The Easiest Way To Make Money On The Share Markets

Share trading, as opposed to share investing, is about buying and selling shares for a living. It is like buying and selling any item for a living. You buy at a certain price and sell to make a profit.

Shorting is the same deal, except people find the concept rather confusing. Shorting a share or an index means buying high and selling low for a profit. This sounds silly to most people, because nobody pays more for an item and then sells it for less to make a profit. This means making a loss--except when shorting the market.

Shorting is the easiest way to make money on the share market. It is the easiest way because you do not have to worry about the market crashing and you making a loss. When the market crashes and people are talking about everyone making losses, the person shorting is making profits. Jesse Livermore, said to be one of the greatest share traders, made most of his profits from shorting shares.

The reason why shorting is the easiest way to make money on the share market is people are more fearful than courageous. Everybody has fear drilled into their subconscious so much that once an image of loss starts to grab hold of a person, irrationality starts to take control and the person will begin to sell shares at any price. When this emotion starts to grab hold of a multitude of people, panic selling sets in, and share markets crash. The markets come down so quickly that in a matter of days, a person shorting the market, a share, currency, or commodity, is able to make very quick money easily. This is how George Soros was able to make $1 billion dollars in a single trade in one day.

How many people do you know who have made that much money? More to the point, how many people do you know who have made that in a single day?

George Soros made that money by shorting, not the share market, rather the currency market. Soros made his money shorting the British Pound. However, what this does is demonstrate that the easiest way to make money on the markets, be it the share market, commodities market (oil, metals, agriculture), index or currencies.

Fear and greed control the markets, but fear is a stronger emotion than greed. This is because fear is embedded in the subconscious when children are small. And while even you might be courageous enough to face fear head on, once it rears up within you, it will cause you to be unstable and cause you to act irrationally. This is why it is easier to make money from people who are fearful of losing more still, because they will sell for less.

To be a shorter means that you have to go against the grain of popular wisdom. Share markets go up, not down, and, besides, down is limited, whereas up has no limits. Many brokers will tell you that the markets can only go up indefinitely, while there is a limit to going down. What many brokers will not tell you is that companies go broke and if you are left holding the share certificates, the paper is worthless, and there is no more up, once a company is wound up.

There is a saying, "The taller they are, the harder they fall." It is like the market, the more a price goes up, the more it has to come down. Having been caught too many times with prices crashing after I have bought, my preference is to go short.

Common Fatal Mistakes in Day Trading - Part 1

Here are 4 deadly mistakes that most people encounter, whether they may be novice or veteran traders. Avoid them at all cost.

Using the scared money

Each trader has a risk capital but sometimes the trade calls for them to go overboard and use the money that they do not have, they are afraid to lose or simply the money that should not be used in the trade. These include money for college tuition, bills and payments that were allocated to some other uses beforehand. Day trading is such a tricky business that if someone is not careful enough, he might end up in a ditch wondering where he could borrow some money to continue the trade or how he could make up for the money he lost. There are two main objectives in this trade- to be able to trade for another day and profit from the trades you make for today. But as much as you can help it, don't use other people's money or your money reserved for other important things. If you have no money or too little money to put in line, try to be a lot more discriminatory on your trades or you might as well wrap up and venture into another business.

Taking too much time

Time is a commodity in trading but it can't be bought. Time often defines the difference in choosing between a closing and a winning trade. Many people want to be certain when they make their trades therefore taking up too much time that by the moment they decide to get in the trade, it has already closed or it has already started sliding down.

Lack of Moderation

If someone sees that his trades are going straight up, he usually has an adrenaline rush which urges him to be more excited and uncontrollably glad. But this does not end here. He starts to feel the confirmation that his system works and that he is the greatest guy in the world. It is ok to be glad and to be excited but when it comes to the point that one's judgment becomes clouded by the lack of moderation in emotions, he has to pull the stops and stand back unless he is willing to lose the day because of his emotions.

Reliance on opinion

The market does not work based on people's opinions. It works on the behaviors of the trends, the economy, constant buying and selling, etc. but definitely not on what a "trading guru" says or thinks about day trading.

A Crash Course to the Basics of Day Trading

The human race has gotten familiar with the idea of trading since time immemorial. It has been the people's outlet for survival, prosperity and progress, and for the exchange of their feelings, ideals, and experiences too. With a little back up of history, it can be traced back to when some of the primeval groups started swapping certain useful items with one another in the absence of money so that they could fulfill their daily provisions. Nonetheless, trading is an integral part of man's life. It transcends race, religion, and sex as it is a common thing for all throughout the world. In this article, you will get a full blast of the information regarding the types of day trading and its pros and cons.

The following are the types of day trading which are qualified by the time frame in which the traders prefer to keep their stocks.

