Create a trading strategy before buying your first stock! Of course, but how?? That’s were education comes in. This blog is all about what I’ve learned. I’m sharing and maybe it will help you, maybe it won’t. Maybe you’re already successful trading stock and you’ll find everything I say to be garbage. But that’s the key to learning. You read and listen to everything you can, and as you do you weed out what you disagree with and take note of those things you either agree with or want to test.

So how did I learn how to make a million bucks trading stock? I started to read, I started to listen. I went to the library and started checking out books. I learned about CNBC and started watching it everyday. I opened up a free account to play with fake money at Wall Street Survivor. Notice, not a penny spent! (if I don’t count my TV channels and my Internet access which I’d pay for anyway). And every day something of importance came to mind, I’d write it down. Probably the number one key to my success has been taking notes. Even if you already know everything, if you don’t write it down, you’ll forget it. Trust me!

Be sure not to just write down notes and forget about them! Reviewing notes can be more worthwhile than when the original thought came to mind. Have a marriage that’s not as good as when it started? Guaranteed you have forgotten why it was great. Write things down, and review them regularly!

It’s a common thing to begin discounting what you hear. Discernment is a necessary skill we all learn and learning discernment starts at a very young age. Learning to trade stock is no different than learning anything else. Whether right or wrong, true or false, or somewhere in between, it’s important to look for those things that make sense to you. Note them, test them and keep those things that work for you. What works for someone else is only a starting point. Key point to remember is that while you should seek every piece of knowledge you can about the stock market, there comes a time where more isn’t necessarily a good thing. There is a counter point to everything and within the stock market, this is true to a myriad degree. There will always be an indicator that contradicts another indicator. So while learning all you can is worthwhile, it can also be stagnating and paralyzing. Soon, you’ll start feeling you’ve learned enough to understand the market and begin creating your own strategies. Test them, develop them, throw them away and recreate them. But never, ever trade without them!

If you’d like to follow my trades more frequently, follow me on twitter. I don’t post every day (can’t give away ALL my secrets) but I post way more frequently than here. In fact, here I’ll probably not post any more live trading ideas/moves. Find me at “deCharlemagne”! If you can’t find me let me know!

If you’re a day trader, the trend is broken, sell LSI at $4.81. That 6 cents could have earned you a cool $588 in one day, had you invested $47k.

Diversification hah! Diversify with your picks, not your acquisitions, is what I say. It’s the same strategy I use playing Risk and playing my ponies, all you need is a couple well placed trades, blitz in and know when to run, and you’ll make an easy $500 every single day! Not your style? Then don’t do it! Find your style, trade your style. And remember, never ever ever put into the market anything you can’t afford to throw away!

I’m out, have fun, until next time!

LSI currently at $4.75. Probably will dip to $4.72. Ok to buy now, buy even more at $4.72. If it drops below that, buy a whole lot more at $4.60. Sell around $5.00.

Woo Hoo Market Crash! Look for bargains and buy before the day’s over, next week you’ll be happy if you pick right today!

Digg It

(Bar[Close,1] >= 2) AND
(Bar[Close,1] <= 10) AND
(Stochastic[StocK,14,3,3,D] < 40) AND (Bar[Volume,D,1] > 500000)

This screen doesn’t mean you don’t have to do your homework. You need to understand charts and gain enough knowledge of the market to tell a “bad” chart from a “good” chart. And every chart will be seen by different people in different ways. The trick is to know you temperament and to find charts and trade stocks to match your temperament. But this screen for me works great. Very important note: This does not work at market opening; acquisition MUST be done before market close! This is how well it worked today:

After initial screen with above formula and subsequent chart analysis, a total of 52 stocks were selected for long positions and acquired before close of 6/30/09 in lots of 500 each. All positions were liquidated before today’s close, 7/1/09. Commission of $5.95 charged (which is what my broker charges)

Results:
$147150 invested
$148690 liquidated
$1,961.20 total profit in a single day

Of course, anyone can publish results after the race. Watch how these fare tomorrow

AHT AINV AMD ATPG CPWR CPX CUZ DAR DRH ENTG FLEX HXL LSI MFN NVTL PCX PGH PQ PVX RRI SPF THQI TTI XIDE

I start doing a little research to learn a little bit more about all the information from online trading shows while I’m updating my balances….volume, market cap, moving averages, P/E’s…I need to learn more or I’ll never make any money in stocks. I’ve seen for a long time the opportunity in the daily movement of 99% of the millions of stocks available to trade; billions of pennies there for the taking….each and every day…..

and then I see a banner ad for WallStreetSurvivor.com. $100,000 of play money, played on the real stock market in real time with real prices and “real” transaction fees, all for free. Not only that, but only 41,000 players competing for REAL money prizes, including a trip to Cozumel. It doesn’t take me long to sign up!!!

