $1 in U.S. currency for $1.0905 in Canadian money, but when you want to turn around and buy back Canadian dollars, you will have to pay more than one U.S. dollar to get back your 1.0905 Canadian dollars.

Perhaps the biggest similarity between the stock market and the forex is the use of technical analysis -- also known as "chartology." Technical analysis principles hold up no matter what asset is being traded, so if you've become a master candlestick-reading stock trader, you can easily apply your talents to the forex.

Finally, when placing a trade, many of the same options are available in the forex as in the stock market. Limit orders -- which set the maximum price you're willing to pay or the minimum price you're willing to receive -- can be used in the forex just as with stocks, as can stop losses.

In Conclusion...

There are a lot of similarities between the stock market and the forex, and some experience trading stocks is a good thing to have under your belt. But far superior is experience actually trading currencies, and this is not a Catch-22. You can trade currencies before you really join the forex by opening a forex practice account. Most forex brokers offer these accounts, free of charge, which let you get your feet wet without the risk of getting soaked. Learn all you can about the forex, try out your strategies in a practice account, and in little time at all, you'll be ready to swim with the big fish in the biggest pond in all of finance -- the forex!

How Not To Buy Stocks – Do These And You Are Sure To Lose Money

If only I had read an article like this before I dived into the world of stock investing. I must say, three years ago I knew absolutely nothing about how to buy stocks. Of course, through that experience I learned several ways on how to buy stocks and lose money.

Buy stocks without doing research – I joined a discount brokerage and went shopping for stocks right away. I had no clue what I was supposed to look for so I just picked random names I liked and bought a few shares here and there of each.

I must admit, I thought I was doing quite well. I mean, some of the stocks I picked ended up doing alright, but the majority of them when no where fast. So if you want to make sure you fail at buying stocks, skip the research.

Don't Consider the Trading Fees – Learning how to buy stocks the wrong way is easy when you don't consider trading fees. I must admit, when I joined the discount brokerage I was really excited about their $4 trades. What I forgot to calculate was the math.

I was investing an average of $10 per stock when I bought them. Shelling out $4 for a $10 piece of stock meant I was losing 40% right up front each time. When I decided to sell the stock I had to pay another $15 just to sell! You can see where I am going with this, it can turn into quite a fiasco.

Don't Diversify – The surefire method for how to buy stocks the wrong way is to buy a single stock and nothing else. Throw all your nest egg into one company. I mean, so many people do it, especially in their companies at work. What is in your company 401K?

Having all your eggs in one basket sets you up for quite a roller coaster, except there is no safety rails on this ride. You could easily lose everything.

Buy High and Sell Low – The market is fickle so if you want to set yourself up for failure, go with the masses. I admit, it is very tempting to see a stock going higher and higher and yet... higher again.

This makes people want to buy it more, increasing its demand and running the price up even higher. This is great right?

Sure, it can be sometimes, but if the stock is overvalued you are really learning how to buy stock the wrong way with this purchase.

To buy stocks the wrong way, sell the stock as soon as the price dips some. Even if the company is solid. Following the herd is a great way to go down the wrong path.

Hold On To a Losing Stock To Try and “Break Even” - I bought a popular stock for $63 a share, not too long later it dropped into the $40 range.

The research showed the company was not doing so well, but I wanted to at least get my purchase price back. I mean, it is sure to bounce back up right?

Fast forward a few weeks and it was in the $30 range. Dang, I should have sold it at $40 when I had the chance. Well, I am going to at least wait until it gets back into the $40 range before I sell it.

Fast forward... it is below $20 a share now. Keeping a stock when both the price and the company are going downhill is a sure way to learn how to buy stocks the wrong way.

Avoid Learning The Right Ways - If you really want to learn how to buy stocks the wrong way through the school of hard knocks, make sure not to discover the right ways.

Forex Market Vs. Stock Market – Which Is Right For You?

You have probably traded stocks before, but have you ever traded currencies? Currency trading goes back thousands of years and was the first market used by nations, traders and merchants to facilitate the open market process. The trading of national currencies has its own market called the Forex, which is an abbreviation for The Foreign Currency Exchange Market. The Forex Market allows individuals, companies, banks, governments and nations to take advantage of currency fluctuations in the world market to profit from judging the correct direction a currency moves against another currency. Currencies are traded as currency pairs.

The Stock Market:

The stock market has been one of the more traditional ways to make a profit from an investment. You often hear how the stock market can make a person more money from an investment than just about any other market. While you can make double digit profits from the stock market, and it usually produces more of a return than CD’s or bonds, it is not always the easiest market to participate in. With tens of thousands of companies to choose from when investing, it can be downright daunting. Of course you can stick with mutual funds or index funds and make low double digit gains; it is still difficult to perfect a system that can make more than 10 to 15% on a yearly basis. The stock market can be complicated to say the least. Not only do you have to really do your homework, but you never know when a company will decide to go bankrupt or fold altogether. Penny stocks are notorious for losing people money. The large cap stocks are decidedly better, but we all know what happens when a rogue CEO gets in trouble…the company’s stock tanks. There is a lot of risk and uncertainty when trying to play individual stocks while going for 20 to 30% gains in short periods of time.

The Forex Market:

The Forex Market is a lot simpler and tame compared to the stock market. However, it can take more self education than the stock market since there aren’t as many TV and radio shows dedicated to Forex or FX Trading. Since the Forex Market is an over the counter (OTC) market, by definition it is an open, worldwide market with no central trading floor. If it were a market that had one central trading floor, it would be unable to be open 24 hours a day for traders. By definition and not by obligation, the Forex Market is open to everyone and it is open 24 hours a day, five days a week.

Forex Trading takes place with currency pairs, which are two currencies that are traded in relation to each other. Some currency pairs are more popular than others, so the need to learn all of them, and there aren’t that many, is not absolutely necessary. The key to trading Forex Markets is to develop a good strategy and stick to it. When you get to know a currency pair and your research points you to a certain position that you feel will make you a profit, you can then work that position all day and night if you wish. This allows for potentially much greater profits than you can find in the stock market. If you enjoy doing your own research and not simply following what everyone else does, then the Forex Market may be the perfect investment tool for you.

How To Make Money In Sideways Market?

To be successful in forex trading, following the trend perhaps would be among the most popular skills that a trader must master. However this article won’t discuss about trending, but discuss about its opposite. History shows that most markets tend to move in a non-trending, or "sideways" fashion more of the time than they are in a trending mode. So how to trade in non-trending markets. The most popular answer would be "swing trading."

The key point for swing trading is finding a market that is trapped in a sideways trading range (also called a congestion area), or in an up-trending or down-trending channel on the chart (remember, channel!). When observing from the chart, the trader must be able to distinguish some clear support and resistance levels that are boundaries of the congestion area or channel. When a market price comes close to the support or resistance area boundary, the trader will establish a position: long if prices are moving lower and close to the support boundary, and short if prices are moving higher and toward the resistance boundary. It sounds simple, but remember, trading contains a lot of surprises. The price might break out the support or resistance boundary anytime, therefore skills to response quick, or good money management strategies are always critical characteristics of a seasoned trader.

Swing trading techniques can be used in any chart time frame -- daily, weekly, monthly and intra-day charts. Nevertheless, the most popular timeframe for swing trading is the daily bar chart.

Note that the strength of the support and resistance at the boundaries is usually determined by the number of times the market has pivoted at the boundaries. The rule is that the more times a market has reached a support or resistance boundary, and then reversed course, the more powerful is that boundary. It can also be said that the longer continues a channel, the more reliable is that channel. Thus, a trader wants to find a well-established channel or trading range for which to attempt to swing trade.

An exception to this is a market that has been in a trading range, but is bound by one or two powerful spike moves, which also indicate a strong support or resistance boundary. That means some congestion areas that may offer a good swing-trade opportunity do not require several pivot points. In fact, those one or two spike levels would be determined to be a potentially good pivot area for a market.

The swing trader should still use tight protective stops. As I mentioned, a breakout can occur anytime, might due to bad political news etc…Good money management strategies will keep traders out of problems. A good area to place a protective stop is just outside of a support or resistance boundary that makes up the trading channel or congestion area. For instance, if a market in a trading channel is nearing the upper boundary of that channel, the swing trader would establish a short position and would want to place his protective buy stop just above the resistance level that serves as the upper boundary of the trading channel.

