Beware Of High Cost Seminars

By: Ian Jackson

Over the last four years, I must have attended five or six seminars, paying upwards of 800 US dollars each time. The seminars covered such topics as Fibonacci, Writing Covered Calls, Moving Averages and other well known applications of statistical methods to trading; what are commonly known as technical trading or charting techniques.

Once home, I would excitedly go over the material in the free attendee info pack. Invariably, I would find most of the information contained within the format of these seminars to be mere recycled material. The same, if not better, information is in fact available online, occasionally for free, but if not, at a much reduced cost.

You might point to the notion that if anything of value is desired, one has to pay for it. Granted, that for anything worthwhile and of substance, there will be a price tag attached; this should be even more valid for trading systems and information, after all one is expected to make some money using the information.

But, and make that a BIG BUT! There is so much more useful and appropriate information available online, for so much less than the costs of seminars: these run into the hundreds of pounds or dollars! These seminars charge you a small fortune, but the value that they return to you is a big letdown.

At all the seminars I attended, I even had to sign confidentiality agreements. Why? These people say they have something new and secret; yet they run hundreds of seminars exactly like the one they are giving, and they tell all the attendees of their seminars to keep quiet about what they are saying. Do they really expect that to happen?

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Gann - His Trading Method's Made Millions Learn Them For a Profit Edge

By: Sacha Tarkovsky

W D Gann is one of the most famous traders of all time and his unique methods helped him make a fortune of around $50.00 million and best of all he wrote and recorded the way he did it, so anyone can have access to his trading strategy and aplly it for profit.

Trading is one of the ways that small traders can start with small stakes and build real wealth quickly.

The good news is everything about trading can be specifically learned and Gann outlined all his methods in writing for traders to profit from and enjoy today.

His methods are applicable to any financial market from forex to stocks to bonds so you can choose where to apply them, depending on the risk you wish to take.

Let's look at why you should study Gann and his methods of making money.

1. He Had a Track Record

Many e-book sellers or traders sell information but it's worthless they don't trade it themselves and simply make up a track record.

Gann made money and his track record and invited newspapers and journalists to track his trades such was his confidence in how to make money.

2. Gann and the Law of the Market Movement

Gann pointed out quite rightly, that market prices depended on humans and that their psychology was constant - Because human nature was constant this nature would show up in repetitive price patterns that could be traded for profit

Gann was a technical trader and like all charts believed that what happened in the past would happen again and the key to making profits was to look for recurring price patterns to put the odds in his favor

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Statistics Can Be Our Friend

By: Ricky Schmidt

Dear Fellow-Investor.

Every day the media is full of all kind of statistics and whether they are useful or not is up to each individual. When used properly, statistics can help investors make more informed decisions.

The reasons why statistics are important are as follows:

Economic statistics keep track of the economy. They explain whether the economy is in an expansion, a recession, a sideways or cyclical motion.

By monitoring the status of the economy, statistics provide governments with information on what sort of policies can be used to fix whatever problems the economy may be having.However, as we all know, there s no guarantee that the state will sctually fix any problem.

Statistics provide investors with information that can be useful to make market related investment decisions, i.e. when to buy or sell shares or other securities.

Some of the most commonly reported statistics are:

Stock Market Indices:

World-wide investors look at the Dow Jones Industrial Average as an indicator of stock market trends since this index is considered the largest and most important one. No wonder! About 60% of all financial activities in the world either take place in the United States or go via the USA.

The Dow is an index of the stock prices of the 30 largest US corporations based on their market capitalization and other factors that got them a place in the Dow. There are also Dow indices for transportation and utility companies.

On the surface, the above indices tell us whether stock prices are rising, falling or remaining unchanged.

Beneath the surface, they suggest what is happening to business profitability and the overall health of the economy. Other not less important stock market indices include the German Dax, the UK FT-100, Japans Nikkei, Hong Kong s Hang Seng and the French Cac-40.

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Introduction To Day Trading

By: Ian Jackson

History of online day trading

The birth of day trading was made possible when the computerized, over-the-counter NASD became available in 1971. Day trading was pretty much the domain of stock brokers and remained that way until the late 1990s, when the increasing popularity of the internet, motivated the international stock markets to move online.

The consequence of this move was that day trading brokers became optional because anybody with Web access could execute their own trades, provided that they had an account with a registered online brokerage. The uptake was enormous, because by 1999, at least 25% of all trades made were done as online trading by individual investors. Day trading online grew in popularity as these investors started gaining online trading maturity. This growth found further impetus with the Dot Com Bubble as many traders could buy and sell the same share on the same day with three digit returns.

