Scanning stocks on the fly....

Sorry for the absence yesterday had an extreme bout with neck and shoulder pain and my left arm was pretty much useless. So.... scanning stocks on the fly. Now, I only do this usually for entertainment so its not something I suggest on a regular basis nor with lots of investment money. Lets say I get a tweet or an alert on a hot stock. The first thing I do is go to http://www.otcmarkets.com and plug in the symbol. I like that site because its kinda like my one stop shop resource center with the most info I need to make a pretty good informed decision on if and when I get in. I plug in the symbol and immediately go to a chart of the last 7 days and look at the volume. If there has been a spike in volume the last few days I get a detailed quote on the buys and sells. If the buys far outweigh the sells and there has been no promotion in the few days prior to the alert or tip, then I know this stock has been front loaded and I am a potential bag holder and Ill stay out of it. If its been normal trading then at this point it is a go so far.... Next I quickly pull up the financials and see if there are actual revenues and see if the company is current on its SEC filings. I also check for the outstanding shares and see if the company has recently put a bunch more shares on the market diluting the stock. If it has, I stay out. Next I look at the news releases to see if it has had recent news developments that can affect the stock. At this point if im still interested I go back to the chart and look for my entry point. I do not suggest this trading stocks on the fly to new traders. It takes a bunch of mistakes and some losses to get pretty good at this. If you insist on trying your hand at it,I recommend trading only with paper. I also do not recommend staying in this stock for very long. Worst case scenario you get in on a dip in the afternoon and sell at the next days open, but the preferred exit is the same day I buy. Well thats it for now. Hope you have a great weekend. Im going to go back to some small business ideas this weekend so stay tuned.......

Paper trading and Getting out on a Friday.......

I mentioned paper trading and how it can help hone your trading skills in earlier entries, but today I wanted to  elaborate a little more on paper trading..  The number one thing paper trading does for me is gives me experience in trading without the pressure of using actual money. This gives me the ultimate environment to trade in, emotionally free. Often when we are trading with our money we get caught up in our want and desire to make money. This can cause us to make emotional and rash decisions and forget our game plan of limiting our losses or getting to a certain preset profit percentage on a stock. Fridays tend to be very erratic and unpredictable as other traders sell off to take either profits or losses for the week. Remember I usually dont hold a position through a weekend unless I know for sure a position I am holding is long term. I tend to like to try to sell by the end of day Thursday so as to avoid the mess that Fridays can become. If for some reason I am unable to sell on Thursday I will use the first hour of trading Friday and the increase in volume to move my stock. Make sense?  The more a stock moves the easier it is to buy or in this case sell it and start looking for my next ride. Setting stop losses allow me to limit the amount I lose and setting a specific profit percentage in my mind allows me to grow my money consistently rather than erratically. Give me 30% profit on my money on every trade and I will run all the way to the bank smiling my best smile. In conclusion I want to again say keep the emotions OUT of your trading and you will become a much better and more consistent trader and hopefully richer than if you trade on emotion. This weekend Ill be writing about the ways I read news on companies leading into next weeks topic...... In depth Due Diligence.

Getting started

The first thing we need to determine is how do we get started? Well, I like paper trading as a good start. Paper trading is just like trading with Monopoly money. There is absolutely no risk and we get to hone our trading skills. Most all personal trading platforms require you open a regular account with a minimum of $500 to $1000.
The big 3 commercial trading platforms,(Tdameritrade,Etrade,and Scott trade) all offer paper trading as well as regular trading. Some people ask,"Dont i need to go through a broker?" Id say if you are investing large sums of money, yes you may want to but some of your money in a brokerage. The everyday person though can invest their own with the right skill set. So, whichever trading platform you choose make sure they offer paper trading as you will need to paper trade for 30 to 60 days to get your skillset down. Personally I like Trade Monster. Ok so, once you are set up in a trade platform, its time to find stocks to practice on. I like finding companies that compliment my interests because I can get ahead of the game by having knowledge about the company and products from personal use. Knowing what a company does and what its products and marketplace are like give me a more personal approach to trading and help instill confidence in picking a stock to trade. Anyone can trade with the correct skill set. Paper trading until you feel confident enough to risk your own money is a critical part in setting your skill set. Once you have picked stocks to trade what do you do next? Tomorrow I will talk about my Due Diligence process I go through in determining if the stock I have picked is really worthy of me trading it. Until then.....

So you want to invest.......

Im gonna focus this week on the basics of investing money. This opens up the mother of all cans of worms. In the old days,you picked a stock, saw the recommendations of either buy,sell or hold and then followed that in your purchase decisions. Then came Sept 2008 and all hell broke loose. The broken system was revealed for what it really was....GARBAGE. I believe in Warren Buffets belief of find a company you like,preferably AMERICAN,do your due diligence and buy with only money you can afford to lose. What I mean by that is dont invest the rent or grocery money hoping to make it grow. 7 out of 10 stock plays lose. What I try to do is limit my losses to an acceptable loss percentage (20% in my book), and set a realistic gain percentage (30%) and stick to them. In the day of pump and dump hype plays it is very easy to get wrapped up in the hype and start dreaming of huge gains. Ill take 30% on my money every day and dance a jig all the way to the bank. As I write this week I will highlight my processes of finding stocks to invest in and how I determine my entry and exit prices as well as what times I buy and sell. Remember.... If it sounds too good to be true it for sure is.....