The Most Important Things I Know About Stock Trading
- Date: 2007-07-03 - Word Count: 395
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I started trading stocks about 10 years ago. In that time, I made millions of dollars. But it wasn't easy when I first started out. I lost a lot of money by following a steep learning curve. What follows are some of the most important tips I can tell you about how to make money trading stocks.
1) Don't Get Fooled by Randomness
What this means is that too many times people forget about the random aspect of price movement of a stock. I've known people to think that they've built killer stock trading systems lose all their money because their systems weren't based on solid cause-effect relationships. In other words, people sometimes mistake getting lucky for being good. On the other hand, the opposite is also true. Even with a solid, money-making stock trading strategy, you will run into cold spells in which you lose money. There isn't a system out there that has no draw down. Learn to tell the difference between luck and knowing what you're doing when it comes to trading stocks.
2) 90% of Success in Stock Trading is Mental
Anybody can buy books on stock trading and learn exactly how the pros make money trading stocks. The strategies aren't secret. However, the difference between pros and amateurs is that pros have their head in the game, and amateurs trade stocks the same way they do everything else -with their emotions and not their head. If you want to have any hope of being successful trading stocks you need to learn to master your psychology. If you don't even understand what this means, then you better stop trading stocks right now until you figure it out.
3) Sometimes Trading Stocks Can Drain You
This relates to what I just said about psychology. Trading stocks is not for everybody. In fact, trading stocks for a living is for a very, very, small minority of the people out there. The biggest reason is that people lose money by not guarding closely enough against losses, and then get burnt out when they lose a ton of money. You will have to understand that if you trade stocks you will lose more money in a few minutes than you used to make in an entire month. Can you deal with this on a daily basis? If not, then day trading or trading stocks in general is probably not for you.
1) Don't Get Fooled by Randomness
What this means is that too many times people forget about the random aspect of price movement of a stock. I've known people to think that they've built killer stock trading systems lose all their money because their systems weren't based on solid cause-effect relationships. In other words, people sometimes mistake getting lucky for being good. On the other hand, the opposite is also true. Even with a solid, money-making stock trading strategy, you will run into cold spells in which you lose money. There isn't a system out there that has no draw down. Learn to tell the difference between luck and knowing what you're doing when it comes to trading stocks.
2) 90% of Success in Stock Trading is Mental
Anybody can buy books on stock trading and learn exactly how the pros make money trading stocks. The strategies aren't secret. However, the difference between pros and amateurs is that pros have their head in the game, and amateurs trade stocks the same way they do everything else -with their emotions and not their head. If you want to have any hope of being successful trading stocks you need to learn to master your psychology. If you don't even understand what this means, then you better stop trading stocks right now until you figure it out.
3) Sometimes Trading Stocks Can Drain You
This relates to what I just said about psychology. Trading stocks is not for everybody. In fact, trading stocks for a living is for a very, very, small minority of the people out there. The biggest reason is that people lose money by not guarding closely enough against losses, and then get burnt out when they lose a ton of money. You will have to understand that if you trade stocks you will lose more money in a few minutes than you used to make in an entire month. Can you deal with this on a daily basis? If not, then day trading or trading stocks in general is probably not for you.
Related Tags: stock, trading, online, brokers, forex, day, option, penny
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