Basic day trading. This refers to the day that the trader opts to collect the stocks and then keep them floating for quite sometime in the effort of selling them all at once at the end of the day. The trader is both the seller and purchaser. One of its primary benefits is that he saves his stocks from being affected due to the unstable prices on the market.

Swing day trading. Bigger profits drive the trader to maintain the stocks under his custody for a longer period of time. Its downside is for the stocks to be gravely affected by the changing prices in the marketplace.

Position trading. With this, the trader buys the stocks and organizes them to last for a couple of weeks and sometimes even months. The trader is usually a good player because he waits for the best time to sell the goods.

Online trading. This type may cover any of the abovementioned day trading types except that the selling and purchasing of the stocks are done through the World Wide Web.

Day trading is a task that requires one's full attention specifically because the stock market constantly fluctuates. If you are serious about this kind of business, you'd better be active and aware of what goes on around you. The stock market is one of the most uncertain places on earth.

You can't define the outcome of your endeavor unless you try it yourself. Nevertheless, exercise full caution when dealing with stocks.

Components of Day Trading Training

The majority of day traders acquire specialized knowledge on day trading before they start in the business. A substantial amount of information could be taken from these resources:

Courses and seminars. These are usually the foundation for preparing oneself for the market. Just like tertiary level education, day trading courses and seminars aim to supply the necessary knowledge, training and skills. Trading is a lonely business and there are no bosses to guide you on what you should do or co-workers to whom you could copy a technique or two. In short, without the proper augmentation of day trading courses and seminars, you would have to find things on your own.

Chat rooms. Direct and first hand information is usually among the most reliable information in this business. The personal experience of those people who are continuously working to enhance their trading styles could help you form your own or copy someone else's techniques while slowly modifying it to suit your personal taste. Chat rooms work in this manner. Traders from all parts of the world with varying experiences, opinions and perspectives on trading gather to discuss things regarding day trading. If you are reluctant to join chat rooms, you can just sign-in for membership or for free and see traders live in action. The key here is to find a chat room that you are comfortable with.

Books. It is common thinking among people that the internet is sufficient enough to supplement all the necessary information about the trade. While it is true that there are thousands of online resources, there are only a few of them which can truly equal that of the benefits of books, especially when the writer is good. Books are more focused, more well-directed and a lot more informative than most online articles. You seldom find online articles that truly encompass concepts that are needed by the readers. For day traders, books cannot be substituted simply because they are written far better than online articles, provide constant information (since the reader can go back whenever necessary) and acts as a manual.

Online paper trading. If you want a simulation of the actual things that happen in live trading, you could use the services of online paper trading. This is a simulation of trading without real money involved. In short, it provides familiarity on the trading indicators and platforms. However, being good on paper trading does not equate to making money with actual trading.

Day Trading - What Defines a Successful Day Trader

What makes a successful trader? What are the commonalities found among successful traders?

Obviously, the first thing that makes them common is profit. People with larger risk capital are likely to be more successful than those who have smaller capital. Why? Because a large capital gives them more freedom from the emotional burden of losing. If someone is fearful of losing "all the money" he has, his decisions might be crippled and he might find it hard to trade more freely.

Second is their method. Successful day traders may have a different approach in dealing with the trades but they all have good strategies and working plans. Everyone has their own way of investing or disinvesting but successful day traders have well organized methodologies which balance good attitude with sufficient information.

There is no single, standard way of trading and an approach like "ride the pendulum" does not make any sense at all. If you want your investment to be lucrative, you will have to play in accordance to the game and make variations in your favor.

Understanding the game is crucial. Successful investors choose their own battles. They don't just hop into the numbers when they see the trends going op or hop out when they notice that it is starting to slide down. They do not trade on anything they do not completely understand. They always wait for the right moment to begin with the trade and they don't let the movement slip once they see it. They invest time on information and observation of the market first before they decide on anything.

A successful day trader acknowledges the fact that he could not stick to his emotional investment, he cannot fall in love with a single type of stock. If he notices that he is continuously losing his shares on a specific trade, he instantly reconsiders his approach and jumps over to a trade that is working for him. He simply does not believe in emotional attachment.

He keeps track of his activities and the activities of other successful traders. He analyzes his own portfolios and make decisions according to his previous mistakes on trading, the factors that made him won some trades and the situations that he could deal well with. He believes in the value of information from his personal experiences.

Lastly, successful day traders use their heads with the right combination of guts and instinct. They give credit to luck sometimes but this is not their focal basis in making their decisions especially the crucial ones.

Day Trading Tutorials - How Can They Be Helpful?

Day traders are gamblers in their own right. They play along with their aces even though they are not so sure if the outcome of the game will be noted as positive. They simply put their own money at stake and wait for any further results. The sad thing with the day traders is that they get along with the trip even in the absence of their skills and merely trust on their lucky stars. That is why, the common end result for them is to suffer from failure in their endeavors. In order for you to have a different fate, you need to read some day trading tutorials.