In contrast, if a market is nearing the lower boundary, the swing trader would establish a long position and place his protective sell stop just above the support level.

I would explain how to trade in the trending market in the next article. Trade in trending market would be different, it is about identify the signals and ride the trends.

One Simple Day Trading Secret

To be successful in day trading, one must be able to spot up and down patterns quickly in stocks they’re watching – But one question remains. “What stocks should I be watching?” Once you’ve mastered this one technique, you’ll be a mile ahead of other day traders not using this technique.

Top day traders have what they call a “Watch List.” This watch list is the list they’re constantly watching, looking for patterns that indicate it would be a good time to buy. The majority of a successful day trader’s trades come from watching stocks on their watch list.

What are the criteria for choosing a good stock for your watch list?

One important criterion is liquidity. A stock that trades at least 1.5 million shares a day is a good rule of thumb. Even if the stock matches all the other criteria, it does no good if you can’t quickly buy or sell your stock.This is not too difficult to look for as most good day trading stocks trade in many millions a day. Upto 30 million in one day for the huge liquid stocks. Keep out of thinly traded stocks. The Market Makers can manipulate their price movement too easily.

Next look at the volatility of stocks. A good stock for your watch list should be a highly volatile stock, as day trading profits are made when stock values change. Measure and compare companies you’re considering by day, week, and month.

High dividend stocks should be eliminated as well. Day trading is not a long-term investing strategy, and the more dividends a company pays, the less money they’re re-investing into the company’s growth.

Once you’ve got a list of candidates, select between five and thirty to put on your watch list. Start small in the beginning, and work your way up to more stocks as you gain confidence and experience using your watch list.

This tip alone could earn you thousands of dollars.

Red Flags To Avoid When Selecting Stock

Every stock selection system has its own take on how to select a profitable stock. Each system has ways of limiting loss and hopefully maximizing gains. Unfortunately, even with all the educational material available to the stock investor, it seems most are still picking poor stock and losing money. Here are several red flags to pay attention to when selecting stock, to avoid investing in losing propositions.

One red flag to pay attention to is unstable earnings. If a company’s earnings and growth are volatile, you can expect the company’s stock to follow suit. Large expansions, company restructuring, and other large expenses can temporarily set back a company’s earnings, but a company’s general picture should show that the company is consistently growing and pulling a profit. In fact focus solely on stocks with super earnings growth. this is what the big funds love and when they buy in they wil lcreate the trnds for us to profit in. With so many choices there's no point in leaving your money in B stocks whn there is great money to be made in A+ stocks.

Another red flag is a company that is heavily in debt. While many companies enjoy the benefits of leveraging debt to expand the business, but a company carrying too much debt becomes a financial risk. Just as a financial institution wouldn’t want to extend a loan to a company who’s heavily in debt, you shouldn’t invest your money for the same reasons.

Remember to keep these red flags in mind as you’re picking your stocks. Do your research before you make a purchase. Buying stock without properly educating yourself and doing your research is gambling at best, pouring money down the drain at worst. While these red flags may not show up in every trade consideration, even if they just show up once in a while, they can save you thousands of lost dollars from making a poor investment.

Stock Trading As A Business

There’s a huge myth out there that stock trading isn’t a business. Some even go as far as to call day trading no different than gambling. While this can be true in some instances, stock trading done well is just like any other business. The reverse is true as well: To be successful in stock trading, one must follow sound business principles.

Just like any other business, to succeed in stock trading, you must approach your business as a business. This is not some fly-by-night get rich scheme; this is a potential career for you to invest time, money, and education into. In other words, to succeed in stock trading, you have to treat it seriously and professionally.

Just like any other business, before you invest a single dollar you should have a plan of how you plan to invest. In business, this plan is called a business plan. In investing, this is called a trading system. Without a trading system, a stock trader who trades on blind emotion really is no different than a gambler at the racetracks. Basically you need a system or amethod to adhere to. This is where most go wrong. Even the ones who realize this buy into the "emotional" methods. What do I mean by this? Methods that appeal to what we want not what we really need. Most losing methods I see do the wrong things at the wrong time. They overtrade. Take profits too fast and do not cut losees fast enough. so do the opposite.

