Stock Market – A Crash Course To The Basics Of Day Trading

Author: Natalia Osorio

The human race has gotten familiar with the idea of trading since time immemorial.

It has been the people’s outlet for survival, prosperity and progress, and for the exchange of their feelings, ideals, and experiences too.

Natalia Osorio Editor of the “Best Stock Trading” website — http://www.BestStockTradingUsa.com — pointed out;

“…With a little back up of history, it can be traced back to when some of the primeval groups started swapping certain useful items with one another in the absence of money so that they could fulfill their daily provisions. Nonetheless, trading is an integral part of man’s life. It transcends race, religion, and sex as it is a common thing for all throughout the world. In this article, you will get a full blast of the information regarding the types of day trading and its pros and cons…”

The following are the types of day trading which are qualified by the time frame in which the traders prefer to keep their stocks.

Basic day trading. This refers to the day that the trader opts to collect the stocks and then keep them floating for quite sometime in the effort of selling them all at once at the end of the day. The trader is both the seller and purchaser. One of its primary benefits is that he saves his stocks from being affected due to the unstable prices on the market.

Swing day trading. Bigger profits drive the trader to maintain the stocks under his custody for a longer period of time. Its downside is for the stocks to be gravely affected by the changing prices in the marketplace.

Position trading. With this, the trader buys the stocks and organizes them to last for a couple of weeks and sometimes even months. The trader is usually a good player because he waits for the best time to sell the goods.

Online trading. This type may cover any of the abovementioned day trading types except that the selling and purchasing of the stocks are done through the World Wide Web.

“…Day trading is a task that requires one’s full attention specifically because the stock market constantly fluctuates. If you are serious about this kind of business, you’d better be active and aware of what goes on around you. The stock market is one of the most uncertain places on earth. You can’t define the outcome of your endeavor unless you try it yourself. Nevertheless, exercise full caution when dealing with stocks…” N. Osorio added.

Further Information About The Best Stock Trading Course And Additional Resources  By Visiting; http://www.BestStockTradingUsa.com

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/day-trading-articles/stock-market-a-crash-course-to-the-basics-of-day-trading-2775122.html

About the Author

Natalia Osorio runs her corporate website at http://www.OpsRegs.com where you can see all her articles and press releases.

The 10 Factors That Affect and Predict Stock Prices

Author: David Smith

This is the most frequent question that most stock/options traders may have in their minds. Stocks price changes due to market forces, i.e. buying and selling of the available stocks in the market.  The following are the factors that affect or even predict the buying or selling of stock that ultimately affects stock prices of companies.

·         Market sentiment.  The price of the stock of a company is affected most of the time by the general market direction during a session.  In a bull market, the stock price of most companies will rise and in a bear market the stock price of most companies will fall.  One can gauge the market sentiment by looking at stock indexes or its future price movement.  The stock indexes are S&P 500, Dow Jones Industrial Index, Nasdaq (USA), ASX100, ASX (Australia), Nikkei 225 (Japan), Euronext 100, Euronext 150 (Europe Union), DAX, TECDAX (Germany), FTSE 100, FTSE All Shares, FTSE Techmark (United Kingdom.           

·         The performance of the industry.  The performance of the sector or industry that the company is in also plays in part in determining the stock price of the company.  Most of the times, the stock price of the companies in the same industry will move in tandem with each other.  This is because market conditions will generally affects the companies in the same industry the same way.  Of course, there are exceptions to this.  Sometimes, the stock price of a company will benefit from a piece of bad news in its competitor if the companies are competing for the same target market.           

·         The earning results and earning guidance.  The main objective of a company is to make profit.  Therefore, investors and traders always assess a company based on its Earning Per Share (bottom line) and Revenue (top line) and its future earning potential.  In US, companies generally report the earnings results every quarter-yearly.  A company that achieves good earning results (EPS and Revenue) expects a boost in its share price and one that delivers poor earning result shall see a beating in its share price.  Sometimes, besides reporting the EPS and Revenue for the past quarter, a company may also issue guidance (expected value) for the EPS and Revenue in coming quarter or coming years.  This is also closely monitored by investors and is an important factor that will affect the company stock price.

·         Take-over or merger.  In general, a company being taken-over is anticipated to get a stock price boost and the company taking over another company shall experience a drop in its share price.  This is assuming that the company is being taken over at a premium, meaning it is being bought over at a higher price than its last traded stock price.  Depends on the agreed term, a company can be bought over by cash or stock (of the acquirer) or a combination of the two.  In some minority cases, the stock price of the acquirer may get a boost if it is perceived that the acquisition shall contribute to its earning or revenue in the near future.

