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Among the many revolutionary changes brought about by the advent of the Internet is online stock trading. Once the exclusive preserve of the rich and the wealthy, the stock market has now become a place where even the common man can play a part. Investors today can use Internet client-server technology to trade stocks anywhere, anytime they like. Just a couple of mouse clicks and the client is through with a thousand-pound transaction!

There are several ways in which one can participate in online stock trading. One can use an online broker, or do it himself.

There are two types of online brokers: discount and full-service. The former are licensed individuals who have direct access to the share market. They neither give you advice nor research the best options. They just order the stocks you want at a discounted price. They earn no commission but make money by selling mass amounts of stock.

In comparison, a full-service broker offers many more stocks. They act as your personal agent in all share-related activities, such as advice in buying shares, creating a safe investment portfolio, and offering investment advice. Commissions being their main source of revenue, they work hard to satisfy you. So they do a lot of research on the best stocks and investments for you, and hope you will stay with them.

As stock trading is a complex thing, you should do your homework before taking the plunge online. Take into account how frequently you trade, what other services might interest you, how reliable the trading system is, whether it is difficult to log on when the market is active, and other variables. As hunch or intuition may turn out to be misleading, try to be conversant with the markets state-of-the-art trading techniques and strategies. Try to read the quarterly or annual reports of the companies to know what they are doing with your money. When in doubt, ask your stockbroker.

Picking good stocks is only the first step to become a consistently profitable trader. Those of you that track the performances of stock picks I post on http:www.cisiova.comanalysis.asp know that it is impossible to determine if a stock is good without a good exiting strategy. And for most traders, exit strategy is the hardest part. Many people say that to trade profitably you need to develop the right mentality. Unfortunately, such winning mentality can only be developed through experience. However, there is a short cut to get through the learning curve without throwing thousands of pounds in the process. This short cut is playing POKER.

Yes you heard me right. Apparently, playing poker has a lot of similarities with investing in stocks. First of all, they both deal with money, uncertainties, and a keen judgment of potential risk and reward. In this article I will explain the similarities and differences between stock trading and poker. But before proceeding, make sure you know the rules of Texas Holdem and fluent with the terminologies.

Think of stock picking as looking for good hands to play. In Texas Holdem, you can look at the two hole cards and decide whether you can play the hand or not. Similarly, you can analyze the stock before entering a position. Fortunately for you traders, no one will raise pre-flop, so you just pay the commission. Remember to exit the position you also need to pay the commission, which implies that the cost of entering a position is two times the commission. Good poker players only play good hands, so you should do thorough researches before entering a position. One good thing about trading is that you do not have to wait for good stocks like poker players wait for good hands, you can find good stocks on stock picking websites or using screeners to find them yourself.

Once you call the blinds in poker, you get to see the flops and two more cards. Think of these cards as the performance of your stock after you enter the position. In poker, the flop can make a good hand, a medium hand, or a bad hand (by helping your opponents). In trading, you can observe the potential of the stock as well, and you should objectively judge the downside and upside potential of the stock. In poker, there are times that you have a good hand, and your opponent have a better hand, and you know you are beat. These are the times where your mentality matters the most. An experienced poker player will fold his hand regardless of the amount of money he has put into the pot. As a trader, at times that you think the upside potential fails to actualize, you should sell the stock regardless of how much you have lost. On the other hand, when a good poker player knows he has the winning hand, despite the possibility of losing at the river, he would bet aggressively, without fearing the small losing possibility. In trading, this translates to if the stock goes up and manifests higher upside potential, you should not fear that you will lose your recent winnings. Therefore the winning mentality is to ride when the stock is going up, and sell when the stock is losing its heat. This discipline is easily said than done. So many times I have heard people lost all their money because they hold on to losing positions (due to hope) and sell winning positions too early (due to fear).

By playing poker, you would get the chance to master your emotions, learning not to hope when you are beat, and not to fear when you are favorable to win. You want to lose small and win big, not the opposite.

Now go practice. This mentality only develops with experience.

If you want be a successful penny stock trader, youll need to be an intelligent trader. There are very few requirements to start trading in penny stocks. It can be broken down into three main things.

1.Money:

The money we are talking about is not just the money that is sitting in your bank account. It is not the money that you use to pay for your rent, your car or your food. Penny stocks can be extremely unpredictable and although you might make a great deal of money it is also true that may lose everything, so it is important especially when you are starting out with penny stocks that you only use money that you can afford to lose. After you have built up a nice profit, you can re-invest your profits from past trades which will snowball your earnings.

2.Knowledge:

This is without a doubt the single most important factor in determining whether your budding career as a penny stocks investor will be a spectacular triumph or a dismal failure. If you are a newcomer to investing of any kind there are various guides you can buy and it is a good idea to read several of these before spending any money.

