The Basic Things For Happy Trading

The first thing to do is to check last nights closing share price. [presuming you have started buying already]

If you were going to sell, has the share price reached or dropped at your pre selected exit point?

If the share price went down, was your stop loss activated? (If you are not familiar with stop losses, please see a previous article on this to clarify.)

If you were buying stock .A TIP for you here do not leave open overnight AT MARKET orders. You will most definitely end up paying more than you bargained for.

Always LIMIT your order to the price you want to pay. Once this is done and you are up to date with your share portfolio then you can progress to you next task.

After the buying and selling of stocks is under control I then start to identify my next trading opportunities.

I select a stock from a list that I have compiled earlier. I scan the stock’s data base; check the bar charts and the trendlines. If everything looks good , and presuming I have capital available to purchase the stock ,I proceed to step three.

Firstly I recheck to see what the stock price is. Then how many of them do I want i.e. 5,000. Ascertain is it enough to make a worthwhile profit?

If your funds are limited to $ 500. (MINIMUM ASX PURCHASE) Then depending on your brokerage which on average will be $50.00 (that is for buying and selling) there is 10% you have to make just to break even. With such low capital, 20% profit nets you only $ 50.00 per sale transaction.

After you have purchased your new stock, [at the best price possible of course] set your exit target price goal so you know how much profit you want to make when the stock has been sold. Do not be greedy. Then set your stop loss into place.

Depending on the volatility of the stock keep a watchful eye on them .Try not to have too many irons in the fire when you first start off. One or two stocks are ample when you first start off.

This is only a very rough outline to get you started you will soon work out what suits you best depending on your time commitments etc. Happy Trading!