Making your first stock trade can be quite intimidating. There is new language and symbols that you don’t always understand. You can reduce your stress by following a few easy steps.

Step1. Learn the language of the trade. Find out about the types of orders you can place. A market order is one that you buy at whatever price the stock is at the moment you place the order. This type of purchase is not for the first time investor. Instead, use a buy/limit order. The buy/limit order limits the maximum price that you pay for the stock. If the stock is available for a lower price you get that price. The same concept is true for sell/limits, but it is the lowest price you want to sell your stock.

Step 2. Decide if you are long-term or short-term buying. In order to make money in the stock market you need to identify the plan you want to follow. A short-term buyer looks for the easy, but frequently small, movements of the stock and buys or sells accordingly. Long term buyers seek out stocks that they believe substantially appreciate over a period. Microsoft millionaires got the penny stock as a bonus, because it was worth so little many just held on to it and later were delighted they did.

Step 3. Choose an area you know something about. A stock club of women made fortunes by stopping at restaurant chains, visiting stores and consuming the products of the companies they bought. One of the best mutual fund managers in specialty stock used this practice to become the top manager in the nation. When you choose a stock for a long-term investment, know the business.

Step 4. Watch the price fluctuation. Each stock has a different rhythm. The short-term buyer watches that rhythm and works with it. If you find a stock that you like and notice it has an up and down, almost predictable price, use the information to make additional money. Put a buy/limit order in at the low end of the cycle.

You may miss an opportunity by pennies, but if it is truly a repeating cycle the opportunity comes back again. Wait until you purchase the stock and immediately place a sell/limit order for the higher end of the cycle. Make sure the spread between the two is enough to cover the cost of both trades and make a profit. If the cycle is continuous, do this repeatedly.

Step 5. Concentrate on one or two stocks. When you begin to trade, it’s easy to jump all over and buy a little of several stocks. That is diversification, but costs you more in trades in the end than you make on profit. Focus on one or two stocks to begin your trading.

Step 6. Buy stocks with higher volume. Some of the penny stocks are tempting but when you notice the volume, it is quite small. This means that when you want to sell, there aren’t many people buying. Unloading the stock becomes difficult.

Step 7. See who manages the company. Some CEO’s have wonderful track records. If you notice that the CEO managed three previous companies and they all went belly up, he may not be bad, he may be the man they call in to close a company down. Check the management carefully.

Step 8. Track your trades. List the dates, share price and number of shares on one side and if you sell list the date and price on the other. Track the profit to see what percentage you take. You need these records for the IRS. Aim for a 10% to 15% profit on your money. In a down market, 8% is still good.

Arkaitz Arteaga MarketStock.net

You can’t go far in today’s world without hearing something about the stock market. Unfortunately, the media take for granted that all of us in the audience understand the stock market. The good news if you don’t have a clue how to interpret all of those stock symbols running in the ticker at the bottom of your screen you’re not alone.

But that’s about to change. Below is an overview of some of things you need to know about the stock market.

Stock Market Background

The purpose of the stock market is to allow businesses to grow and to let investors have a way of earning money. Let me give you an example on a very small scale. Your child opens up a lemonade stand in your neighborhood for a week. She earns a decent profit and decides to open up a second stand at her grandparent’s house. Unfortunately, she doesn’t have enough money for the expansion. Other kids could pitch to cover the costs and receive a portion of the profits she makes.

That’s exactly what happens every day in the stock markets all over the world with thousands of different companies and millions of stockholders.

How to Invest in the Market, Stock Purchasing Guidelines

If you want to purchase stocks, you’ll want to form a relationship with a stock trader. These are individuals who work in the stock exchange, through virtual stock exchanges, or with trading software. You’ll give them your money, tell them what you want to buy, and they’ll complete the transaction on your behalf. For this service, they do receive a commission on the transactions.

Some people also use their traders for stock advice. However, you can make your own choices about which stock to buy. Obviously, the secret to making money is to purchase stock at a lower price and sell it at a higher price. That may sound overly simplistic but it’s this thinking that drives all investors.

Another idea to understand is supply and demand because this affects the prices in the market; stock prices go up and down based on this basic principles. For example, if lots of investors realize that big is happening for a company they may all decide to purchase stock in that company. That decision increases demand for that stock thus raising the price. On the other hand, if the same company has a poor financial quarter many investors may start selling off stock which means the supply is increasing and the price drops.

Earning Money from Stocks

Another question you might have is how you earn money from the stocks. As a stockholder, you receive a portion of the company’s profits. When the company determines their earnings and deduct all of their expenses, they are left with their profit. That profit is divided by the number of stockholders and each receives a portion. For example, if you own 1% of a company which generated $2 million in profit then you would earn $20,000 for your stock. If the company doesn’t make any profits, however, you don’t receive anything.

Arkaitz Arteaga MarketStock.net

When you’re first learning about the stock market, the stock tables in the paper can be quite confusing. Learning how to read stocks won’t take much time, though, and it’s very important.

To begin, you’ll notice that there are about twelve columns across the table, and each stock has its own line. The first two columns (usually labeled something like “52W High” and “52W Low”) are dealing with the stock’s performance over the past year. “52W High” shows the highest point the stock has reached in the past 52 weeks, and “52W Low” shows the lowest.

The next column is the name of the stock itself, followed by another column showing the stock’s ticker symbol. Every stock is given a unique combination of letters. Perhaps you’ll even recognize a few (or more than a few) of these tickers. They periodically run across the bottom of the screen of cable news networks.

By the way, watching some of the financial shows could be a good idea. It will further your knowledge even more on how to read stocks and understand the way the market works.

Next to the ticker column is a column labeled “Div.” This indicates the stock’s annual dividend paid out per share. Many rows will have this column blank, which means they don’t currently pay out dividends. The same goes for the next column - “Yield %” - the percentage return on the dividend.

P/E is the price to earnings ratio. Dividing the current stock price by earnings per share for the last four quarters gives you this number.

After that you will discover the columns of “High” and “Low.” These are the highest and lowest points that the stock reached in the day’s trading. “Net Change” refers to how much the stock price has changed from the previous day, and “Close” lets you know what the final price was when the stock market closed for the day.

Once you’re armed with a good working knowledge of how to read stocks, you can begin to delve into other aspects of the market.