GOLDEN RULES
1. Create a trading strategy before buying your first stock!
2. If you don’t know enough to create your first strategy plan, keep studying!
3. Entry Points, Not Entry Prices (and exit points vs exit price)
4. The Trend is Your Friend, generally speaking
5. Wait for the roll over; the roll can last “forever”
6. Trade What Works vs Diversification
7. Trade The Range
8. You’ll Never Go Broke Trading a Profit, NO matter the size!
9. Watch the 1min Before Pouncing; you can almost always earn a couple more cents
10. The steeper the trend, the stronger the trend (but know your timeframe!)
11. Know What Timeframe You’re Looking At!
12. Trust Your Gut vs Shifting Gears When Necessary
13. Know Your Temperment, and Trade Within It
14. Learn from the announcers, then learn to ignore them
15. Listen for news vs ignoring the news
16. Beware the shadows
17. Use dummy accounts for your risky moves, it will help cure the itch
18. Never risk what you can’t throw away
19. Missed cash profits is far less painful than real cash losses

MY STRATEGY
1. Stochastic 14,3,3
2. MACD Close,12,26,9
3. Volume > 500000
4. P/E > 0, < 40, generally speaking
5. Regression Lines! (buy and sell only when they're broken)
6. Stalk the 15min & 1min Trend Ranges, guided by the 30 & 60
7. Buy in at a comfortable low, increase on a killer low or enjoy the ride to the ceiling before cashing out

But before I bought my first stock, I thought I’d try my hand at Vegas. Yeh, I know. What can I say, I was young. And going to Vegas was easier at the time, and quicker, than learning what all those columns of numbers meant. The odds didn’t seem too different at the time either So, after I turned 21 and one weekend and one system later, I was $200 poorer. I vowed to myself to never return to Vegas again.

Years later, I decided to learn what craps was all about. I heard that my grandfather nearly made craps his profession. Having already vowed never to return to Vegas, and having more access to a computer than tanks full of gas, I learned craps online, and came up with a pretty good system. Unfortunately, online gaming has it’s own “system”; it’s called “random” dice. Random, sure hah Random until real money is on the line So, $600 poorer with that system, I added that one to my Must Not Do list.

So, next, I tried the horse track. WOW. I fell in love. Ironic too, because the very same week I spent at my grandparents being mesmerized by the stock section, I also perused the horse racing charts. I wasn’t as equaly enthralled, since that was obviously gambling hah but very interested, none the less. Especially since I had my “How To Handicap Horse Races” book in my hand. Handicapping, although seemingly more risky than investing in stocks, still captured my attention. And it sure seemed more straight forward. But maybe that was because I didn’t have a book called “How To Handicap Stocks” in my hand

Long story short, and $2,000 poorer, I had yet another addition to Must Not Do list. OK, I can’t just end that story there. I actually learned a great deal handicapping horses, and had a lot of success doing it. I actually used $2,000 to make over $78,000 in bets in my first year of betting ponies; I obviously won more than I loss. Until a sure thing came by The odds of that filly breaking a leg and being put down was way higher than her sure win was. Alas, it was not to be. But it taught me something about sure things. I can still pull in a year’s worth of cash on 5 annual races, but that will be another book

My next story about trying to turn a little into a lot will definitely be shortened. My $30,000 debt from my failed car business is almost paid off

So, stocks I thought. I wonder, if after all these years and all of these “learning experiences”, I can turn a little into a lot? I discovered that I can And this, “coming soon” hah is that story..

I started actively trading stocks November, 2008. My interests in trading stocks started much much earlier than that however, some 30 years earlier. I remember picking up a newspaper one morning while visiting my grandparents and being mesmerized by all the scrambled letters and numbers, thinking, this makes sense to people??! Not only does it make sense, but people make money looking at this stuff? I was amazed, enthralled, and forever entranced by the power of earning a penny.

But before I bought my first stock, I thought I’d try my hand at Vegas. Yeh, I know. What can I say, I was young. And going to Vegas was easier at the time, and quicker, than learning what all those columns of numbers meant. The odds didn’t seem too different at the time either So, after I turned 21 and one weekend and one system later, I was $200 poorer. I vowed to myself to never return to Vegas again.

Years later, I decided to learn what craps was all about. I heard that my grandfather nearly made craps his profession. Having already vowed never to return to Vegas, and having more access to a computer than tanks full of gas, I learned craps online, and came up with a pretty good system. Unfortunately, online gaming has it’s own “system”; it’s called “random” dice. Random, sure hah Random until real money is on the line So, $600 poorer with that system, I added that one to my Must Not Do list.

So, next, I tried the horse track. WOW. I fell in love. Ironic too, because the very same week I spent at my grandparents being mesmerized by the stock section, I also perused the horse racing charts. I wasn’t as equally enthralled, since that was obviously gambling hah but very interested, none the less. Especially since I had my “How To Handicap Horse Races” book in my hand. Handicapping, although seemingly more risky than investing in stocks, still captured my attention. And it sure seemed more straight forward. But maybe that was because I didn’t have a book called “How To Handicap Stocks” in my hand

Long story short, and $2,000 poorer, I had yet another addition to Must Not Do list. OK, I can’t just end that story there. I actually learned a great deal handicapping horses, and had a lot of success doing it. I actually used $2,000 to make over $78,000 in bets in my first year of betting ponies; I obviously won more than I loss. Until a sure thing came by The odds of that filly breaking a leg and being put down was way higher than her sure win was. Alas, it was not to be. But it taught me something about sure things. I can still pull in a year’s worth of cash on 5 annual races, but that will be another book

My next story about trying to turn a little into a lot will definitely be shortened. My $30,000 debt from my failed car business is almost paid off

NEXT

haha

So, stocks I thought. I wonder, if after all these years and all of these “learning experiences”, I can turn a little into a lot? I discovered that I can And this will be that story….stay tuned? hehe