Finally, to be successful in your stock trading business, you must have superb management. Management in stock trading involves managing yourself – Having the discipline you need to take yourself to success. It does no good to have the perfect trading system if you can’t follow the system. Oftentimes new investors shoot far past their trading limits, hoping that a stock will “come back up.” This is an example where poor management cost the investor hundreds or thousands of dollars.

Stock Trading With Under $1000

The biggest obstacle for many people getting started investing is they just “don’t have the money” to get started with. Fortunately, with the advent and progress of online trading, stock trading has been opened to almost anybody, including those with very limited funds.

How can you get started trading with under $1000 startup capital?

With online brokers, you’ll no longer be laughed at for opening an account with limited funds. In fact, most brokers will welcome your business, as they have nothing but bytes to lose from an extra trader.

Stock traders with limited funds are no longer limited to just penny stocks and stock options. If you only have $200 to invest, how could you afford to invest in all those expensive stocks? In the past, you may have been forced to invest only small cap stocks, which tend to be very volatile, or try to guess the market with stock options.

Now however, with online brokering you can actually purchase fractional stock. With a fractional stock purchase, you’re basically buying a part of a high priced stock. Just like buying a full stock in the company, the rising and falling of that company’s stock will dictate your profits.

With the advent of online stock trading, limited funds are no longer an excuse not to get started investing. Although the door is open to traders of almost any level, it’s still true that only the most educated traders will make any consistent profit in stock trading. As in all other businesses it's the omnes who can hang around long enough to work out what works and what doesn't that will make the money. I see far too many "traders" blow their account within 6 months and off they go looking at other businesses to make their "fortune" in. Is this you?

Educate yourself and start investing – It may be the best decision of your

The Stock Market And Forex Trading

More books and articles have been written on the stock market than on perhaps any other business subject in the world.

Most of these have as their purpose instructing the reader on exactly how he can invest to make a sizable amount of money, and if he really applies himself, how he can become rich in either three or five years.

One of the most useful books written appeared in 1961. It did not tell you how to get rich. It emphasized the difficulties of investing in the stock market and it performed a tremendous service in this way, plus isolating the significant factors which record and explain the ups and downs of the market.

To invest in the market by following the procedures outlined in that book is anything but easy.

It requires a considerable amount of work every day the stock market is in operation. The book is written more for the professional investor to tell him how to make maximum profits out of both the rises and falls of the market.

The average investor will not take the time or perform the work necessary to maximize his profits, and he is satisfied with something less than maximum profits over a period of time. It is this type of person that we are writing for, not the professional investor who often spends 100% of his time on investments. We are, furthermore, writing for the smaller investor, not for the larger, professional one.

When we talk about the stock market we are not trying to write one more treatise on how to get wealthy in the stock market.

We do not present it as the only outlet for funds, although it certainly is for many people who know only the stock market on the one hand and the savings bank on the other. We treat the stock market as one outlet for funds, an outlet that can be almost the only good outlet at certain times, and a terrible outlet at other times one that offers too much risk.

In 1960 the stock market for the non-professional investor was, in my opinion, a substandard investment. Other investments in my portfolio yielded 12% and 14% and sent checks monthly, and the underlying businesses grew stronger while a number of the major firms listed on the Stock Exchanges showed declining profits and the trend of the market was down until late in the year. An inexpert investor in the stock market during most of the year 1960 would have had the cards stacked against him.

If we consider investments primarily of the loan type, those in which a person or organization is obligated to return a given number of dollars, plus a profit, over a period of months or years. Above everything, the proper investigation of these risks and safeguards against losses have been stressed.

The stock market is good for long term investing especially through investment trusts
and unit trusts.

Forex is more risky but greater profits can be made. Good software will help you to reduce the risks if you trade the Forex.

How To Choose Stocks

Everyone wants to see growth from their stocks. That is why they take their funds from the bank and start investing them. Many first time investors remove their funds with a feeling of trepidation and anxiety. The stock market is a volatile storm where many drowned.

The first step is to learn how to buy a stock. Many investors jump right in learning investment strategies and adopting techniques that worked for others, before learning the simple steps to buying a stock. Without a good understanding of the rules of buying a stock, it becomes impossible to make the strategies work.