Why are the day trading tutorials necessary? There is no question as to the amount of money that you wish to put out for the bet or with which hands to give the bet to. The main point here is to learn the skills on how to assess the hands to bet on so that a fruitful outcome will follow suit.

You need to realize that day trading takes a lot of courage and common sense too. Merely trusting your own luck will not guarantee a beneficial profit for you. The number one problem with the day traders is their typical notion of becoming rich in one blow. However, you can never tell what is at stake at the end of the rainbow and thus, the tutorials on day trading can make a big difference. The necessity of taking up the tutorials marks the line for the possibility of the chances for winning instead of losing.

Mostly, the day traders are in a hurry so they prefer to cut down the possible odds that come along the way. But think about the reality; you are not in control of everything. You can't predict what is going to happen tomorrow. Better yet, arm yourself with the tutorials. It will introduce you to the efficient system of maximizing your profit gains, so to speak. For practicality's sake, day trading tutorials will educate you on how to do well with your resources. Not unless that you have all the banks in the world from where you can pull out money and all the time to risk your wealth, then perhaps you will find these tutorials barely significant. The truth is that these tutorials aim to rescue you from the most challenging disappointments.

Futures Trading Is Better When You Start Out In A Simulator

The first line of the trading disclosure document reads as follows; "All trading involves high risk and you could lose a substantial amount of money." Of course there's more to it than that, all of it pretty doom and gloomy. And rightfully so, if we are to believe the statisticians telling us that over 90% of day traders will lose all or most of their original investment within the first year. With that in mind then, you would be well advised to make sure you know what you are doing before you take the plunge.

One way to get an edge is to trade in a practice mode before risking your own money. Forget about paper trading. That can be a meaningless hypothetical exercise. At best it is very ambiguous and you really do not gain anything from it. Simulated trading on the other hand allows you to trade in the actual market. Even though your orders do not go to the exchange, you do go through all the trading motions where you will actually experience the trades in real time and get the feel of the market dynamics. It is the next best thing to trading with real money.

Some brokerage houses provide a simulator platform with test accounts of $5,000 to $50,000, along with a 30 to 90 day trial period including live feed and live quotes. This is as close to the real thing as it gets. You have the opportunity to practice your trading strategy live, but with play money. You get to learn the trading platform and the actual interface you'll be using. And while you are in this training mode, you can hone your trading concepts and you can make mistakes without being concerned about the consequences.

Simulated trading enables you to trade using real time quotes for select emini futures markets. You will also have access to real time streaming charts. You can practice placing your orders online and receiving confirmations in mere seconds. You will learn how to use your order management tools to view your working, filled or canceled orders. You can become proficient with the trading matrix, learning how to place various order types, preset targets, stop losses and multiple orders. While it is possible to trade any futures index, commodity or stock in the simulator, the Dow Jones emini index is undoubtedly the most popular trading vehicle for the beginning day trader. The reasons for its widespread popularity among new traders as well as seasoned veterans are as follows;
Low initial trading deposit
Low initial and maintenance margins
Smooth and decisive price movement
Low tick values
Accessible to traders throughout the world

One of the best features and perhaps most overlooked advantage of using a simulator with a mock account is that it teaches new traders the art of money management. If you treat your test account like it was your own money, and if you formulate and follow a trading plan (which I cover in a separate article) you are more likely to get the maximum benefit from the simulator experience which will become vitally important when you start trading live.

Choosing A Futures Trading Broker

If you have decided to start investing, your next step will be choosing a futures trading broker to handle your investments for you. Brokers have the ability to trade on the exchanges. If you are wondering if you actually need one, the answer is yes and this article will help you understand why.

There is a difference between a futures trading broker and a futures trading advisor. Most brokers do not advise clients on their trades, they follow your instructions on what to buy or sell and earn their money from commissions on the transaction.

There are two different types of futures trading brokers. A discount firm will usually charge a low, flat-rate commission per transaction. They are generally for experienced traders who understand the investing process because discount firms won't offer all the bells and whistles of a full service company.

New traders may benefit from starting with a full service firm because they will offer you help through their knowledge and experience. The full service futures trading broker has the drawback of charging a fairly high commission rate for the added service and remember that just because they have experience doesn't guarantee that they will recommend any profitable trades. A futures trading advisor is more likely to do that, but don't forget that you are ultimately responsible for your own account and learn as much as you can.

Finding a futures trading broker isn't hard, as many can be found with a search on the internet. The hardest part is deciding which one to go with. Remember that you can change companies and transfer your funds, should you decide to try another one. Also if you are new to trading, please consider beginning with a full service firm until you feel comfortable trading on your own and then switch to a discount firm.

Why Money Management Is Vital To Futures Trading Success

Don't Quit Your Day Job - Yet!