·         New product introduction to markets or introduction of an existing product to new markets.  The introduction of new product to market is seen as a revenue enhancer for a company.  This also applies to an existing product that breaks into new markets.  Sometimes, the prospect of a new product introduction suffices to improve the stock price of a company, this is often observed in surges in stock prices of pharmaceuticals companies after the announcement of successful clinical trials, or FDA approvals for new drugs.  

·         New major contracts or major Government Orders.  A company that is able to obtain new major contracts or major government order is expected to see a bull run in its stock price.  Those companies that fail in the contract bidding normally experience the fate of sell-off in its stocks.

·         Share buy-back.  The act of share buy-back by a company will reduce the number of share available in the open market.  Due to the law of supply and demand, a reduction in share available for trading in this case will cause a drop in supply, this will normally help increase the share price.  Also, the continuing buying back of share of a company will also acts as a support for the share price that helps to maintain or increase the share price.  The investors may also see the share buy-back by company as a confidence booster for them in the company itself.  Therefore, share buy-back is quite often used as a tool to deliver value to the investors.            

·         Dividend.  After the announcement of a dividend.  The stock price may increase by an amount close to the dividend per share value.  However, the stock price may drop on the ex-dividend date by the dividend per share amount.  This is because anyone buying a stock on or after the ex-dividend date are not entitled to the corresponding dividend payment.    

·         Stock splits.  Stock split in theory, should not have an impact to the stock price.  However, it is generally observed that the stock price increases (after taking into account the increase in the number of share) after a stock split.  Some attributed to the better affordability of the stock after stock split, some attributed this to the perception of cheap stock due to the lower stock price after the stock split.  Some however believes that stock split has no real impact on the stock price (effective stock price, taking into account the change in number of shares), as the stock price will increase regardless of stock split.    

·         Insider trading.  Insiders include CEO, COO, CFO, Chairman, board directors etc, who has first hand information about the operations and the financial status of a company.  Therefore, the buying or selling of stocks by these insiders may herald some good or bad news about the company.  This is being watched closely by savvy stock investors/traders.  However, do be aware that due to compensation package that comes in the form of stock or stock options, the insiders may sell their stocks/stock options to cash-in their compensation benefits.  So in this case, it may not signal anything significant about the company.  A savvy investor should know how to observe and filter out this piece of information from your investment or trading decisions.  

·         Investment Gurus / Hedge Funds trading.  The investment decision of highly revered investment gurus like Warren Buffett, George Soros, Carl Icahn are closely monitored by investors and therefore will move the market.  Hedge fund stock buying and selling are another source of information regarding the flow of “smart money”.     

·         Analyst upgrade / downgrades.  Analyst upgrade and downgrade to a stock may have positive or negative impact to the stock prices.  However, one needs to be wary of the fact that quite often analysts’ upgrades or downgrades happen “after” some important news about a company.  For example following a extremely disappointing earning result, many analysts will likely to downgrade the company stock.  So, it is very likely that by then the stock price of that company has already priced-in the poor earning result, and analyst downgrade may not have further impact to the stock price.   

·         Addition/Removal to/from Stock Index.  Stock Index Fund are those funds that invest in those company stocks that are included in a particular stock index (e.g. S&P 500, Nasdaq-100, Dow Jones U.S. Large Cap etc.) .  Therefore, an inclusion of a company stock to a stock index will generate buying interest in the stock for these stock index fund managers.   The stock index fund managers will dispose of the stock that has been removed from the stock index.

·         Others.  These include news about new technology, patent approval, war, natural disaster, product recalls and lawsuits that shall have positive and negative impact to the relevant company stocks.  The health or mishap of a key leader in a company may also affect the stock price of the company.  Take a look at the recent news about Apple Computer.

Please visit the author’s website at http://www.i1also.com for further information.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/investing-articles/the-10-factors-that-affect-and-predict-stock-prices-617610.html

About the Author

The author is an experienced trader and internet marketer. Please visit my new website http://www.i1also.com.

Welcome to
Ultimate Investor

The best investing strategy is easy to state: Buy low and sell high.

It sounds so simple, but it seems people have a lot of problems figuring out how to really apply this to their own life. Unfortunately, many people will buy the hot stocks of the day and then sell if they believe they are losing money.

Here are some tips on how to apply the best investing strategy to your own personal investment plan.

Take emotions out of the investment process. Just because an investment might drop overnight does not mean you should panic and sell. Likewise, if you attend an investment seminar, do not get your checkbook caught up in the rah-rah of emotions. Before making an investment decision, make sure you check your emotions to verify they are not getting in the way. Investment decisions should be made upon facts.

