Stock Market for Beginners

Since the markets are closed today in observance of Presidents day, I thought I would give some tips of how to get into and get yourself prepared to trade.

1st thing I did was get a good book on charting,( you can google info) get definitions of different charting tools and how they are suppose to work, I will not recommend any one specific because they are many good books, what I would recommend is don't buy one that is selling their specific system. Get one that talks about all the different charting tools and the different chart formations, along with support and resistance information. This will give you a good idea of what the world of charting stocks is all about.

2nd thing , START CHARTING(Freestockcharts.com is a very good site and its FREE) different stocks, apply some of the information that you researched, you will start to notice trends. Start out simple using moving averages(really that is all I use today) I do recommend the 13 day and 21 day exponential moving averages. Add some different tools and get use to the terminology. ALSO JOIN IN ON BLOGS LIKE THIS. It is a great way to talk and converse with everyday traders who will give you honest answers and share their experiences with you. Everyone can gain by doing this whether your a beginner or a more experienced trader. Remember you never quit learning!!

3rd Thing, Start to look at different discount brokerages. There are many good ones out there. I happen to like Scottrade it is only $7.00 per trade and it gives me the tools I am looking for, again do your own research on these. With most of them you can set up a practice trading account they will put play money in and you would trade with them as if it were real. This is a big help because it gets you use to how to place a trade correctly.

How Do I fund My Account When I have no Extra Money? This may be simpler than you think. Most discount brokers want somewhere around $500.00 to get started. You can start out by just sending them money when you have extra and use this time to practice while you are building up to meet their minimum amount to actually start trading. I started out with $2000.00 in my account. I got extra money from selling things I no longer used or wanted on ebay . You can have a garage sale( I used this method as well). See there are many ways to fund your account when you are ready to start trading REAL MONEY.

I hope you found this helpful, if you have any questions I would be happy to answer them, just send me a post. Until next time...

Happy Charting

Dow Jones going to fall Again?

After Reaching back to the 13 day moving average will the the Dow Fall Again? The S & P futures are show early morning weakness for the major indices. I am still staying on the sidelines!! Until these markets can at least get on top of the 13 day moving average I am not comfortable buying any stocks I need to see some follow through( I will post exactly the day I get in and start buying).

Take a look at the chart above look at the yellow arrows, there is a difference between the last time the market reached the 13 day moving avg. compared to current conditions. When it reached it the first time it was still showing downward momentum. The last few days it has shown upward momentum. Will it bounce off the 13 day moving avg. and continue downward or will it bust through and get on top of the 13 day moving average. I said yesterday was pivotal. Well today is just as pivotal. Continue studying the charts, It will tell you exactly what is going on. There is money to be made studying charts, again be patient and wait for the chart to let you know when the right time is to buy. Have a great weekend..........

Happy Charting

Stock Charting Specific

The broad markets (which is what I look at first before I study individual stocks) are trending downward. As you can see on this chart(above left) of the Dow Jones Industrial. It had a positive day yesterday and is now reaching back up to the 14 day moving average. Before I would think about buying stocks this chart needs to show some consolidation or the 13 day needs to start pointing up. So today I am staying on the sideline until the market shakes out .

While I am not in the market today I would like to show you a current chart of the S & P 500 (right) Market and how it has trend over the past few months and where there was plenty of opportunity to make some very good $$$$$. Look at the green arrows, here you can see that the market was trending down to the 21 day moving average and then would bounce back, it did this 4 times with the last arrow showing a top.

You ask how do you know where to get out or cover your position? There are a couple of signals that tell you the market is about ready to reverse, see where the last arrow is? once the stock price breaks below that arrow would be a good signal to get out. Another strong indicator is where the 13 day moving average crosses the 21 day moving average in a downward direction.

To me this is the simplest way of keeping track of the market. Just with these two exponential averages. I use to use others like Fibonacci, Williams % R, Bollinger band(I still use these once in a while) but really all that did was mess and confuse my charts. Learn to use these averages and again use patients and you should have success charting stocks. Let me know how your doing!!

Next time I will talk a little about the possibility of SHORTING STOCKS oooh noo!

Until next time HAPPY CHARTING