Success as a futures trader is dependent on your ability to master technique, psychology and money management. Life as a trader can be phenomenally successful, but it can be equally risky, particularly while you're learning to dot the i's and cross the t's. It would be a mistake to quit your day job until you've mastered the three elements of successful trading. Master only one and your lack of knowledge and expertise in either one of the other two areas may bring you to the brink of disaster and topple you over. Remember, mastery and balance of all three elements is vital to success.

In this article, we'll talk about money management.

Show Me the Money
Good money management is critical to success as a futures trader. You need to know:
1. how to track your results and learn from them;
2. how to budget and set aside risk capital;
3. how to diversify; and, (as song goes),
4. learn when to hold, when to fold and when to walk away.

Keep A Track Record
No matter how big or small the trade, always track your results. Keep a daily score sheet so you know to the second how far ahead or behind you are. It's essential information in planning your next move and deciding how much risk you can afford. You should also keep a daily trading diary that tracks not only your trades but the rationale behind your decisions, market factors you weighed, how you reacted, even how you felt that day. Periodically reviewing your diary will help you identify behavioral patterns so you can continually improve your technique.

Budget Your Risk
It's like they say in Vegas, don't gamble with money you can't afford to lose. It's the same with futures trading. Don't trade with the rent or grocery money. Budget an amount you can afford to risk and stick to your budget. Trading funds should be considered venture capital -- it might pan out, it might not. Trade small and learn your system before you increase your risk.

Diversify
By diversifying, you decrease your risk. If you put all your eggs in one basket and win, you win big; but if you lose, you lose big. Divide your investment between several options and no one move will blow you out of the water. Your wins may be smaller but they'll become more consistent and more numerous. In the long run, you'll come out ahead.

Listen for Alarm Bells
As Kenny Rogers sings in The Gambler: "You got to know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em, know when to walk away and know when to run." If you can't walk away from a trade when something doesn't seem right, you've got a problem. You have to listen for those internal alarm bells. Futures trading is like poker. For the uninformed and unwary, it's a high-stakes game of chance where the possibility that you'll lose your shirt looms large. For the savvy and experienced trader, it's a game of skill, technique and money management with the potential for huge rewards. The trick is in knowing the difference.

Once you've mastered the money management aspect of futures trading, it's time to move on to acquiring the techniques and internalizing the psychology crucial to success in the field.

The Myth of Automated Day Trading Systems

There is a widespread rumor in the financial community that successful day trading can be manually programmed and automated to produce vast profits for minimal work and input on the part of traders, providing a regular and consistent income by simply setting up a system, clicking a button to turn it on, and walking away.

This is NOT true.

I myself am just one of the many victims of this 'automated trading system' myth. In 1996, I strongly believed that a trading system like this was possible, and I wasted four years of my life trying to automate and computerize trading.

I programmed dozen of strategies, I used TradeStation, MetaStock, and OmniTrader, and I read countless books and articles on systems trading. I researched automated trading solutions and talked endlessly with other traders, always trying to find the edge I was missing. I stayed on this path for four years, only to realize in the end that I was chasing the nonexistent Holy Grail of trading.

Simply put, finding success with automated day trading systems is impossible.

Think about it for a second:

If day trading could be automated, why would Meryll Lynch, Goldman Sachs, and other large financial companies spend millions of dollars every year in salaries for traders? If anyone should have a handle on systems trading, it should be the big-shots in the industry.

If day trading could be automated, we would soon have computers trading against computers, and trading would cease to exist since there would be only ONE price. This is equivalent to chess: if you have computers playing computers, then there is never an actual winner.

Stock prices rise and fall based on human emotions and human perceptions. It's not economic reports that move the market - it's the reactions of traders TO a report that move the market.
Again, it took me four years to come to this conclusion. It took me four years to realize that there's only one thing that can give you an edge in the market: experience.

Now, don't get me wrong. You need rules. You need a strategy. You need discipline. Automated trading systems can provide you with all of these things, or at least simulate these things. But there's another key ingredient to success that automated trading systems will never be able to account for, and that's experience.

Experience is essential in everything you do, whether you're a toddler trying to walk, a child learning to read and write, a college student studying a foreign language, a professional starting a new job, or an athlete mastering another skill.

When it comes to trading, you need a trading strategy, you need rules on when to enter and exit a trade, and you need to establish how much money you are willing to risk. But once you've got the plan, you need to execute it. And only experience will help you there.

It's like approaching a traffic light that just turned yellow - sometimes you brake at the light and sometimes you decide to go for it. But how do you make that decision? Obviously you don't make the same decision EVERY time you encounter a yellow light. Why? Because no situation is exactly the same as the ones before. You rely on your experience of former situations to lead you to the right decision in the current situation.

The same is true in trading - no trade is exactly like the trades before or after. When it comes to trading success, you need two essential components: a plan AND experience.