Buy what you know. World-famous investor Warren Buffet offers this advice over and over again. It seems to work for him, so apply it to your own life.

If you are a fashion consultant, learn more about the industry trends. You will feel more comfortable investing in what you know because you can apply your own experience to the decision.

Invest for the long term. Investments can peak and dip sometimes in a span of hours. If you try to capitalize on every peak and dip, you will drive yourself crazy watching the market and trying to react in time. Instead, make decisions that you believe are going to net you results over a larger period of time.

Budget, plan and know. The best investment strategy is to stay knowledgeable. You need to understand your own budget, how much you can invest, how much you can afford to lose, how long you have to invest and more. Put some effort into planning your financial future by first understanding where you are now.

Almost all investment choices have some risk, but also have some great possible rewards. Understanding your own tolerance for risk will help you select the investments that are best for you. Keep up to date on what your investments are doing to make sure they still fit your own personal preferences.

The best investing strategy will be different for every person. But keeping in mind that some of the best tips for selection involve understanding your own personality and your own situation will help you get a great start to building your wealth.

Educate Yourself. Don’t expect to be a Stock Market Professional Overnight. You don’t have to spend a fortune, but invest a bit in yourself. After all, if you want to either make money now or build a pension pot for later in life don’t you think it’s a good idea to know what you’re investing in!

That process can start with a few books, keep this site bookmarked and read the articles on a regular basis, after all this site is FREE!!! so you may as well take advantage of it.

There are also a few sites you may wish to check out. These can help you get up the ladder in a very short space of time. The one we found very good is LS Trader.

LS Trader is run by Phil Seaton who has made his fortune in the markets. He has devised a system which enables you to follow his system and takes less than an hour of your time per week!

Why do we like it? Firstly it’s based on a systematic and Structured technique which can be done on your PC or Mac at home in less than an hour a week. It is a Trend Following System which identifies trends as soon as they start. The system identifies the best time to enter the market and tells you exactly when to exit…

This is invaluable. Every Sunday you receive an email detailing exactly what to do , all you have to do is follow the system. It’s really that simple. Check out LS Trader Now!

Margin of safety is simply a value stock investing model where the investor assigns a margin of safety to his/her value assessments. In value investing, the investor estimates (or predicts) the intrinsic value of a stock. The concept is that every stock has an intrinsic value and price changes from this intrinsic value is just deviations resulting from the actions of market forces. The stock will often return to its intrinsic value when the market forces weaken.

Thus investors who buy stocks when the trading price is below the intrinsic value and investors who sell stocks when the trading price is above the intrinsic value will profit. But what make value investing difficult is predicting the intrinsic value of stock. There are no established rules for finding out this. Investors should develop their own strategies and models for this purpose, according to availability of information and analysis tools he has.

Many traders use different indicators like book value, open offer, P/E ratio, asset to liability ratio, institutional investments, investments in other companies, etc to finding the intrinsic value of the stock.Margin of safety investing strategy easily overcome this difficulty of predicting the intrinsic value. Investors assign a safety margin as percent of predicted intrinsic value (usually is 30 to 40 percent of intrinsic value).

Margin of safety investors only buy stocks when they are trading below margin of safety. In this way he/she can minimize the risk/error of predicting the intrinsic value. The more the percentage of margin of safety the lower the chance of risk, and the better the chance of profit. For example is the predicted intrinsic value of a stock is $10 and margin of safety is 30%, then the trader only buys the stock if the current trading price is below $7 ($10 – 30% of $10). If the actual intrinsic value is only $9, and the stock returns to this level, the investor will have a profit worth $2. The main advantage of margin of safety investing strategy is that it offers a margin rather than a fixed price to reduce risk.

It favors all type of investors, both experienced and novice investors, and does not necessitates any position sizing or market performance requirements. But the disadvantages are that it does not present any rules for assigning margin of safety and does not consider market factors. Also there is chance of substantial loss when margin of safety is less and scarcity of opportunities when margin of safety is high.

Smart investment strategies in real estate can help you earn good bucks. In fact, for quite a long time real estate has been a good source of wealth for several realty investors. But then, like any other business an investor must take judicious and efficient investment decisions to ensure profitable investment. Proper real estate strategies, for instance, under the present situation assists investors to figure out the strategy that can work for them.

