If you are planning to trade stocks full time, you’ll here a lot of “Don’t do it!” and others will tell stories of successful traders that are friends of friends.  When it comes to stock trading advice, or any advice for that matter, you have to learn to take only what you need and only what will be good for you.

If you are having trouble getting any kind of advice to help you, here are a few things to get you started:

Trade Stocks when you’re Ready

If you don’t fully understand how stock trading works, don’t trade yet.  A complete amateur with zero knowledge will almost definitely fail and likely lose a lot of money.  You must avoid that, and fortunately, it’s pretty simple.

Start by reading, studying, and learning all you can.  There are lots of books and websites about stock trading out there that will get you started.  Make sure you listen to credible sources so that you don’t take on unnecessary risks learning the wrong things.

Trade Frequently

The more time you spend trading, the more money you can make.  If you are trading more often, you have more chances to earn capital gains.  Of course, this doesn’t mean you should just constantly buy and sell whenever you feel like it.  Don’t get careless.  Continue to use the proper techniques and strategies.

Trading more money goes right along with this.  If you invest more money, you’ll make more with the same rate of return.  This is because the rate of return is a percentage.  If you are consistently earning a 5% rate of return, you’ll get more back investing $10,000 than you will $1,000.  It isn’t easy to just start investing more.  You need to actually have the cash.  That is why you should be saving now.

Invest Long-Term if Trading isn’t Right for you

After you’ve been trading for a while you’ll find out that your good at it or you’re not good at it.  Take this stock trading advice, if you can’t get a handle of it and do will, change your strategy.  That may likely require switching to long-term trading instead of stock trading.  It’s better to make money than it is to struggle at something you think should make you more money.

First of all, you need to understand stock trading.  Stock investing is a type of investing to earn you money.  When you buy shares of stock, you are purchasing equity in a company and become part owner of that company.  You will strive to earn money in the form of capital gains, and sometimes dividends.

Stock trading is a specific strategy to earn money in the stock market.  It is most often used as a short term strategy.  You will buy and sell stock within a short period, less them 6 months, often much less.

With a stock trading strategy, you won’t so much look at the fundamentals of a corporation and understand the company you are buying stock in.  Instead, you will be using technical analysis and following charts to see whether or not you should buy or sell a stock at a particular time.

How to Design a Stock Trading Strategy

Designing a stock trading strategy is very important.  It must be done if you want to make sure you are maximizing the effectiveness of your investments.  With the right instruction beforehand, you can set one up for yourself that works great for you.

That will mean understanding everything that goes into a good strategy first.  Learn about stock trading and read and study as much as you can to start.  Use a free stock market practice game to start and get some experience in the markets without any risks to start.  You can sign up for a FREE stock market simulation game here.  After that, you can be a much better stock trader.

Not all stock trading strategies are the same.  In fact, if you make your own, it will probably be unique to you.  Take what you learn from books, other investors, and your own experience to come up with an investment plan.

Use your Stock Trading Strategy

It will take some time and effort to devise a good stock trading strategy, but that is not the most important part.  Even the best strategy won’t matter if you don’t use it.  Put as much money as you can into your investments and invest frequently.  Follow your strategy and adjust it as necessary.

Before long, you will be seeing your investments increase in value.  You will figure out what works and what doesn’t.  Keep working hard and you will be rewarded.

Stock day trading is not your traditional stock investing.  Instead of buying a few shares of stock and letting them increase in value over 6 months or over the next few years, you will buy stock and sell much faster.

Stock day trading is a form of short term trading.  Many traders use software to tell them when to buy or sell based on trends.  They look at charts and guess that it will move a certain way based on where it’s been and previous trends.

Trading is often used as a full time job.  You work when the markets are open.  You can do really well, break even, or do bad.  Of course, breaking even is really bad too because you can’t support yourself with nothing.

Who can Use Stock Day Trading?

Technically, just about anyone can try to trade stocks, but it takes a lot to be successful at it.  Of course, you need the right resources as well.  First of all, you need to have time and the right time.  If you work from 9 to 5, you won’t be able to trade unless you trade on a foreign exchange that is open when you’re available.  The more time you have available during trading hours, the better.  Ideally, this will be something you can do full time.

If you plan to be a full time trader, you should have back up resources.  Don’t quit your day job with nothing in the bank.  Try to give it a try while you are working and save at least 6 months of living expenses just in case.  This way you will be covered even while you aren’t making a profit.

You also need to preferably have internet access so that you can set up a brokerage account and trade.  Trading software can be a great help.  Finally, you need to know what you’re doing.  Not only do you need to understand the stock market and investing, but you need to understand how to trade specifically.  Fortunately, with a lot of research and studying, you can teach yourself, if you have the self-discipline.

If you want to try your hand at stock day trading, make a plan and get to it.  Spend a few months saving your money to invest and to have as back up support money.  You need money to buy food and you need money to invest.  The more money you have, the better off you’ll be.

In the meantime, buy or borrow some books on stock day trading and investing.  Learn everything you can and build up a strategy.  Start using a free stock market trading game (you can sign up for one below) to help you practice what you are learning before you are ready to invest in the real markets.

When you’re ready to invest, start doing it part time before you quit your job, if you can.  When you feel confident, you can start stock day trading as a full time job.

You should practice stock trading if you plan to trade stocks.  If you are completely new to trading and you want to get started, this is a great supplement to learning the ropes.  There are many things you should do to prepare to trade stocks.

Stock trading is different from regular investing.  It is generally short term trading and often overlooks the fundamentals of corporations.  Instead, traders use technical analysis.  This means they look at charts of the history of the price of a stock.  They predict where it will go next based on past trends.

Trading stocks is a bit tricky.  You can read books and learn how to do it only to an extent that way.  If you practice stock trading, you can break through that wall of confusion and really learn what works.

If you practice stock trading, you also get the benefit of learning all this without risking your money.  Trading is tricky and getting a hang of it beforehand is a really good thing.  You should practice trading stocks in the real market and avoid losing any of your money while doing it.

How to Practice Stock Trading

There are several ways you can practice stock trading.  The first is to follow the markets and “pretend” to buy and sell.  You could possibly create some kind of spreadsheet to keep track, but this is very difficult.  This would work a lot better if you were only using a buy and hold method where you don’t need to buy and sell quickly.

The much better option is to use a stock market simulation game.  This allows you to buy and sell quickly just as if you had a real brokerage account with a firm.  Also, you are following along with the real market.

The best free stock market simulation game is Wall Street Survivor.  They are the best because they are the most like trading in the real market.  You can do everything as you normally would without risking any money.  Plus, it is completely free.

An extra bonus that you will like is the prizes.  They give free cash prizes and gift certificates to the best traders and for trading often.  You can earn points to cash in for prizes, or you can be one of the many frequent winners of a large prize.  If you trade a lot and for a while, you are bound to get something at some point, but even if you don’t you still get the practice that will help you immensely with your stock trading business.