Archive for June, 2009
Online Stocks Trading – Overview
If you have ever considered online stocks trading, now is a great time to get involved. Everything will start to go up again and we’re getting close to turning point in this recession, however stocks are still down across the board. This is great news if you are just starting out because chances are any stock you pick is going to increase in value as the whole market ride a wave to recovery.
There are never any guarantees with the market, a painful lesson a lot of us learned over the past year and a half, but a century of historical data shows that even with its rises and dips, the stock market always rises over the long term.
That expression, “the long term” is the real key to online stocks trading, by the way. So, you’ll actually make money if you hold on to a stock as long as you’re patient. Only people who are betting on short term gains that get badly burned with it
If you’re serious about online stocks trading, you really need to have a budget first. Simply put, the money you can afford to lose is the money you can afford to invest in the stock market. If you need it to pay a bill next month, then it should be in the bank where it is safe.
You will rarely lose any money if you never forced to pull money out of the market. Because if a stock goes down, all you have to do is hold on to it and wait. Unless the company has totally imploded, the stock will usually recover in time.
Create an account with a reputable online broker when you want to get started with online stock trading. Pick one that is well known as they will have the most secure websites. This is hugely important as you will be sharing your personal information and your banking and credit card information to set up the account and you certainly don’t want to risk identity theft. The stock market is indeed quite risky!
Once you have found a brokerage site that you like, you can start researching and picking stocks. My advice to those just starting out with online stocks trading is to buy small amounts of inexpensive stocks to start. This will allow you to spread your risk around and if any of your choices turns out to be a mistake it will not wipe out your whole portfolio.
Online stocks trading should fun and by investing small amounts you can get involved with more companies which increases the rate at which you will learn about the market. It is also a good idea to buy several very reliable stable stocks and then take a bit more risk with a few that are more volatile. This gives you a chance of hitting it big while preventing you from losing it all.
Do You Know the Pros and Cons of Stock Trading vs. Gamble?
The stock market is a volatile place as stocks are bought and sold throughout the day for considerable profits and losses. The reason this is possible is because the prices of stocks fluctuate wildly during the day just as they fluctuate from one day to the next. This leaves the market open to those who relish the opportunity to profit off the pennies that others will sell to save. It can be quite a lucrative practice but carries with it a level of risk that is almost equal to investing in penny stocks.
Day trading is a particular draw for those who are addicted to gambling through trading stocks. It provides the ups and downs very similar to the roll of the dice or the ringing of the slot machines and instant hits and misses. It can even be addictive for those who have never set foot in a casino. Of course this type of investing isn’t the only investing that is very much like gambling. Any high-risk investment is going to bear some similarities, especially those that offer high payouts to those who do succeed on occasion.
The problem is that addictive gambling can be devastating to friends, family, and finances. If you suspect that you or someone you love has a gambling problem you need to either get help yourself or encourage them to get help. There are many ways that this can be accomplished and anonymous help can be found online. Day traders have gained so much notoriety as potential gambling addicts that gamblers anonymous has begun a support group specifically for those who are addicted to gambling via day trader trading.
If you have the personality that is easily addicted to things such as lottery tickets, slot machines, chocolate candy bars, etc. this doesn’t mean that you can’t ever trade on the stock market it just means that it might be a good idea to avoid some of the higher risk trading and stick with more slow and steady options such as mutual funds, CDs, and the like. Your rewards are likely to be better over time and you aren’t likely to experience the ups and downs that go along with activities that closely resemble gambling.
An addiction to gambling is a serious problem that can ruin a family financially. It is imperative that you get the help you need if you discover that you have a gambling problem. The first suggestion is to close up all stock market accounts that could lead to temptation. Removing temptation is always a great first step when fighting any addiction. You also need to seek support. There are many groups around the country such as gambler’s anonymous that can provide you a close knit support group whenever temptation strikes. If your local chapter has a group that is designed specifically for those who are addicted to gambling through day stock trading that might prove to be the best choice to help you on the road to recovery from your addiction.
If you have been addicted to gambling in the past you should also avoid the temptation that day trading may present. Addictions may be overcome but they are never cured and temptation for many can prove to be the fatal downfall. Do not allow your gambling addiction to take control of your life once again by entering into the world of day trading after working so hard to overcome your addiction in the first place and build a life after the sometimes devastating effects that addictions can bring.
Gambling is nothing new to the world and there is nothing wrong with having the sort of personality that likes to take a gamble on occasion. In fact, there needs to be a little bit of that personality type in every day trader. It’s when the gambling becomes a problem and takes over your life and your ability to make rational decisions about the money and the risks you are taking that it crosses the line between gambling and a gambling problem that borders on or is a gambling addiction. If your gambling is a problem get help straight away.
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The Secret To Technical Analysis
Technical analysis of the stock market, or any other market such as Forex, Bonds, Futures, is how most traders and investors make their trading decisions. This is as opposed to fundamental analysis which most people more agree is pretty much done as a way of making trading decisions, unless of course you are Warren Buffet!.
You only have to think back to recent stock market scams like Enron to know that it is almost impossible for the average, and even very sophisticated fund manager or hedge fund trader to really know what the real financial state of a company is.
Just by reading the balance sheet and other quarterly reports they release gives you a very limited insight into the real health of the company. Whereas the technical charts of the company tend to give the real picture of what the market thinks of the value of the company. In the case of Enron even simple technical analysis told you to SELL when the stock was in the $80-90 range, this is why technical analysis of stocks is so popular.
So what is the secret to technical analysis?, I’m about to tell you, here are my golden rules:
* Only use 3-5 simple technical analysis indicators
* Make sure that you understand how the indicators that you have selected work, what the parameter settings are and in what market conditions they are effective
* After selecting your indicators and parameter settings don’t mess with them.
The real secret to technical analysis is to become VERY familiar with your choosen indicators, and really this can only be done by watching and studying the market, so that you get to the point that you TRUST them.
The fact is that in any market, for each bar, there are only 5 pieces of information, the open, close, high, low and volume, yet there are now hundreds of indicators. Most of these indicators are displaying the same information and so are redundant.
For the record my set of indicators are:
* 4 Simple Moving Averages
* Bollinger Bands
* MACD
* Stochastics
But the way I use them is quite special, to learn more about how to become an expert at technical analysis visit: