3 Stock Trading Truths
There are thousands of fallacies about the stock trading discipline that arouse fear in a new trader’s mind and prevent others from even trying their hand at it in the first place. As a proficient trader for over 15 years, I like to be more positive than that and concentrate on the predominant truths that you will find about stock trading. Here are just a few.
1. You will be successful at stock trading if you can keep your trades consistently low risk over time. Sure, you might miss out on some of those too good to be true, windfall trades that all the movies are centered around. However, you will find that, over time, searching for those dream come true trades more often than not results in a fantastic loss that ends up deteriorating the portfolio you worked so hard to accumulate. Better to keep your trades lower risk and steadily profitable over time if you are serious about making money at stock trading.
2. You don’t have to spend all day trading to be extremely successful. This does not have to be a full time job. But please don’t misunderstand. I’m not suggesting another get rich with no work scheme. It takes time and effort to learn the sustems needed to achieve success at stock trading. But, by using GAP trading effectively, I profitably trade for 2-4 hours a day, plus another hour of pre-market preparation. In fact, I make a great income. With the right system, you can too.
3. The experiences of other successful traders who have “gone before” you can speed up your success tremendously. Don’t start from scratch because it will take you 10 or more years and a lot of money to make all the mistakes others have already made. It is just smart business to use the knowledge of others. How many times do we hear “don’t reinvent the wheel”, then turn around and do just that? Instead, read books by successful traders, take classes, find mentors, and use the wisdom of others to make your road more pleasurable and secure.
Some like to make the “regular guys” think that stock trading is mysterious and complicated and that only a guru in the field can understand it. Take it from a “regular guy”, that is just not correct. With the right systems in place and a good understanding of the basic truths, a prosperous stock trading career is available to anyone who wants it.
Getting to the Truths of Stock Trading
There are a lot of wrong ideas buzzing around about the field of stock trading that arouse new trader’s doubts and keep others from pursuing the field at all. As a prosperous trader for more than 15 years, I am inclined to take a more affirmative attitude and focus on the universal truths that exist in the field of stock trading. Here are just a few.
1. You will be successful at stock trading if you can keep your trades consistently low risk over time. Sure, you might miss out on some of those too good to be true, windfall trades that all the movies are centered around. However, you will find that, over time, searching for those dream come true trades more often than not results in a fantastic loss that ends up deteriorating the portfolio you worked so hard to accumulate. Better to keep your trades lower risk and steadily profitable over time if you are serious about making money at stock trading.
2. You don’t have to spend all day trading to be extremely successful. This does not have to be a full time job. But please don’t misunderstand. I’m not suggesting another get rich with no work scheme. It takes time and effort to learn the sustems needed to achieve success at stock trading. But, by using GAP trading effectively, I profitably trade for 2-4 hours a day, plus another hour of pre-market preparation. In fact, I make a great income. With the right system, you can too.
3. Taking advantage of the experiences and knowledge of other successful traders can quicken your accomplishments a great deal. It doesn’t make good business sense to start from scratch because it will take you will lose years of time and tons of money making the exact same mistakes others have already made. Don’t reinvent the wheel. Read books and articles by successful traders, take courses or seminars, find counselors or coaches to guide your progress. I guarantee, your road to effective stock trading will be much more enjoyable and secure.
Stock trading is often depicted as mystical and only accessible to the gurus of the industry. Take it from a regular guy, that idea is not correct. With the right processes established and a good understanding of the basic truths of stock trading, anyone can be prosperous.
Getting to the Truths of Stock Trading
There are a lot of misconceptions surrounding the field of stock trading that trigger new trader’s fears and keep others from trying the profession at all. As a successful trader for over 15 years, I prefer to take a more positive approach and deal with the prevailing truths that exist in the field of stock trading. Here are just a few.