The strategies do work but only when the investor chooses the right stocks for their own portfolios. The strategies do not tell investors what to buy and when to sell. They are only meant to tell investors how to manage their stocks. First, the investor must buy some stocks.

Step #1: Read the Wall Street Journal

The Wall Street Journal is not the only paper that can help investors. The business section of your local paper can often offer tips that will never make it into the Wall Street Journal. However, The Journal can teach new investors the lingo, and the basics of the markets. The more you read, the more familiar the markets become, and the easier it is to research stocks.

Step #2: Pick Industries

No one expects an investor to build a portfolio with a few stocks from mining, a couple from manufacturing, a drug developing company, a foreign natural resource harvester, and a marine biology firm. This is foolish investing. Instead, investors should focus on one or two industries and learn everything they can about that industry.

There are many places to research. Sometimes a simple place like finance.yahoo.com or Morningstar.com can provide all the resources needed to find an industry you will not tire of.

Step #3: Decide How Much to Invest

This is one of the hardest parts of investing. Many people have a set amount to invest. They experience some success and hit ‘pay load.’ Then the temptation sets in. If they had invested $10 000 instead of $1 000, their payoff would have been 10x higher. What if they had of invested $100 000? This type of thinking is dangerous.

Never invest more than you can lose is a nice mantra, but in the real world, resisting temptation is much harder. As the years past, some investors start counting up the intangible money they ‘may have’ earned if they invested more. This leads to frustration instead of joy when a stock does well.

Eventually, they start investing more than they can afford to lose. Then, they lose it -

Step #4: Avoid the Crowd

Some new investors believe the best way to buy a stock is buy whatever is ‘hot’ at the moment. They skip through websites and financial papers until they find something that is ‘hot.’ Unfortunately for them, they have not yet met the Bull or the Bear.

Buying hot stocks is only for people who are able to determine why that particular stock is hot at the moment. Buying on an impulse or gut feeling is just as dangerous. By the time a stock is hot, the ‘real’ investors have already bailed, having made their money, and are leaving before the crash.

These four steps will help a new investor buy a stock which should perform well, instead of buying a stock that bottoms out within a few weeks.
How To Choose Stocks
By: Mark Walters
Everyone wants to see growth from their stocks. That is why they take their funds from the bank and start investing them. Many first time investors remove their funds with a feeling of trepidation and anxiety. The stock market is a volatile storm where many drowned.

The first step is to learn how to buy a stock. Many investors jump right in learning investment strategies and adopting techniques that worked for others, before learning the simple steps to buying a stock. Without a good understanding of the rules of buying a stock, it becomes impossible to make the strategies work.

The strategies do work but only when the investor chooses the right stocks for their own portfolios. The strategies do not tell investors what to buy and when to sell. They are only meant to tell investors how to manage their stocks. First, the investor must buy some stocks.

Step #1: Read the Wall Street Journal

The Wall Street Journal is not the only paper that can help investors. The business section of your local paper can often offer tips that will never make it into the Wall Street Journal. However, The Journal can teach new investors the lingo, and the basics of the markets. The more you read, the more familiar the markets become, and the easier it is to research stocks.

Step #2: Pick Industries

No one expects an investor to build a portfolio with a few stocks from mining, a couple from manufacturing, a drug developing company, a foreign natural resource harvester, and a marine biology firm. This is foolish investing. Instead, investors should focus on one or two industries and learn everything they can about that industry.

There are many places to research. Sometimes a simple place like finance.yahoo.com or Morningstar.com can provide all the resources needed to find an industry you will not tire of.

Step #3: Decide How Much to Invest

This is one of the hardest parts of investing. Many people have a set amount to invest. They experience some success and hit ‘pay load.’ Then the temptation sets in. If they had invested $10 000 instead of $1 000, their payoff would have been 10x higher. What if they had of invested $100 000? This type of thinking is dangerous.

Never invest more than you can lose is a nice mantra, but in the real world, resisting temptation is much harder. As the years past, some investors start counting up the intangible money they ‘may have’ earned if they invested more. This leads to frustration instead of joy when a stock does well.

Eventually, they start investing more than they can afford to lose. Then, they lose it -

Step #4: Avoid the Crowd

Some new investors believe the best way to buy a stock is buy whatever is ‘hot’ at the moment. They skip through websites and financial papers until they find something that is ‘hot.’ Unfortunately for them, they have not yet met the Bull or the Bear.

