Stock Trading Basics > Learn How to Trade Stocks Online
The stock market should present us with a wide variety of NEW hot stocks in 2009. Many of them are going to be new technology stocks that come from the nanotech, biotech, financial, energy, healthcare & communications sectors.
Most of them might seem promising, but the truth is that a good number of these trading & investing opportunities could be extremely risky, while others are simply not as good as they look. That’s why it’s very important to know how to choose among the best especially if you want to day trade them.
When you know how to pick and approach the best hot stock trading opportunities, you are able to generate a consistent and respectable amount of money in a very short period of time.
Experienced day traders recognize that trading hot stocks on momentum can be the fastest way to make money in the stock market, especially on uncertain times like these.
You don’t necessarily have to trade momentum hot stocks all the time. But you can learn how to take advantage of them when you encounter the best opportunities for going long or for shorting them to make money when they are poised to fall down.
If You decide to day trade stocks just keep always in mind that for a trader to survive and be consistently profitable, its necessary to keep things as simple as possible. To much confusion and technical indicators will most of the time make you slow in your decisions and froze you up when a good opportunity is right in front of your screen.
In the end, stock market day trading is all about picking the best daily stock opportunities and following your buy and sell signals with ease and simplicity. Once you learn to master your trading decisions, you can aspire to produce consistent profitable results.
There actually is nothing scary about opening a brokerage account. It is really no different then opening a typical money market account at your local bank. Your money will just sit in your account making small interest until you use it for trading.
Now trading stocks can get people into trouble when they do not know what they are doing. So you are correct in taking it slow. Personally as a beginner I think you should visit vanguard.com and buy a quality mutual fund or index fund to start out. Vanguard is probably the most well-respected mutual fund company around.
However, if you are set on trading individual stocks just make sure to take it slow and learn how to use STOP ORDERS and TRAILING STOPS so you do not lose your shirt right off the bat.
Zecco is perfectly fine if you just want a basic trading platform with no real tools to assist you with. The cheapest most popular online broker is probably Scottrade which offers 7 dollar trades. If you plan on being an active investor then you may want to try Zecco since they offer 40 commission free trades a month. If you only plan on buying a couple of stocks here and there then any well-known online broker is fine.
The sites below all offer plenty of free information to get you going in the right direction. You may also want to buy the "Investing for Dummies" book because it will take the mystery out of investing.
Be aware that 90% of day-traders lose money. The odds are way against you. I recommend trying swing-trading (a few days to a few months time frame) first. The pressure is less and the timing not so quick. The exact same principles that apply to swing trading will prepare you for trading on shorter time frames. Or … you might decide you were making enough money in swing trading to stick with it.
As for sources, check with your brokerage. Many of them make learning tools available to their clients.
Best of success.
Get help from a big broker, like E.F. Hutton or Fidelity Investments. They will hold your hand and help you set goals.