[dww400]

I want to start trading stocks probably online. Does anyone know of any good tutorials? Where is a good place to trade ? Ameritrade, etrade, scott trade ? Does anyone follow a news letter like the Chartist ? Any other help or suggestions would be appreciated.

[james_gsx]

Originally Posted by dww400 »

I want to start trading stocks probably online. Does anyone know of any good tutorials? Where is a good place to trade ? Ameritrade, etrade, scott trade ? Does anyone follow a news letter like the Chartist ? Any other help or suggestions would be appreciated.

http://www.traderslaboratory.com/forums/f104/

http://www.traderslaboratory.com/forums/f131/

http://www.traderslaboratory.com/forums/f151/

http://www.traderslaboratory.com/forums/f150/

http://www.traderslaboratory.com/forums/f6/

http://www.traderslaboratory.com/forums/f110/



Don't waste your money with newsletters and other BS on the web. Look through the book reviews and buy a few of those books.

[dww400]

I wanted to get some opinions about investing in most or all of these stocks... EBS, GILD, STRA, OSIR, APOL, ABII ANDB AZO. Does it matter what on line brokerage i use ?

[DbPhoenix]

You seem already to be conflicted between "trading" and "investing". If you don't know the difference, or if you do know the difference and have not yet decided which path you want to take, you need to make some decisions before concerning yourself with which brokerage to use, much less which stocks to buy (or short).

If you're starting at "go", I suggest you look at the following:

The Wall Street Journal Complete Money and Investing Guidebook

Standard and Poor's Guide to Money and Investing

If you're at Baltic Avenue (or even Connecticut), then you may have a clearer idea of just what it is that you want/need to learn before making any further decisions. If you're not, then consider

How to Make Money in Stocks

keeping in mind that the author has an agenda, like just about everybody else, in this case to sell newspapers. And though much of the book consists of material "borrowed" from Schabacker, Wyckoff, Loeb, and other "classical" technicians and fundamentalists, credit is not always given. The strength of the book, however, lies in its thematic approach: select the stock (or whatever) based on fundamentals, then choose the moment to act based on technicals. The older the edition you can get, the better, since the early efforts were less influenced by O'Neill's other enterprises. In any case, you're almost guaranteed to find this at the library, or, if not, for only a couple of bucks used at Amazon.

[dww400]

I think I'm more of an investor. I wanted to buy those stocks and hold on to them till they start to drop or hit a stop order.

[DbPhoenix]

Originally Posted by dww400 »

I think I'm more of an investor. I wanted to buy those stocks and hold on to them till they start to drop or hit a stop order.

If you're looking to hold them until they "start to drop" or "hit a stop" but don't particularly care why, then you have a technical bent and are a trader, not an investor. If so, then you'll likely be more interested in selecting the stocks based on technicals than on fundamentals.

The difference between an investor and a trader has to do with how and why positions are entered and exited, not with how long those positions are held. Look then at "swing trading" and "position trading" (or, more accurately, "trend following"). And when you make those decisions, you'll then need to study the how and when of buying or shorting a stock (or ETF or whatever) technically.

And if all of this sounds like you have a lot of reading -- much less studying -- to do before you risk your hard-earned cash on those or any other stocks, you're right. But that's the difference between trading and gambling.

[dww400]

How do I find things like the pct from 200dMA and the Pct from the 50d MA ? I know it's the percent from 200 days and 50 days, but is it listed some place ?

[chulaihuey]

I am a beginner as well, so I find this thread very informative. I used to use Fidelity as my broker, but found that you could only get access to their advanced tools by trading 120 trades per year. So I opened an account with TD Ameritrade. There is no minimum trading limit to get access to their tooling (Strategy Desk). I have not been with them long, but I like the fact that they offer seminars (free) and webcasts (free). They are biased, but not to the point of being obnoxious. And, I don't get the impression they are trying to sell me on anything, they truly seem to be just trying to create smarter investors/traders. It is to their benefit after all. A happy customer will most likely stick with them and bring more money to them. Alteast that is my current theory.
I have been trading for about 2 months. I call myself a swing trader, since I am willing to let my trades run multiple days as opposed to jumping in and out in a single day.
There are two things that are becoming very apparent:

1. I need to create a Trading Plan.
2. I need to paper trade and stop jumping into stocks that "look good" to me.

Two examples of my ineptitude:

1. I bought into the XLF ETF when it was at 18. My reasoning was that it was selling at 1/2 price from its high of 36. Well now it is selling below 7. WHOOPS!, fortunately I committed very little money to it.
2. I bought INTC on Friday when it was at what "I thought" was a perfect entry. I put a stop at what "I thought" was a perfect point as well. Well the market knew exactly where I put my Stop, traded down to it, stopped me out, and then went back up. OUCH, this is starting to hurt.