Since in real estate business a huge capital is required initially, you must be in a fix deciding on the possibilities and returns. Following are a few convincing facts provided that can help you clear your doubts and worries. These will list the answers to the ‘why’s in your mind as far as real estate investments are concerned:

• Cash inflow – The property or real estate that you buy may not necessarily start giving you cash returns exceeding the expenses. But if you have a careful strategy in place and map your progress well, the balance will soon tilt in favor of monetary returns, big time!
• Leverage – The monetary leverage that these kinds of investments allow is huge! If you can get a loan for the principal, buy the estate and ‘flip’ it over to a potential party, you can have bulging pockets with the difference that you collect. But this benefit has two factors controlling it – quality of the estate you are investing in and a loan that isn’t too heavy for you to repay, if the deal goes wrong. Risk is involved, but if you are confident enough in your investment capabilities, go forward and take the mantle. The rewards you will reap might exceed your own expectations!
• Debt Liquidation method – Instead of taking an official loan from the bank, obtain a no money down loan or move into a partnership with other people. Slowly as you repay, your ownership portion increases and after a period, you get a much larger piece of the pie than you had initially bargained for. The success of this strategy is also dependent on the intelligence with which you have made the investment.
• Value Appreciation – When you make the investment, you should be aware of the possibilities of appreciation of value for the particular estate or property. The more the potential of value appreciation, the better returns you might get on the long run. Apart from external factors such as the enhancement of the quality of neighborhood, access points and others (which you cannot control), you can also help aggravate the physical properties of the estate, which will help you make a better sale when you intend to do so with the real estate.
• Tax Benefits – Real estate investments has its share of mischievous benefits too! A load of tax avoiding pathways, albeit legitimate ones, are set open by real estate investments. Though this should not be the primary reason for you to take to real estate investments, it wouldn’t hurt to have this side-benefit as well.

Long-Term Investments/Rentals
If the property you are considering purchasing is a rental unit, you will want to make certain the property is in a location that is considered to be desirable. What makes an area desirable? It depends upon the type of property. If it is for commercial use, you will want to make certain the property is located in an area where a certain type of business is more apt to rent. For example, if you have a property that is more suited for retail and it is located five-miles outside of town on a back road, you are less likely to be able to rent the property for its highest and best use. If the property, however, is located on a main street, it makes the property much more desirable.

If it is a housing rental, you will again want to make sure the property is in a desirable location. If you find the property is located next door to a warehouse that works twenty-four/seven, you may find tenants are less likely to stay with all the noise nearby. Housing rentals located in a desirable location should be part of your real estate investment strategy.

Short-Term Investments
Short-term investments can also play a major role in your real estate investment strategy. This would be when you purchase a property and resell just a short time later. This can be a very profitable venture for many and some investors see as much as a $10,000 to $20,000 profit on properties they’ve invested less than $50,000. However, when you are planning on short-term investments as part of your real estate investment strategy, you must make sure you do the proper research.

Knowing the real estate market in the area is a crucial part of your strategy. The key is to “flip” these properties quickly and if you choose a location where real estate is not selling quickly, you may end up losing money on the deal. By choosing a desirable location, you’ll find that properties may be increasing in value rapidly due to the sales volume in the area. This will help you increase your profit when you sell.

As part of your short-term real estate investment strategy, you will also want to make sure you do repairs and renovations as quickly as possible and as cheaply as possible. This will help you to maximize the return on your property as the repairs and renovations will instantly help the property to appreciate in value.

What you will find in your real estate investment strategy is that there are no specific rules to what makes a great investment. There are a lot of factors involved, including the financing details, rental history, and what is currently listed on the market. However, in order to maximize your profits, your real estate investment strategy should include determining whether or not the location is satisfactory and profitable to invest in.

‘Buy and Hold’
The reason why most people believe that this is the safest investment strategy for the stock market is because that is exactly what their financial advisers have told them. Have you ever heard the phrase “The key to successful investing is Time In the Market NOT Timing the Market”

I believe that this is a lazy approach to investing and is really just an excuse to hide the fact that some financial advisers have no idea what the market is doing. Wouldn’t successful investors use multiple investment strategies for the stock market? If the market is at a record high and there is a chance of a correction then surely there is something that you can do (other than selling your stocks) to protect some of your profits?

The reason why financial advisers don’t want you to know about any other investment strategies for the stock market (other than buy and hold) is because it isn’t in their interest for you to know about them. They want you to remain reliant on their advice and have you feel as if the stock market is a very scary and dangerous tool – only to be tamed by the so called experts.
What is your opinion? I certainly believe that at times the stock market can be very scary and dangerous but like any thing; the more you educate yourself the more comfortable you will feel with it.

So what are some Investment Strategies for the Stock Market other than buy and hold?
Let’s have a quick look one very simply investment strategies that can be used to great effect on any stock market.