It's not a problem to establish a plan, but the only way to gain experience is by actually trading, even if it's just on paper. I like the saying, "Practice makes a master," and it works really well here because it applies in trading, too.

So don't make my mistake. Instead of spending years trying to pinpoint the Holy Grail of automated trading which doesn't exist, sit down and focus on gaining the experience you need to find TRUE success. Invest in trading education. Study your trading charts. Practice trading. Learn through trial and error. In the long run, gaining the confidence and experience you need to be successful will be far more rewarding than a fruitless search for automated trading systems.

Day Trading Websites - What They Can Do for You

What they say is true. Everything is on the internet. Things that weren't possible years ago can now be done online. One of these is buying and selling stocks, securities or futures in the same day, or what we now call as day trading.

There are tons of websites available on this topic, some assuring more success than others. What exactly are these websites for and what can they do to help?

These sites provide you with financial knowledge in order for you to make wise investment choices and trade successfully. They also provide you with education such as the meaning and importance of analysis and systems and also the interpretation of charts and figures that any day trader must know.

Others go the extra mile by providing mentoring and teaching as well as real time suggestions. They also allot a portion of their sites to answer questions raised by traders. Because answers are often not given on time, some give instant answers through seminars on the topic. You can check these sites to see seminar schedules in your city or locality.

In looking at these trading sites, take note that these sites offer different services and charge differently as well. Also, take note of disclaimers found at the bottom of the page. Some post track records, but can they actually monitor the performance of all traders? What they usually show are simulated or hypothetical results which may or may not be the same as actual trading. Therefore, these are mere guides to help you decide. You must trust your instincts to follow or not to follow them at all.

Once you know the basics, you can develop your own trading strategies. It is not advisable to copy investments or strategies of others because trading is on a case to case basis.

These websites and tutorials can only help you in so far as making the right choices. In short, they can only educate and suggest. The information is there to help you come up with your own logical, well-thought decisions, but decisions will have to come from you.

Bottom line, success in day trading depends solely on the trader himself. After all, you only have yourself to blame in instances when you lose money because of a bad decision. So learn what you need to know, and choose well. Good luck and happy trading!

What Trading Cannot And Will Not Do For You

Many new traders get pulled into the trading world, thinking that it will make them an overnight millionaire or put them at the top of the food chain. Hollywood may portray the trader as someone who makes money without trying, but this couldn't be further from reality.

Trading for a Living

Whether investing, swing trading or day trading, you must commit considerable hours to make a living. Day trading involves hours at the trading station, swing trading requires a bit more work, and investing is as good for as much as you're willing to dedicate. It is important to realize that although you might be a world-class trader, you're not going to avoid work. Trading is as much as a job as any other position, but the biggest difference is that you are paid based on your returns. How good you may be at investing will directly correlate to how much you make. This is one of the few businesses that will pay you what you're worth.

Professional Trading

Trading likely didn't come easy to professional traders, and it won't come easy to you. Very few professional traders were profitable from day one; it's almost impossible to become profitable without taking losses in the beginning. Do not expect that the markets will be forgiving - losses do happen, but you'll get better with time. Consistent profits do follow losses, and you have to be willing to wait them out.

You Have to Study to Become Great

One of the biggest professional insider secrets is that you have to be willing to learn to earn. There are many resources available, from profitable trading strategies to step-by-step instructions on money management. Risk and money management tips are often the best areas to learn first, as budgeting is very critical to turning a profit with trading. You'll soon find that money management is on the top list for professional traders; risking too much money or to little can easily turn a complete trading plan into garbage.

Trading is Different from Person to Person

Developing your own trading style depends a lot on what kind of trader you are and what kind of risk you are willing to assume. Investing involves less risk than day trading because it works over the long term, but does not provide the instant gratification of day trading. Day trading can bring big profits in a matter of minutes, but can also be a very gut-wrenching career. You need to have your own trading style to work for you, rather than attempt someone else's trading style. What works for you won't work for others and vice versa.

Which Stocks To Invest In

How do you know which stocks to invest in? There are literally hundreds of thousands of stocks out there available on the stock market, just waiting for you to buy shares in them, with the promise of making you money if you hold onto their stock long enough.

Unless you have a particularly strong disposition to one particular industry, you might it find it next to impossible to find the perfect stock to invest in. How do you know which stock will earn you money? How do you know which stock will lose you money? It almost seems like gambling to invest in stocks, doesn't it?

You may have heard many stock analysts exhort you to "do your homework". Check a company's P/E (price to earnings) ratios and read their financial reports.

But even if you do that, you can still lose money, because you don't really know the nitty gritty details of the company's health and you certainly don't have the bigger picture of the company's overall performance since it first started trading publicly on the market.

Now, imagine having to do your "homework" for dozens and dozens of stocks, to find the one that is right for you. Even if you find one that you like, what if the price per share is too high? If you only have a limited budget with which to invest, and each share is too expensive, what is the point of investing if you can only buy one or two shares of a stock?

