learning the stock market

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ep1x

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Hey;

To all the guys who play the trading game, I'm taking the initiative to learn the stock market.. google is saturated with this "how to" category, and I was wondering any traders can pass along any class worthy material not just for myself, but other 24 year olds like me who want to learn the game.

I came across www.wallstreetsurvivor.com ; already downed the first 8 lessons... Need more material.

I'm looking to take the CSI course after my work assignment in Vancouver... want to learn Emerging Markets , currency exchange, mineral trading, day trading, portfolio management, learn bonds/dividends... kind of wish i learned accounting 4 years ago.

Thx
 
Last edited:
ep1x said:
Hey;

To all the guys who play the trading game, I'm taking the initiative to learn the stock market.. google is saturated with this "how to" category, and I was wondering any traders can pass along any class worthy material not just for myself, but other 24 year olds like me who want to learn the game.

I came across www.wallstreetsurvivor.com ; already downed the first 8 lessons... Need more material.

I'm looking to take the CSI course after my work assignment in Vancouver... want to learn Emerging Markets , currency exchange, mineral trading, day trading, portfolio management, learn bonds/dividends... kind of wish i learned accounting 4 years ago.

Thx
Click to expand...
CSI courses aren't worth it unless you need them for licensing requirements. Go to Chapters buy some books on investing / market mechanics
 
Unless you want to work in the business, don't bother with CSI's courses. They're expensive and not even all that good - they're just aimed at meeting regulatory requirements for people to actually be licensed in the business. And the vast majority of those people aren't actually doing that kind of a detailed level of trading. These days anyhow you're trying to trade against computers with extremely complex algorithms, and a lot of great opportunities that people used to be able to exploit for arbitrage now open and shut in a matter of seconds.

I've found (and I've been in the industry for a long time) that day traders are just like gamblers. They will always brag about their big wins. They will never talk about their losses, and they're often just as staggering.
 
CSI is useless, don't bother unless if your work requires it. Spend the time reading some investing books at the book store. Read a few different books and play along with what you read. Formulate your own strategy.
 
The courses will not tell you how to pick stocks - only the mechanics of how the system works.

A lot of on-line investment brokers offer practice accounts nowadays - you play with "pretend" money and can practice your strategies. Do that for a little while before you put real money at risk.

Healthy dividend-payers are a good place to start. I still own most of the dividend-payers that I originally bought several years ago when I gave up on mutual funds and started trading on my own. I'm about to lose one of them, because the company is being bought out for more than double what I originally paid, and that doesn't count the dividends that they've paid all along. Boo hoo. I will be exiting the position, because the company that is buying them out pays a lower dividend and their stock is heading in the wrong direction.

Don't get suckered by very high dividend payout rates, though. They can be indicating that investors are skeptical that the company can continue to pay the dividend. If they cut the dividend - look out below.

Banks, telecommunications (but not "high tech"), petrochemicals, and big industrial companies are the traditional sources of dividend-payers that are unlikely to go bankrupt any time soon.

Take analyst reports with a grain of salt. Take them into consideration ... but also take into account that a lot of those analysts may have an interest in what they are writing about - and they are almost always analyzing after-the-fact. By the time an analyst raises their expectations, the facts are already known and the stock has already gone up - less to be gained. By the time an analyst lowers their expectations, the facts are already known and the stock has already gone down - you've already lost, if you were in it.

Don't put all your eggs in one basket, either. Buy 5 different stocks in different industries. A bank, a telecom, a petrochemical, an industrial, and a healthcare/pharmaceutical - something of that sort. Won't hurt if those companies are based in different countries, either. As your portfolio gets bigger and you learn more, add more different things.

And DO be prepared to be wrong. It happens to everyone.
 
NEVER play with money you cant afford to lose.

Don't give money to a professional investor you cant afford to lose either.

Guys that are really good at this, dont talk much about how and why, unless they just wrote a book.
 
Just remember if someone is gaining then someone else is losing. You could be on either end of the spectrum which is why it's good to diversify like Brian suggests.
 
What are your goals? Are you looking to make a living or just take control of your portfolio?

For investing, I've heard many good things about William O'Neil's How to Make Money in Stocks. Deals mostly with earnings growth and basic chart reading from what I recall.
For trading, there is not a single book that will even begin to cover everything. I started with Come Into My Trading Room by Alexander Elder. Basic overview of technical analysis, risk management, and trading psychology.

Whichever route you go, you really need to immerse yourself in the business to be successful. I know many people that have lost their capital by going into the market unprepared.
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