Giving you the education you need to succeed in online stock trading

Stock trading is the exciting, shorter term strategy where it is you against the market. Where you can quickly make significant profits in a short amount of time when you are correct.

This differs from investing in companies which is generally considered a long term strategy. Done properly, investing is used to accumulate wealth slowly over the long term. Unfortunately, many may find this slow pace boring which is why many prefer the online trading game.

This site was written to provide beginner and intermediate stock trader’s information on how they can advance their trading skills.

Think of online stock trading as a game. Because the trading industry always removes their share of money from the game, in the long run, there should always be more losers than winners.

Online trading can be a tricky business. Educate yourself before you trade.

It is literally true that millions come easier to a trader after he knows how to trade than hundreds did in the days of his ignorance.

Edwin Lefèvre
Reminiscences of a Stock Operator

Your job is to learn the skills required to become
a winning stock trader.

Think of trading stocks as a game. In the game, while there is generally a winner and a looser, the brokers always take their commission. The game is played by hard core professionals as well as rank amateurs and everything in between. Your job is to acquire enough skills to pull money from the market and not give your hard earned money to the market.

When you begin to trade stocks online, you take control of your trading. However, this new found freedom comes with a price. You need to gather all of the information required for each trade prior to making it. This can be a time consuming process.

To prepare yourself, here is a brief summary of the unofficial rules to online stock trading.

Before you begin, you have to identify what you want out of trading. You may be in it for the money or you could be just looking for entertainment value. No matter how you slice it, traders go through various development stages. From beginner to expert, traders are always evolving. What stage is your trading at?

Now that you know a bit about why you are trading, you need to identify what time frame you are going to trade because this determines how close to the market you need to be, the type of stock charts you will use, the type of online stock broker you will need and how much time you will have to spend trading.

Now the hard part, understanding why discipline and money management are two of the most critical aspects of trading stocks. Can you control your trading or does it control you? Trading is all about risk control. Discipline is required for every decision and action you make while trading stocks. Remember, traders who cannot sell a stock become unwanted investors.

Now the easy part, finding stocks to trade. Either by viewing a stock market chart or using technical analysis software stocks, which present good buying opportunities, can be found. It is up to you to train your eye to spot good buying or shorting opportunities or you can obtain this information by subscribing to some of the multiple number of newsletters out there. But remember, newsletter writers are not perfect either.

Once you identify what and when to buy, you need to identify how many shares you should buy and how you are going to manage the risk of the trade? You need to plan the whole trade before you buy the stock you are looking at. After purchasing your stock through your online stock broker you need to keep an eye on it and sell when the market tells you to.

There is a saying that goes if you do the same thing don’t be surprised if you get the same results. Thus, if your are currently a trader who is not making what you think you should be making something has to change. To change you need to open your mind to new thoughts and ideas and these come from reading books, magazines or websites or attending courses. My book reviews page can provide guidance in this area.

To get a better understanding of the major ideas I have come to accept regarding trading and how my thinking has changed. Please consider picking up a copy of my book - Dating the Stock Market, 10 Key Mindsets you Need to Excel as a Trader. I think one of the biggest breakthroughs I had was in understanding the market randomness. I created a Monte Carlo simulation excel tool which allowed me to see how small variations in returns could lead to very large profits.

Please remember, trading stocks is a probability game. You will not be successful if you do not adjust your thinking to this fact. Educate yourself before you invest your time and money.

Something which I have come to realize is the following:

"If you are not happy with what you have now then you will never be happy because you will always have what you have now." Mark, September 3, 2014

If the above quote does not make sense to you, think about it.  Once you figure it out, you might make a giant step forward.

Good luck on your trading journey.

Mark

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