Buying hot stocks is only for people who are able to determine why that particular stock is hot at the moment. Buying on an impulse or gut feeling is just as dangerous. By the time a stock is hot, the ‘real’ investors have already bailed, having made their money, and are leaving before the crash.

These four steps will help a new investor buy a stock which should perform well, instead of buying a stock that bottoms out within a few weeks.

Basic Stock Trading

Many investors have a rudimentary understanding of how stocks are traded, but they do not fully understand how things trade. There are many horror stories. An investor sees their stock slipping, knows it will slip further, so puts in an overnight trade only to learn later that stocks continue to fall after the local market closes. Or, an investor believes they are fixed in at a certain number at the moment they call their broker, and learn later that they bought stocks at a much higher cost than expected.

How a system that manages billions of shares trading in a single day, that never ends as the sun skims through the time zones, is a mystery to most.

Trade Equals Buy or Sell

In the jargon of the financial markets, a trade happens when an investor buys or sells. The request to buy goes to the ‘floor’ where the stocks are purchased. The purchaser owns nothing more than pieces of paper. They do not own a part of the company. They cannot put an ad in the paper to sell their stocks. In most cases, their stocks cannot be used as collateral against a loan, or mortgage. But, somehow, these pieces of paper represent an intangible asset that can increase in money - even if the company is not doing well.

Yes, a stock’s value is dependent on a company’s financial health, but the stock itself can be sold independently of the company’s balance sheet. For example, technically, you can walk out and pay 10x the value of a stock for it, without ever reading the company’s balance sheets.

Exchange Floor Trades

Trading on the ‘floors’ is done at the markets. The futures markets trade ‘in person’ and the trades take place on the floor of the exchanges like the new York Stock Exchange. This is the image most people have in their minds, and the one portrayed in movies and on television. The floors are basically overcrowded with hundreds of people shouting and gesturing to each other, talking on phones, watching monitors, and working at terminals.

Here is a simple scenario of an exchange floor trade:

The investor tells the broker to purchase 100 shares of AJAX. The order is sent to the floor clerk at the exchange. The floor clerk sends the order to a floor trader who goes looking for another floor trader who has 100 shares of AJAX to sell. The two agree on a price. The deal is completed. The entire process can take a few minutes. Several days later the investor receives a piece of paper in the mail confirming the trade.

Electronic Trade

NASDAQ, unlike the New York floor, is 100% electronic. The computer networks match buyers and sellers, without bothering with brokers. Both small investors, and large investors including those who handle pension funds and mutual funds prefer this type of trading.

There is instant confirmation of the trades, and the trades take place in real time - which is vital if a stock is spiraling up, or down.

Unlike what most people think, they cannot access the trading floor. Even if they work through their home PC, they are still working through a broker, or at least, a broker’s computer network.

Why Understand Trades

One of the most important aspects of understanding a trade is to manage your risk. The idea that you can wait until a stock reaches a certain point and then sell is unrealistic. Even if a buyer does have a broker, there may be 32 different clients wanting to buy or sell a certain stock. This means that an individual’s order can happen several minutes, to an hour or more after the sale is placed. This can have a direct effect on the profit or losses endured by an individual investor.

Types Of Stock Market Investors

There are as many different types of stock market investors as there are stocks to invest in. There is no one ‘bad’ type of investor, and there is no group of investors who will do better than the rest of the pack. Each personality type works in a different way. The stock markets need all types of investors to maintain a healthy balance.

Active Investors

These investors sometimes border on fanatics. They read everything on investing, study the stocks, and subscribe to magazines, associations, or newsletters. Their motivation can be to flip stocks and make money fast, or it can be the satisfaction of finding a treasure missed by Wall Street pundits. Whether driven by wealth or ego, this type of investor turns investing into their hobby and even passion.

These investors learn how to read financial statements, market predictions, economic analysis reports, and editorials. They learn the names of the world’s best economists, and are familiar with the London and New York Times Newspapers.

These investors prefer stocks that are rising and promise to be a forerunner for future outperformance. They have one focus, accelerating earnings, from a company which has tapped into a new product or innovation that promises to hit the market hard. There are many approaches to picking stocks, based on a number of factors including stock price behavior, markets, and earnings growth.