1. Stock trading success will come when you keep your trades low risk on a consistent basis over time. Sure, this attitude will result in you missing out on the occasional windfall that the movies have led us all to believe can happen all the time. However, I have discovered that searching for that godsend trade does nothing but result in a horrendous loss that can completely demolish the portfolio you have been working so hard to build. Better to stay lower risk with steady profits over time if you are looking to make stock trading more than a hobby.
2. You don’t have to spend all day trading to be extremely successful. This does not have to be a full time job. But please don’t misunderstand. I’m not suggesting another get rich with no work scheme. It takes time and effort to learn the sustems needed to achieve success at stock trading. But, by using GAP trading effectively, I profitably trade for 2-4 hours a day, plus another hour of pre-market preparation. In fact, I make a great income. With the right system, you can too.
3. Building on the knowledge and the experiences of other profitable traders can greatly accelerate your learning cycle. Don’t start from the drawing board because it will cost you a lot of money and ten or more years to make all the mistakes others have already made. It is just resourceful business sense to build on the knowledge of others. Didn’t your parents tell you “don’t reinvent the wheel”, but don’t we just turn around and do just that? Instead, read works by successful traders, take courses, find advisors and coaches, and use the insights of others to make your journey more enjoyable and low risk.
Stock trading is often depicted as mystical and only accessible to the gurus of the industry. Take it from a regular guy, that idea is not correct. With the right processes established and a good understanding of the basic truths of stock trading, anyone can be prosperous.
How to Avoid Slimy Stock Traders
I’ve had the opportunity to meet a lot of different stock trading experts during my fifteen year career as a stock trader. Most are great, but as with any profession, there are those that really give it a bad name. Unfortunately, they are the ones that can burn a new investor and turn them off from a fantastic pursuit for life. In the hopes of warning you away for some of the slime before you go through what I did, here are a few of my experiences, and a couple suggestions for avoiding the encounters yourself.
I established a core business value through the worst experience of my life with the ultimate in slimy stock traders. The encounter changed my life as I realized that some people are just in it for themselves, no matter if other people are hurt along the way. I learned I cannot be like that, and throughout my life if a business deal required me to hurt someone else I said no thanks and passed it up.
It was a stock trading service that provided the subscriber list a group of recommended stocks to buy or sell short every day. Like many other services of this nature, they provided lots of facts and figures to confirm that their recommendations performed as predicted a large percentage of the time. I was impressed by their presentation and signed up right away.
If you are dealing with a reputable stock trading service, it can be a great way to find profitable stocks on a consistent basis. But, unlike those credible services, this had a different goal that I was not aware of at the start. Turns out, the key management personnel of the service were recommending stocks to their subscriber group for the sole purpose of controlling the prices for their own gain.
Here is an example to explain what I mean. The owners of the stock trading service would first buy a stock such as IBM through their account. They would then recommend to the entire 3000 + subscriber group that everyone should buy IBM stock. The subscriber group would start making these purchases, which would drive up the price of IBM stock. Once the slime was satisfied with their profit, they would cash in the stock they had originally purchased.
It was a blow to realize that the stock trading service I had placed my faith in was using us subscribers to front run their own trades. They could care less about the success of their subscribers as they had led us to believe, but only their own profit. And, on top of all that, we were paying the slime subscription fees to do it! I just couldn’t believe it.
I must admit, most stock services do not subscribe to that slimy form of business. However, less offensive, but more prevalent are those services that convince the new trader that stock trading is way to risky to go it alone. But if you sign on for their monthly program (at a hefty fee, I might add), they will do all the work for you.
True, stock trading is complicated at first, until you have found a system that is right for you. But anyone who tells you that you can never learn enough to handle it yourself at some point, is just trying to milk you for the monthly fees. These systems are typically pretty generic and don’t take into consideration your personal risk tolerance or trading preferences.
There will always be some investors out there that don’t want to trade on their own, and for these folks the monthly stock trading service might be the way to go. They will receive solid trade recommendations that are right some of the time. The return is usually tolerable, but I have found that if you can find a system that works for you and your risk level, you will realize higher returns in the long run and a more satisfying experience.
It does take some upfront legwork to find someone to help you learn the ropes without taking control over from you. But there are plenty out there and you will be pleased with the result as they will take the slime out of the profession and help you help yourself become proficient at stock trading. I guarantee, you will enjoy the results for many years to come.
Stock Trading Slime
I’ve had the opportunity to meet a lot of different stock trading experts during my fifteen year career as a stock trader. Most are great, but as with any profession, there are those that really give it a bad name. Unfortunately, they are the ones that can burn a new investor and turn them off from a fantastic pursuit for life. In the hopes of warning you away for some of the slime before you go through what I did, here are a few of my experiences, and a couple suggestions for avoiding the encounters yourself.
I’ll never forget my worst experience with a stock trading service, the ultimate in slime and an incident that changed my life. It, finally, taught me the important lesson that some people are just in it for themselves, regardless of who they hurt along the way. It also made clear to me that I would have to be different than that, and cemented my personal creed that if a business opportunity requires me to hurt someone else, I just pass it up.
This service, like many others, provided a daily listing of recommended stocks to buy or sell short each day. And, like many others, they had impressive statistics to prove that, in most cases, the stocks they chose would do what they said they would. I was impressed, and said sign me up!
If you are dealing with a reputable stock trading service, it can be a great way to find profitable stocks on a consistent basis. But, unlike those credible services, this had a different goal that I was not aware of at the start. Turns out, the key management personnel of the service were recommending stocks to their subscriber group for the sole purpose of controlling the prices for their own gain.
To illustrate, the owners of this service would buy IBM stock through their account. The next step was to recommend that the entire subscriber group buy IBM. All 3000 + subscribers started purchasing IBM, and the stock price would increase from the activity. When the slime was satisfied that the price had increased enough for them to make the profit they desired, they would cash in.
I must admit I was shocked to learn that the stock trading service was manipulating its subscribers to manage their own trades. Their objective wasn’t the success of the subscriber base as promised, but rather to make their own money and run. That is just wrong, and it was insult to injury that we were paying the slime subscription fees on top of it.
Now true, most stock trading services would never conduct business in that manner. But many do act in an equally slimy manner by trying to convince the new trader that stock trading is much too dangerous to do alone. They work hard to convince you that in order to be profitable trading stocks you must subscribe to their expensive service and let them do all the work for you.
True, stock trading is complicated at first, until you have found a system that is right for you. But anyone who tells you that you can never learn enough to handle it yourself at some point, is just trying to milk you for the monthly fees. These systems are typically pretty generic and don’t take into consideration your personal risk tolerance or trading preferences.
I know that some investors don’t want to bother trading stock on their own, and are content to buy into a monthly service to tell them what to trade. That is fine, and the return is usually adequate enough to keep these folks happy. However, my experience is that if you can find a process that works for you and structure it around your personal risk tolerance level, you will be more satisfied with the trading experience and will realize better profitability over the long run.
You will have to do some probing to find a resource to help you get on your feet without controlling your trades. Slime free resources are available, however, and you will be happy with the outcome as their goal will be to help you help yourself become successful at stock trading. From a successful day trader to a future one, I am sure you will be pleased the results of finding and working with a reputable resource.
Three Stock Trading Myths
I’ve made a living as a Stock Trader for over 15 years, and have really learned the ins and outs of the business. But I didn’t make my start at a big brokerage firm that taught me everything through slick training course. I made it through trial and error, taking seminars and classes and learning as I go.
While I may have taken longer to succeed using this self taught method, it has given me a lot more real world knowledge of stock trading than I would have gotten following the one process taught by my employer. For one, I have found a number of myths that crop up again and again when talking to people about stock trading. Here are three of them:
First, is the myth that only certain types of people make successful stock traders. True, those folks who can analyze stock trends and pick the big winners are typically left brained thinkers (more than 60%), which is probably how this myth originated.
But I have found that there’s something for every type of thinker in stock trading. The trick is to find what works best for you. To be honest, I would be very unhappy sitting around analyzing stocks all day, but I have been very successful in this profession despite that. Anyone else can too.
Second, is the belief that stock trading is speculative, and carries as much or more risk as owning your own business. Yes, people have lost everything in the stock market, and those are the stories the media loves to report on that intimidate a lot of people.
But I have discovered that if you can establish a process for setting your stops can limit your risks to a tolerable comfort level, stock trading is really a very low risk profession. To illustrate, I have created a system for myself that allows me to trade with a success rate of up to 75% , which is hard to beat! I can’t think of any other business that can give me that kind of low risk return.
Finally, how many times have you heard that its a full time job to make consistent big money in the stock market? Absolutely true for some kinds of trading and especially if you don’t have good stock pickers to rely on. Then you are stuck doing the grunt and the leg work in a fast changing environment ” sure that takes a lot of time.
But, I am living proof that it is absolutely possible to make a great living trading stock for 2-4 hours a day, which will leave you the rest of your day for whatever you wish. The way to achieve this is to have a process in place that is efficient with your time, and low risk enough that you can be profitable on a consistent basis. There are a lot of different courses available and it can be difficult to find the one that will work for you. I suggest you investigate several different choices and, ask lots of questions Use your questions as an additional screening ” if you can’t find anyone to take them all seriously, move on quick! Life is too short. If you start your research knowing the right system is there for you, you will be on your way to becoming a successful stock trader in no time.
Three Myths of Stock Trading
I’ve been a Stock Trader for over 15 years, and know the business inside and out. I didn’t start at a fancy brokerage firm with sophisticated training courses. Instead, I made my success my own way, failing here, tweaking there, using seminars and self taught classes to learn what I needed as I went.
While this method may have taken me longer to succeed, I have accumulated a lot more real world knowledge about stock trading than a lot of those brokerage house taught investment advisors who only know what they learned from their boss. For instance, I have learned over the years that there are misunderstandings that constantly recur when talking about stock trading. Here are three of them:
The first misconception I’d like to dispel is that only certain types of people make successful stock traders. True, stock pickers (those guys who pick the big winners by consistently analyzing the market) are more often than not left brained thinkers , which is probably how this myth originated.
But I have found that there’s something for every type of thinker in stock trading. The trick is to find what works best for you. To be honest, I would be very unhappy sitting around analyzing stocks all day, but I have been very successful in this profession despite that. Anyone else can too.
Second, is the underlying belief that stock trading is risky, even riskier than owning your own business. True, people have lost their shirts in the stock market, and those are the big splashy stories we all hear that frighten a lot of people away.
But I have learned that it is a matter of setting up the right process to place your stops and limiting your risks to a level that you are comfortable with. If you can do that, stock trading is really a very low risk profession. For example, I have worked out a process that results in a 75% or more success rate with my trades. That is hard to beat, and you would be hard pressed to find another business that can give you that kind of low risk situation.
And finally, how often do you hear that its a full time job to really make money at stock trading? I believe that is true for some kinds of trading and if you are forced to do the leg work analyzing and picking stocks in a fast paced environment it really does take a lot of time.
But, I am living proof that it is absolutely possible to make a great living trading stock for 2-4 hours a day, which will leave you the rest of your day for whatever you wish. The way to achieve this is to have a process in place that is efficient with your time, and low risk enough that you can be profitable on a consistent basis. There are a lot of different courses available and it can be difficult to find the one that will work for you. I suggest you investigate several different choices and, ask lots of questions Use your questions as an additional screening ” if you can’t find anyone to take them all seriously, move on quick! Life is too short. If you start your research knowing the right system is there for you, you will be on your way to becoming a successful stock trader in no time.