Perhaps the answer lies in the use of computers. There are computer programs out there that are programmed to analyze hundreds of thousands of stocks on the market and analyze them for their past performance, their daily trading volume, their highs and lows, their splits, and many other dimensions of data. Based on their analysis, they are able to perform millions of computations per second and identify which stocks have the highest statistical probability of surging in value in the upcoming time horizon.

How To Make Money With Stocks

Stocks are an easy way to make passive income. A stock in investing terminology refers to one share of the ownership of a business corporation. If you own one or more shares of a stock, then you are entitled to your share of the company's profits, whenever the company makes a profit. Conversely, if the company loses money, the value of your share of the company decreases.

Assuming you have money to invest, all you have to do is buy one or more shares of stock, and sit back and let the market do its thing. Over time, your stock may go up in value or go down in value. At the time of your choosing, you may sell one or more shares of your stock at whatever the price of the stock is at the time that you sell it.

Thus, it is just as easy to make money with stocks as it is to lose money with stocks. That's why they say that if you don't know what you're doing, then investing in stocks can be no different than gambling.

It is imperative that you do your research before you invest in a particular stock, to determine whether that stock is a good buy or not. Does that stock represent a company that is doing well and is likely to make you a profit? Or does it represent a volatile company that could lose money?

Double Your Money With Stocks

In the game of stock market investing, a home run would be to double the money on your investment in the shortest time frame possible, such as within a day, a week, or a month. The vast majority of people who invest in the market do so with the intent of seeing at least 8% to 10% growth every year.

So how on earth can you game the market in such a way as to be successful in doubling your money with stocks consistently? Obviously, it depends on a couple of factors:

1. How risk-averse are you? If you can afford to accept the risk that you might lose all of the money you are investing with the intent to double, then this approach will work for you. If not, then you are better off finding a more conservative approach to investing.

2. How much capital do you have? This determines how many shares of stock you can afford to buy. If you have one thousand dollars to invest, then you can buy one thousand shares of a stock that is worth only $1. However, if you wanted to invest in a stock that costs $50 per share, you could only afford to buy twenty shares of stock. So if your $1 stock doubled in value to $2 this month, you would make a cool $1,000 net profit. However, what is the likelihood that a $50 stock would double to $100? Not very. But if that $50 stock were to go up in value by $1 to $51, then you would only make $20 net profit. Hardly seems worth the trouble to invest in stocks, doesn't it, for that measly pittance?

3. Are you using the right stock analysis tool? It would very difficult to game the market unless you had some system, some method to research hundreds or thousands of stocks in real-time and selectively pick the stocks that are virtually guaranteed to double in value.

That's where stock analysis software comes in handy. There are computer programs out there that are capable of analyzing hundreds of thousands of stocks in a matter of a few hours. They perform millions of computations per second against all of a stock's historical data. Based on their calculations, they are able to make extrapolations about the future behavior of this stock. If a stock is determined to have an extremely high probability of doubling in value over the upcoming short-term time horizon, then the computer program can issue a "hot stock pick" alert.

Benefits of Day Trading

Day trading has survived the market because it has proven itself to be lucrative and appealing to people who want to engage in another type of business. Here are some of its benefits:

Income

There is money in trading, this is the very reason why many people quit their jobs and focus their resources on this business. However, not everyone can make money all the time. There are winning streaks and losing streaks in this business and sometimes losing is inevitable. However, we can't discount the fact that there are big time turnovers when all the necessary attributes of day trading are met.

On the average, daily income could go anywhere from $100 to $1000. But those who are more skillful and have a lot more experiences in this business are more likely to have higher income than novices.

It must be noted though that there are several expenses that a trader should attend to like commissions and additional payments for the brokers.

Freedom from office work

This trade gives a person the chance to be free from dull office work, work politics and demanding bosses since a trader works like a freelancer. Plus it also gives the flexibility of time. A day trader could choose the schedule of work. He could choose to start trading at the beginning of the day or during off hours. However, he must also understand that he will answer to all his decisions. If he did not trade today, it means that he has no income. But doing what you want to do in your own time is often a good price to pay.

No Overnight Risk

As compared with trades in the stock market, trading offers no overnight risks which means that there is no likelihood that the events and news which happened overnight will affect your portfolio. It is good to remember that this trade is basically squaring all transactions at the day's end. This means that no one holds any positions after all the trades are closed.

Immediate feedback

It is a fast-paced business- you automatically know whether you earn or lose with your current trade giving you enough time to make up some solutions whenever needed.

Control of decisions

The traders are their own brokers, they decide on when to enter a trade or exit it, they assess the trends, and they make their decisions on whether to buy a trade or sell it. In short, no one tells them what to do and no one comments on whether they have committed a wrong decision or not. This structure is very advantageous for people who prefer working alone and without people to tell them what to do and how to do it.