Passive Investors

These people are often interested in investing their money, but they do not want to spend their weekends studying financial statements, markets, and even weather reports. This type of investor laughs at the good luck mantras and charms used by some investors. They are often happy to put their money in the hands of a broker and walk away.

The passive investor creates a plan, researches stocks, invests, and then patiently waits for a return in the future. A passive investor takes a look at the company’s value, assets, debt, and financial health. They consider market and competition when estimating the company’s opportunity for success. They are not aggressive, or looking for a quick gain.

As long as their looses are not in the high-risk level, they leave their portfolio along. They follow the 10% rule when estimated acceptable loss. Once a stock falls 10% below what they paid, it is time to sell to the bargain hunters.

Bargain Hunter Investor

These investors circle like eagles waiting for the weak and wounded to fall, then they pick up the pieces. Many companies owe their survival in hard times to the bargain hunter. Kmart is one company that pulled through and recovered after Wall Street left it for dead.
The Player

At first glance this person may not seem to have a viable place in the market, but looks can be deceiving. This person wants to roll their money over and trade stocks constantly - that is part of the game. They are only interested in research and learning as long as there is money to play with.

There is a fundamental place for Chaos in the universe. Without Chaos there is no balance. The same applies to the stock market. Whether the player is using cash, or self-direct in their 401K, their main goal is to increase their money quickly, creating a feeding frenzy among some stocks, and then walking away before the market balances itself out.

There is a place for all investors, and while there are winners and losers in the market, the important thing is to pick a comfortable place and don’t let anyone force investors out of their comfort zones.

Protect Your Stock Portfolio From False Signals

Most new investors have a fair idea when they should sell. The standard is 10% loss, and it is time to sell. There are dozens of gurus who offer all sorts of signals and red flags to help investors learn when to invest and when to buy or sell. Some gurus say ‘It’s time to sell when the points turn negative.’ All of this information is good, but the investor needs to learn how to identify false signals.

There are some events that can fool investors into selling, but misreading the signs can result in having the portfolio compromised.

Falling Stock Price

A drop in stock prices is not necessarily a reason to sell. In fact, it may be a reason to buy, as the market ‘corrects’ itself and prepares to take off again. This is because the stock does not always reflect a company’s true value.

Take a good look at the company’s current bank reports and any press releases, or other communication and PR releases. View the local newspapers and other information before letting emotions and panic force a sale. In fact, it could be a panic based on gossip, or other market factors dropping the stock price.

Rising Stock Prices

It is amazing to think of a panic caused by rising prices, but it happens all the time. Investors create an arbitrary number in their head and then they sell at that point, regardless of what the market is doing. Unlike the ‘real world’ stocks are not controlled by the law of gravity. Just because they go up, doesn’t mean they must come down.

Bad News and Gossip

One of the most dangerous thermometers for a stock’s health is gossip and rumors. Bad news can send a stock plummeting within hours, and then several weeks later it corrects, or increases. Never base a trade on emotion, fear, or gossip. Even if the company is a train wreck coming to a screeching halt, there is usually time to do some serious investigating and ‘get out’ before suffering a loss.

Stock Screens

Stock screens are tools that let investors sift through the stocks until they find those which meet certain criteria. These computer programs reduce the number of stocks up for consideration, reducing the time an investor spends researching their choices.

The important thing is to read the fine print before investing money into a screening service, especially if they suggest they can produce winning stocks every time. Problem is, these screens often work in real-time and do not calculate the long-term performance of the stocks. The stocks are not interested in Repeat Performance. Few people can buy 50 stocks at a time and turn over 25% each month, to match the results implied by the screen. Just remember that screens are a great tool - but don’t expect to duplicate their performance.

Understanding Loss

A loss is a loss whether the investor sells, or not. However, risk is only a tangible amount in the bank account if the stock is sold. A stock may drop 10%, but that does not mean that the investor has actually lost 10% - yet. The stock may rally, or it may continue to drop. The investor should also consider the fees incurred when selling.

Understanding the industry, and keeping an eye on a company’s financial reports can help investors understand the difference between a correction, a fluctuation, or a true loss.