What is day trading?

The U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations defines day trading as "Placing multiple buy and sell orders for securities and holding positions for a very short period of time, usually minutes or a few hours, but rarely longer than a day. Day traders seek profits in small increments from momentary fluctuations in stock prices after paying commissions."

With day trading it is common to focus on short-term trading, where a trade could last for anything between a couple of seconds to a couple of hours. In day trading online, the number of trades made may vary from between just a few to a couple of hundred per day. It is also common to finish the day with a closed overnight position. This means that everything you bought gets sold, before market close.

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Swing Trading Weinstein's Theory of Relativity to Profits

By: Larry Swing

When Stan Weinstein was first featured in the famous book, "Market Wizards: Interviews with Top Traders", by Jack Schwager, he stood out as a trader with the highest win/loss ratio. He finally revealed his method in his only book, "Secrets For Profiting in Bull and Bear Markets," for the long-term investors. This informative book covers many aspects of trading, including rules of do's and don'ts as well as a single methodology in finding the right stocks with setups to enter and exit.

This book is mainly for investor and speculator (or trader as he termed it). Investor is a person who holds a position at least 3 months while a speculator trades 2-3 times a month. This is basically not for day traders but is at least the swing and positions traders.

His method requires a few simple indicators and tools to make the method work, including: 1. 30-week moving average indicator 2. Relative strength ranking indicator 3. Volume indicator 4. Trendline drawing tool

Here are the rules he laid in finding the right stocks:

1. Identify what stage the market is in. What stage it is the market in? In the chart below, Weinstein categorizes the stages of the market, uptrend, consolidation, and downtrend, consolidation and repeat again. Stage 1 and 3 is consolidation phases while stage 2 and 4 are trending phases.

2. Search the sector with strength. Compare the sector to the overall indexes such as Dow Jones Industrial Average or the S&P 500. See image below.

The first task is the search the best sector that is outperforming the indexes (for long while underperforming the indexes for shorts). Comparing this using the charts and compare to find where the strength lies. If the index is weak or getting weaker (by either moving sideways or downwards) while the sector is getting stronger (trending upwards). The image above shows the divergence in strength between sector and index.

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The Internet Makes Stock Trading Easier

By: Mark Crisp

The stock market can be extremely intimidating and it's complexity scares off many people from even getting into the stock market. Do not be intimidated and let your fears prevent you from participating in the stock market and getting your share of the pie.

Today, thanks to the internet, it is so much easier to learn about the stock market, get into the stock market, and profit from the stock market. On that point is a lot of data, guides, and software available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. You do not accept to be a financial wiz or accept special qualifications to get a stock market trader. Actually all you need to do is educate yourself. Find a actually good guide and learn all you can. On that point are great tools out on that point to take advantage of.

The stock market has been around for a long time. In the late 1700's, what is known as the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) was created which today facilitates billions of dollars worth of trades each business day. How many years accept passed where people had no internet to read e-books and articles and use software to help them out? Fortunately, today you accept access to great tools and resources that the old time stock traders could not accept even imagined.

You can get your hands on educational e-books written by experts, lots of articles, and use special software that takes the difficulty and complexity out of trading stocks and instead attains it easy. As long as you accept an email address, you can get updated stock tips, hot stock picks, and more stock data in a stock trading newsletter. These tools would be to die for 50 years ago.

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How To Succeed In Online Financial Trading Using Freebies

By: Hywel Merrett

Did you know that many of the tools and resources that we consider essential for online trading success are actually available for free - if you know where to look?

Online trading is taking the financial markets by storm as private investors are now able to quickly, easily and cheaply trade Forex, Commodities, Stocks and many other instruments. But what s brought about this enormous increase in online trading?

Basically, the tools and information which were previously only available to the big boys like stockbrokers, banks and institutional investors - are now available to you. These days, we don't have to rely on our broker for recommendations. With only a computer and internet connection, we can now find our own trades independently and without fear of bias.

People just like you and I can now trade with a level of sophistication that was unheard of, even in the 90 s! This has effectively levelled the playing field and allowed home based traders to make highly informed investment decisions on their own.

Data feeds, software based trading systems, real-time quotes and interactive charts are all now available online at reasonable cost and yet, not so long ago, many of these resources cost thousands and thousands of Dollars. The point I m making however, is that with a little investigation it s now possible to find many of these invaluable tools absolutely free.