Covered Calls
This is one of the most effective, low risk investment strategies that can be used on the stock market. The basic idea to sell call options on a stock that you own. What? I hear you saying. In simple terms it means that you are renting out your shares for a monthly premium and in return you are giving somebody the option to buy your shares at a predetermined price that is higher than what you paid for them.

Let’s say you own 1000 XYZ shares that are worth $15.00 each. People will pay you a monthly premium to have the option to buy these XYZ shares at a predetermined price within a predetermined time frame.

For instance someone might offer you $500 for the right to buy your shares at $16.00 within the next month. Why would they do this? Because if the shares happen rise up to $18.00 they will be able to buy 1000 XYZ shares at a $2.00 discount per share ($18-$16).

The great thing about this strategy is that both parties can win e.g. If this was to happen you would be happy too because you would get to keep the $500 premium and you would also make $1.00 from every share that you sold because you bought them at $15.00 and sold them at $16.00.

What happens if the share price was to go down?
If the share price was to go down from $15.00 to $13.00 then you would still get to keep the $500 premium which would reduce your paper loss from $2.00 per share to $1.50 per share.

Writing covered calls (or renting out your shares) is one of the most commonly used investment strategies by the rich. It is a great low risk low risk investment strategy for the stock market that everybody deserves to know about.

So there you have it a simple investment strategy for the stock market that can help increase your cash flow and also gives you downside protection. What more could you ask for in a stock market investment strategy? So next time you see your financial adviser ask them about covered calls and see what response you get. My bet is they probably won’t even know what you’re talking about because their university course didn’t teach that subject.

Pretty much every investor uses one of three general investment strategies. These are: fundamental analysis, technical analysis and buying and holding the market.

A brief examination of each of these techniques will help an investor decide which best suits their personal profile.

Fundamental Analysis
The most straightforward approach of fundamental analysis is a basic examination of a stock versus the value of the company and its expected future earnings. Based on the company’s financial publications it should be relatively easy to determine weather a stock is undervalued, overvalued or somewhere in-between. The trader assumes that the market price will correct itself and the price per share will consequently go up or down, unless there are any unforeseen events or hidden value traps.

Technical Analysis
Using technical analysis, the investor makes an attempt to predict future share prices based on the direction of the market, trading volumes and past prices. This approach assumes that the market and individual stock prices loosely follow discernible patterns, or at least stay within a certain bandwidth of it. Once the beginning of a pattern is identified, the remainder of the pattern can theoretically be predicted, hopefully well enough to yield returns in excess of the general market. Research has shown that solely using technical analysis as your strategy, does not work well. Yet, there are some indicators such as pivot point resistance or support levels that can actually hold up, most likely due to the wide acceptance and adoption of the method under the professional traders.

Buying and Holding the Market
The approach of “buying and holding the market” is to have a portfolio that could hold it’s benchmark against the market performance. For this strategy the investor buys a basket of stock that resembles the stock market or the S&P 500 assuming that the overall direction of the market performance is upward. The investor buys a large number of diversified stocks and does not need to buy every single stock in the index, although that could be achieved by buying stocks of an S&P 500 Index mutual fund. This approach can be used as a benchmark performance tool, as no other investment approach is valid unless it’s able to outperform the stock market over the long run. In the event that investment approaches do perform above market performance with the same risk, the difference is called excess return, which represents the added value of the used investment approach.

The investment approach you decide to use depends on your conceptual view of the two principal stock market theories. In the light of the efficient market theory, the stock price reflects all publicly available information about the company in question, which results in the trading price coming very close to the true value of the share price. Meaning that on average the price reflects the fair value of the stock, but not all the time, as variations of this price can exist.

On the other hand, there’s the school of thought that these prices are unpredictable and too random, and cannot be used to generate excess returns. In that case, there is no point in using the fundamental approach seeking stocks that are selling under their actual value. Alternatively, one could concentrate more on developing a more efficient portfolio, instead of selecting a certain kind of stock. This would be a portfolio that provides returns closest to the market’s return at a specified level of market risk. The investor simply determines the amount of risk that is acceptable and builds the portfolio based accordingly.

Investors believing that the market is not efficient for the reason that buyers receive, perceive and evaluate information differently, causing the prices to deviate from their true value can look for undervalued stocks through diligent analysis. Going forward, this would enable them to outperform the benchmark of buying and holding the market. As backed by many studies it’s safe to assume that the market is often inefficient and therefore there are numerous ways of outperforming the market with your portfolio. Your excess returns can generally be 2 -6 percent at a risk free rate.

Anything higher is most likely an abnormal return, which is the out-performance over the risk-adjusted return. Just beware, as this can also be a negative abnormal return. Nevertheless a small consistent excess return can also lead to great wealth.