Surefire Profits in Stock Trading - Here's the Secret!

To make Surefire Profits in Stock Trading the key is to know yourself.

The thing about investing is that your success is going to depend on your emotions and your control over them far more than on your learning and skill.

I will give you the trading tools you need to succeed but your emotions can still sabotage your efforts.

So it's very important for you to find the trading style that best fits for you.

Then you're ready for the big money!

And of course there are endless strategies to choose from. So let's start with an easy question: "Are you a short term or a long term oriented investor?"

Day Trading or Swing Trading... what Stock Trading Strategy appeals to you the most?

The active day trader approaches the game with an entirely different perspective to the swing trader (who holds for 1 week to 3 months) or the buy and hold investor. We won't be covering buy-and-hold here because that's not trading... it's investing.

So what are the advantages of day trading versus intermediate term swing trading?

There are two major characteristics that define a day trader:

1. A day trader never... ever... holds a position overnight. All trades are exited before the close each day... unless you screw up of course and can't get out. But even then you can still sell or hedge in the aftermarket.

2. A day trader is active in the market making two or three or even up the 100 or more trades each day.

What are the advantages of Day trading?

1. No overnight exposure

2. You can take short positions without worrying about borrowing the stock or being responsible for the dividend.

3. You can trade quick market swings both up and down.

4. You reduce your risk.

What are the disadvantages?

1. Day trading takes more work and more focus.

2. You must be watching the market every second or you miss your entry or exit points.

3. It's very stressful to live on the edge all day every day although some people thrive on it.

4. Your transaction costs can often eat up most of your profit on a bad day.

Swing trading on the other hand is somewhat less frenetic although it has its stressful moments too. I'll deal with that in another article.

Seizing Trading Opportunities

You can boost trading profits by taking quality trades and making the most of each opportunity. Many swing traders struggle with taking an opportunity and letting their winners expire quickly, then watch as the market moves in their direction. It can be difficult to hold onto a winning trade and very easy to dump a loser - this is why so many day traders find it hard to make consistent profits.

A Few Profit Tips

There are several techniques and strategies that every trader should keep in his or her arsenal. In your trading plan, you should list strategies for every occasion. For example, stocks that gap up produce huge profits, thus including strategies for gapping up would make the most out of each day. Likewise, inputting strategies for gapping down into your trading plan planner will help you be ready for any market condition.

The Unexpected

Trading execution is also very important. When the important moment arrives, you want to be able to make a trade without delay. Choose a broker with a good trading execution time to be sure that each position is entered in a timely manner. You'd hate to lose on a winning trade due to untimely entry. Day traders have a variety of good brokers to choose from, so making a decision is often an easy selection.

The Very Basics of Profitable Trading

Support and resistance lines should be your guide. Every time you see a trade bounce off support and resistance, you should immediately take it. Consider this: the price had to touch those lines a few times for you to draw support there. The price should move just like it did last time, making this a positive odds trade. Many people have their own proven techniques and strategies based solely on support and resistance lines.

Make Your Own Plan

A customized plan will aid you when you want to go against your own strategy. If the trade matches your plan, it would be ridiculous not to take it. Often emotions get pushed up against our own trading plan; let the plan be your guide. Professional traders always put their money where their plan is. A customized plan filled with charting examples will help you visually understand each trade and squeeze each drop of financial freedom from it. Start your own trading plan and follow it, life changing results can be achieved in just a few minutes.

Making Day Trading A Career

There are rumors that actually make the day traders feel bad. These hearsays point out that there is no money in day trading. Such a fallacy! Of course, these gossips have alerted the individuals who are surely making lots of profit from the said course of trade. At this point in time, stocks, futures, forex, options, and currencies can be traded by almost any individual. Overall, there are people who can prove that there really is money with day trading.

The trading market generally involves a lot of complications. If you as the day trader will not exercise some caution in trading with several companies, you may be positively going all the way to your own generated pitfall. You are also then obligated to come up with a solid foundation in line with the strategies that you will have to employ as you go through the process of trading.

In the past, only the banks and other related financial institutions were granted with the opportunities to play a part in the trading system. The main reason behind such a scheme is that these institutions were the ones which had the main contact with the market data. But this picture is already a thing of the past. Nowadays, anyone can trade. It is now actually your own choice as to whether you will trade stocks, future, currencies, or options. As long as you have the money to start an investment with, the more opportunities that you can get your hands on.

As a day trader, it follows suit that you get guidance from the so-called trading charts. Foresight is another main agenda for day traders. The trading charts can nonetheless help you out with attaining foresight. With this application, you can possibly see the potential direction and outcome of the prices in the market. Likewise, you may be able to realize as to whether or not your strategy can do wonders for you.