Andrew Fleming, author of Free Online Trading Tools has made it a personal quest to discover what s available out there just for the taking (legally, of course). He was amazed. Some sites he discovered will come of no surprise to you Yahoo Finance, Bloomberg and Reuters etc. are the obvious ones and are all very comprehensive sources. But he also uncovered a wealth of sites that are a little more off the beaten track , but also incredibly useful to online traders.

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Clear Your Mind And Increase Your Profits

By: Stephen Cauldry

Everyday life has a way of revealing a better understanding of your most puzzling problems. Early on in my stock trading career, I struggled with producing consistent profits. So much that, I decided to get away for a while and put my mind at ease. I went to New York City. I needed a break from the mental frustration of experiencing so many losses. All of this will make more sense soon enough, so just bear with me.

New York is incredible. There are people everywhere you look. I grew up in an urban area but it was nothing quite like this. All five of your senses immediately come alive. As I walked, more like zigzagged, down the street I could here the faint sounds of music playing in the distance. I absolutely love music, especially live shows performances. I was curious so I followed my ear. The closer I got to the source of the music, the more I noticed how many other people were moving in the same direction. It was if we were all being funneled down the sidewalk. A smaller number of people were headed in the opposite direction.

The sound and clarity of the music increased with every step I took, as was the size of the crowd moving with me. Eventually, I arrived at the source of the melodic commotion. A live band was performing and hundreds had gathered to watch the show. I couldn't see a thing! I remember saying, I should have gotten here earlier. The light bulb in my head shattered into a thousand pieces! Stock trading manna had fallen from the sky. It all made perfect sense now.

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Investor vs. Trader

By: Qwoter

How do you see the world?

Do you consider yourself an investor or a trader?

Most people think of themselves as investors. However, if you knew that big winners in the markets call themselves traders, wouldn't you want to know why?

Simply put, they don't invest, they trade.

Investors put their money, or capital, into a market, like stocks or real estate, under the assumption that the value of the entity they invest in will increase over time (see What is Investing?). As the value increases, so does the person's "investment." Investors typically do not have a plan for when their investment value decreases. They hold on to their investment, hoping that the value will reverse itself and go back up.

Investors typically succeed in bull markets and lose in bear markets. This is because investors anticipate bear, or down, markets with fear and trepidation and therefore are unable to plan how to respond when they're losing. They chose to "hang tight," so they continue to lose. They have some idea that a different approach to losing involves more complicated trading transactions like "selling short," of which they know little and don't care to learn. If the mainstream press continually positions investing as "good" or "safe" and trading as "bad or "risky," people are reluctant to align themselves with traders or even seek to understand what trading, as opposed to investing, is all about. Learn how to invest properly with our Investor's Checklist.

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Different Types Of Stock That You Should Know

By: Makabongwe Maseko

I bet you can t tell me the detailed meaning of stocks. Well if that s the case, I have compelled this good stock information list with brief descriptions for you.

Stock Classes

Although common stock usually entitles you to one vote for every share that you own, this is not always the case. Some companies have different classes of common stock that vary based on how many votes are attached to them. So, for example, one share of Class A stock in a certain company might give you 10 votes per share, while one share of Class B stock in the same company might only give you one vote per share. And sometimes it is the case that a certain class of common stock will have no voting rights attached to it at all.

So why would some companies choose to do this? Because it s an easy way for the primary owners of the company (e.g. the founders) to retain a great deal of control over the business. The company will typically issue the class of shares with the fewest number of votes attached to it to the public, while reserving the class with the largest number of votes for the owners. Of course, this isn t always the best arrangement for the common shareholder, so if voting rights are important to you, you should probably think carefully before buying stock that is split into different classes.

Large Cap, Mid Cap and Small Cap

Stocks can be classified according to the market capitalization of the company. The market capitalization of a company represents the total lilangeni value of the company s outstanding shares. This is equal to the current market price of its stock multiplied by the number of shares of stock that it has outstanding. That number gives you the market value of the company, which is one measure of the company s size. Roughly speaking, there are three basic categories of market capitalization: large cap, mid cap, and small cap. The definitions for each of these might vary somewhat depending on whom you re talking to, but usually they are as follows:
Large cap: market cap highest valued
Mid cap: market cap mid range value
Small cap: market cap lowest value
In general, the larger the cap size, the more established the company and the more stable the price of its stock. Small cap and mid cap companies usually have a higher potential for future growth than large cap companies, but their stock tends to fluctuate more in price.

