How to trade in stocks successuflly ?

Question

looking for strategies.

Answer 1

Plan your trade but don't trade your plan. you need stop loss strategy if the stock plummet, upper limit when the stock price increases and determine the maximum time you'll be in the market.

Answer 2

if you know nothing about it

do dollar cost averaging, just put in 100 a month into an index fund maybe

the fund will make your risks lower and when the price gets lower you buy more shares with the $100, so it tends to even it a bit

I think since the crash in 1920 or whenever it was, on average stocks have done 12% per year

some years they double or lose half, if you can handle that, then stocks

read Motley Fool maybe, learn everything you can, then maybe get some individual stocks too, learn about PE ratio, Book Value, Dividends, contrarian investing, etc.

Answer 3

For the start-up investor it is best
to invest through stocks by monitoring patterns

stocks like most are cyclical

industries peak throuout different times of the year.
mining and construction summer/fall
retail winter/x-mas
learn the patterns and invest in reputable companies
to learn the basics of trading

Answer 4

any strategy you get from someone else already has thousands of guys trying to follow it ... and thus, if there was an edge in it, there isn't one any more.

it follows that you have to invent your own strategies and monitor them to make sure they continue to work.


that's a couple of books worth right there.

see http://www.traderslibrary.com to get started.

Answer 5

Good place to learn strats and practice trading is http://www.investopedia.com

Answer 6

You may want to consider joining:

http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/TradingZoom/

- the best stock picking board for small caps.