Indeed, day trading can be a source of living. Although there are large chances of meeting the odds in this line of career, say for example, an unexpected fall of the prices, then most probably your profit will be affected. It matters that you have your entire focus on your trading venture. After all, day trading is a full time career that demands much of your time. Needless to say, the market itself needs to be carefully watched.

Miodrag Trajkovic is an expert on information related to Day Trading, Day Trading Mistakes, Day Trading Strategies, Online Day Trading and Day Trading Systems. For more information visit his website http://daytrading.explore-me.com Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Miodrag_Trajkovic

Can't Stop Trading? - You Might Be Addicted

For many, trading is a passion. Successful traders love their job and feel a thrill when they complete a winning trade. But, just as gamblers can become addicted to the slot machines or poker tables, so can traders become addicted to trading. It's a fine line - Kimberly Young, a Pittsburgh psychologist and founder of the Center for Online Addiction, says compulsive online traders are overwhelmingly young and male, are big risk-takers, and trade heavily on margin (using money borrowed from their brokerage).

Of course, many traders fit that profile and aren't considered trading addicts. Trading is a legitimate business that can generate a healthy living. It becomes a problem when a trader can't stop trading when they are on a long losing streak.

How can you tell if you, or someone you know, are addicted to trading? The Council on Compulsive Gambling of New Jersey put together the questionnaire below. The organization estimates that approximately 5% of traders exhibit addictive traits.

If you answer "yes" to a majority of the questions, you may be prone to trading addiction.

1. Do you trade options, futures, or commodities for your own accounts?


2. Do you purchase securities on margin?


3. Do you get involved in short term trading (day trading) for yourself or for clients?


4. Do you have unusual work habits and hours?


5. Are you reluctant to take regular vacations?


6. Do you settle your account on a timely and proper basis?


7. Do your clients have a large number of regulation "T" violations?


8. Do you have an inordinate amount of personal or family related trades?


9. Do you borrow from the firm or fellow employees?


10. Is your portfolio heavily weighted in speculative investments?

Certainly, trading is fun - and we all need a bit of that! But if you have a problem restricting your trading, even after you have lost considerable amounts of money or when you need to borrow money for your next trade, you may consider seeking help.

In the mean time, Good Luck on your journey to success...

OR if you would like to immensely improve your trading and investing results, check out http://www.secrets2trading.com AND for a Limited Time, you will also receive a FREE copy of a limited number of the amazing book "Trading In The Zone" which is jam-packed with daily trading ideas and psychological preparations that you can use immediately to instantly improve your trading and investing performance. That's my GIFT to You as a way of saying thank you for reading my articles. Terry TT Leslie is a successful private fund manager based primarily in Europe. He is a much sought after asset allocation consultant with the major European investment banks and is regularly contracted to assess the effectiveness of their equity and derivatives trading strategies and risk management parameters. He also has a passion of sharing his knowledge in relation to both investments and trading. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Terry_Tt_Leslie

Day Trading Styles

There is no foolproof way to profit in day trading. The majority of the people who enter this trade come with only fundamental knowledge to start with which provided general guidelines for their initial decisions. But as they learn the techniques of day trading, they begin to develop their own systems that work based on the different day trading styles.

There are several kinds of styles involved in this trade. Some of them are as follows:

Swing Trading - Developed during the 1900's, swing trading is a style that adheres to forecasting the succeeding behaviors of the market based on the swing it followed during previous trades. While day trading is described as a trade that is normally held with a maximum of one day, a swing trade could make up anywhere from a day to several weeks. This trade works on the principle that changes the behavior in the market could only yield significant profits if held over a certain period of time.

One of the advantages that swing trading has is that it can give good chances for traders to take advantage of the constant, or at least predictable movements of the market.

Momentum Trading - After its unpopularity before the 90's, momentum trading came back to the scene due to the lively market during this period. The main appeal of this style is that it lets the traders hold their positions overnight with minimal risks. Momentum traders basically jump over to the stocks that are moving upwards and try to ride the momentum until they reach their desired profit. They jump out of the trade at the fist sign of losing.

Technical Trading - One style of trading that is based purely on charts, index graphs, and the likes is technical trading. This style is broader in perspective and approach. Technicians base their decisions on the history of trades, the indicators that worked before and the unique patterns which led to good trades in the past. They use these too for finding good solutions for their trades. There is one significant flaw in this style though; there are too much technical indicators that could obscure the judgment of the technician.

Scalp Trading - Maybe the most popular of all trades. Scalp traders are those who make several trades in a day trying to make small profits from each of these trades by exploiting the possibilities they could present. This style is rather safe since the investment is spread out to so many markets that there are too few highly significant losses and gains. However, it often leads to overtrading.

Miodrag Trajkovic is an expert on information related to Day Trading, Day Trading Mistakes, Day Trading Strategies, Online Day Trading and Day Trading Systems. For more information visit his website http://daytrading.explore-me.com Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Miodrag_Trajkovic