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The Basics Of Stock Trading

By : Tony Spann

The most important aspect of stock trading is to develop a stock trading strategy that suits your needs, expectations and personality type. You need to look at your comfort level for risk, are you looking to make short-term investments and stay on top of the market?

Even your age affects the strategy you should use for trading stocks. Let's look at some of the most common stock trading strategies in use today


Day Trading

The day trader is someone who buys and sells intraday (during the day) and they tend to trade with frequency throughout the day. The advantages to this stock trading method are that you have no overnight hold exposures; you can take advantages of both longs and shorts during the quick swings in either direction that may occur during the day. You can focus on a higher percentage of winning trades by taking quicker profits (although smaller) and reducing your risk.

Like all things in life this stock trading method is not without its downsides too. This stock trading strategy requires a lot of work, time and effort on your part. You must pay consistent if not constant attention to the market during trading hours. Your transaction costs can run high with this trading strategy since you are trading stocks frequently.

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Seven Tips For Successful Trading

By: The Traders Haven

It s a fact. If you trade, you will lose money. Even the best traders aren t able to predict the market 100% of the time. The objective is to be right more times than wrong. The ability to to do this often takes time and experience. Practice doesn t make you perfect here but it can make you profitable. Below are a few tips that may leas the way to profitable trading.

1. Protect your principal. A good rule of thumb is to never bet more than 10% of your principal on one trade. And never bet everything on one single trade. By moderating your risks, you ll live to trade another day.


2. Know why you are placing the trade. Have you looked at all of the market conditions and indicators to assure they are optimal? Don t trade just to trade. A good trader knows when to jump in and when to just stand by the sidelines.

3. Never hold a losing trade overnight. Stocks can gap up or down when the market opens. Holding a losing trade overnight exposes you to a large amount of risk.


4. Get your money and get out. Greedy traders often take big losses rather than big profits. When you have a reasonable profit, take it.

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5 or 15 Minute Charts

By: Larry Potter

We got an interesting question from reader the other day and her question was " when you put out a consider buy at "X" price, does it matter what the 5 or 15 minute charts are doing at that time? " Good question.

If you watch the market in live time, you'll see that just about every move is pegged to some form of moving average or technical level. Maybe it's the 9 day EMA, maybe it's the 50 day SMA. Maybe it's the 15 minute candle stick chart, maybe it's pivots, or even fibbinacci levels. So, what does one do if we like the "XYZ" company at say $50 and it's approaching $50 on the daily chart, but it's getting overextended on the very short term indicators? What if we buy it at $50.03 just as the 15 minute chart shows it's time for a pull back?

We've often struggled with this very question, but have to take into account that more than 70% of our readers can't sit in front of a computer and trade all day, they are working folks. So, telling them to be wary of the 5 minute bar charts isn't going to help them much. What we found to be more realistic, is to put out a resistance area, and if the stock gets above it, take the shot, but give it some wiggle room to fade back, catch it's breath and move up again.
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Online Stock Trading - Small Time Traders Versus Institutional Traders

By: Joel Teo

Online stock trading has taken a life of its own today. The local bourses worldwide are now booming with large amounts of trades being placed in markets like Shanghai and Shenzhen with local officials noting a large rise in the number of share trading accounts being opened.

This article will list three strategies that large trading desks use and explain how the small investor can benefit from these same strategies.

Trading Strategy

Small time investors tend to rack up large losses in the stock market mostly due to a lack of a good online stock trading strategy. The essence of a good trading strategy is two fold. Firstly, always acquire a stock when it is undervalued so that your downside is protected. Secondly, fix an upper and lower selling limit mentally when you acquire the stock so that you sell on reflex and take your emotion out of the trading equation. But always ensure that the instrument or stock that you are trading enjoys good trading liquidity or such trading strategy would not work.

Large capital reserves and margin

Large banks have trading desks that have large capital pools to trade with and one winning trade could potentially bring in large profits to the bank but the converse is also true as Nick Leeson of Barrings Bank in Singapore has shown us. For the small time investor, leveraged instruments if managed well can help solve this issue of small capital. However with large leverage, you can lose big as well. Spend time tracking your trading successes and failures in a trading journal and once you start stacking multiple gains, you can then progress to making more money using these leveraged instruments.
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Candlestick Charting - Learn How to Make Bigger Trading Profits!

The Japanese have used Candlestick charting for centuries.

Candlestick charting is more popular than ever today as it adds an extra dimension to trading to give any trader an edge.

If you are serious about making money, then you should consider candlestick-charting techniques.

History of Candlestick Charting

In the 1700's, Homma, a Japanese trader in rice, noticed how the price of rice was influenced by not only supply and demand, but also how the price was strongly influenced by the psychology of traders. He understood that when emotions came into play a vast difference between the value and the price of rice occurred.

This difference between the value and price of any commodity is as applicable to markets today as it was in rice centuries ago.

The re-emergence of Japanese candlestick charting in recent years owes much to the writing of Steve Nison, whose book, "Japanese charting techniques," is considered the definitive recent work on the subject.
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Stock Picks: How to Trade and Be Happy

By: Doug Newberry

Trading can be stressful business. Some people even find that they simply burn out on trading stocks because they just don't feel happy while "juggling so many balls." This doesn't have to happen, though. You can prevent trader burnout by making sure that your trading style fits with your personality.

Of course, you may find that there is no trading style that works with your personality. After all, trading stock picks deals with a lot of uncontrollable variables and consequently it may be too much for you and your lifestyle. However, if you are stressed and are starting to feel the first flames of burnout you may want to simply change your trading style and to try and find one that works well for you.

You may not know that the trading style you're using isn't the best fit for you. Think about your trading habits. Do you stay up at night worrying about how your stock picks are doing? Do you run past failed trades in your mind over and over? Are you constantly worried that you'll have to exit a trade on short notice? Are you generally unhappy?

If you answered one or more of these questions with a 'yes,' then you may be using a trading style that doesn't fit your personality. After all, we all want to be able to make money, but we shouldn't have to suffer excessively to do so. [Read full article]

6 Tips For Trading Stocks Online

By: Barry Allen

Financial management strategy helps map on how to make money work for you. According to the experts it is important to inculcate the habit of saving and to invest the savings in money generating modules. As a safety measure most of the money must be put in secure savings and only a small portion of available funds must be invested in quick return investments like stocks and real estate.

With the growing popularity of the World Wide Web even trading in stocks has become an online function. Before venturing into online trading you must learn how to: create a detailed investment plan; carry out an in depth analysis on stock behavior and future movements; evaluate the risk involved in stock investing; and learn how to apply trading principles to investing successfully. Statistics reveal that almost 80% of investors in stock tend to loose rather than gain money.

Online stock trading expertise in the form of articles and tips can be read on the internet. According to experts, stock trading success is certain if you follow six simple rules or tips:

1. Trade stocks online armed with in depth knowledge. Decide what kind of trading you would prefer, day trading, short-term trading, and week trading or monthly trading.

2. Select a broker with care. Decide whether you are comfortable with high-speed direct access technology or discount brokers. Day trading is more expensive as far as fees and other costs are concerned. [Read full article]

The Role Of Brokers In Online Stock Trade

By: Samantha Kay

The online stock brokers play a significant role in online stock trade for those who want to invest but do not possess a good amount of amount to play. They are different from the traditional stock brokers in terms of investing and managing money.

Significant Role Of Online Stock Brokers

In the world of financial ups and downs, it has become a difficult task to know the best method of investing your money. Stock exchange has always acted as a platform between the stock traders and the companies in the form of buyers and sellers respectively. The invested money of the investors is always utilized by the company in further expansion of the business to increase profits.

In the traditional method of stock trade, the investors were assisted by the stock brokers in the process of buying and selling of stock and in building the financial portfolio of the investors. But since the discovery of internet, a new easy method of stock trade has come up which is known as online stock trade and it only requires the turning ON of your computer. The online stock brokers play a significant role in the market of finance by helping the online traders to hit their financial goals. [Read full article]

Stock Trading Software

By: Kevin Stith

Sometimes, unbiased information provided by good stock trading software can prove to be very unhelpful in making an intelligent stock related decision. Stock trading software offers a reliable comparison of stocks and suggests the stocks to be bought or sold. Stock trading software is an indispensable requirement for short-term investors.

A variety of stocks trading software are available, leaving the choice open to the trader. It depends on the investment needs of stock traders, for instance, whether traders want to track their portfolio or research for new stock opportunities. Stock trading software provides traders with a range of fundamental functions like real-time stock quotes, as a result forming a stock-trading software package.

Various basic features provided by a stock trading software consists of settling on the price direction by offering the opening price in market, and helping stock traders earn profits by providing signs that indicate a breakout. Additionally, stock trading software assists in finding out the average price of securities with the help of moving average monitoring and alerts such as trigger motion that helps traders to reach specific price targets. Besides the above features, stock-trading software also provides stock traders with pattern identification. [Read full article]