Penny Stocks: The Next American Gold Rush by Dan Holtzclaw
Stock Investing for Dummies by Paul Mladjenovic
The Guide for Penny Stock Investing by Donny Lowy

These are all good and although they will not help you with specific decisions such as whether to buy a particular penny stock, or when to sell, they give you a good background on how it all works and are invaluable in building a good knowledge base.

3.Make A Plan:

Before you investing any money, make an investment plan and stick to it at all times. This will help you become disciplined and will also help you organise your time and investments. Keeping things simple will result in less stress. Your plan should consist of the investments you are going to make and why and how much you are investing in them. It should also include your exit point (the price which you will sell your investment at to take profit) and also the time you want to allocate for your investments each day (i.e. The time it takes to monitor and research them).

Now you have got all the major elements in place you are set for the roller coaster ride that is the world of investing in penny stocks But remember that knowledge is the most powerful tool you have to make your penny stocks successful so start learning today.

If you have always wanted to know more about this topic, then get ready because we have all the information you can handle.

Within the buy to cover orders, there are four options in which to place against your stock purchases. When you buy to cover on a stock order, you are in agreement that you will buy the stock at the latest share price; however, because there is a lag between the time you approve to buy the stock and the actual transaction, a price difference may occur. You could end up paying more than anticipated for each stock, or a considerably lesser amount per stock, which is what you are eager for. You can also buy to cover limit orders, which guarantees that you pay no more than the set limit price. However, if stock prices hold above the limit buy price, this type of buy to cover order will never be executed.

This type of transaction is mainly used by investors who want to get into a certain market. You may also want to buy, to cover stop orders in which case the stop orders become simple stock orders as soon as the value is at or above the stop price. This type of order is used to get you out of an unfavourable stock so that you will not have lost any profits. And, finally, you may want to buy to cover a limit order that converts to limit order only when the share value is at or above the stop price. You have to know each of the buy to cover orders so that you can make educated decisions about your investments.

From one decision period to the next in the stock market game, the markets can move up and down non-stop, which means that prices of shares are at a frequent changing point. You may think about purchasing a certain stock that is at 5 per share, and in the next day, the value per share has risen to 15 per share.

This is where the betting of the stock market comes into play. By erudition the advantages of the buy to cover orders, you can multiply your odds of earning money on the stock exchange rather than of losing money. The most obvious benefit to the entire buy to cover options is that they are in place to make you money, when executed properly. For example, you would not perform a stop loss on a stock that has steadily increased over a 5 month period. If you did this, you would force yourself to squander money to buy the stock in order to cover your mistake. You choose to buy 175 shares of stocks from Albertson’s, a grocery store chain, at 75 each, for an entire investment of 13,125. Over a four month period, you observe that the stocks have gained in profit, and you would like to do something to guarantee that you keep this earned profit. Not knowing better, you put a stop loss of 45 per stock without consulting with your stockbroker. From that position forward, if your stock decreases to 45 per stock, you have to sell it, and any earlier earned profit is null and void. The only chance you have in getting back that profit is if you are swift enough in the non-stop stock market game, to buy the Albertson’s stocks before somebody else does. However, even if you are able to do this, you have still suffered a great loss monetarily.

Educate yourself in the stock market game.

As with any game, there is some form of jeopardy involved, however, when you play the stock market game, you can avert a great deal of distress by simply taking the time to acquire knowledge about all types of orders you are able to place on your stocks. If you require help educating yourself about the types of orders to place on your stocks, you should consult your stockbroker in order to take professional advice before taking matters into your own hands, inevitably forcing yourself to lose some of your invested money’s profit. Thus, it is absurd to invest your hard earned money into any program before you know all the data necessary to make a well-informed, educated judgment.

If you could take the main ideas from this article and put them into a list, you would a great overview of what we have learned.

Your stock trading rules are your money. When you follow your rules you make money. However if you break your own stock trading rules the most likely outcome is that you will lose money.

Once you have a reliable set of stock trading rules it is important to keep them in mind. Here is one discipline that can reap rewards. Read these rules before your day starts and also read the rules when your day ends.

Rule 1:I must follow my rules.

Naturally if you develop a set of rules they are to be followed. It is human nature to want to vary or break rules and it takes discipline to continue to act in accordance with the established rules.

Rule 2:I will never risk more than 3% of my total portfolio on any one stock trade.

There are many old traders. There are many bold traders. But there are never any old bold traders. Protecting your capital base is fundamental to successful stock market trading over time.

Rule 3:I will cut my losses at 5% to 15% when I am wrong without question.

Some traders have an even lower tolerance for loss. The key point here is to have set points (stop loss) within the limits of your tolerance for loss. Stay informed about the performance of you stock and stick to your stop loss point.

Rule 4:Never set price targets.

This is a style that will allow me to get the most out of rising stocks. Simply let the profits run. Realistically, I can never pick tops. Never feel a stock has risen too high too quickly. Be willing to give back a good percentage of profits in the hope of much bigger profits.

The big money is made from trading the really BIG moves that I can occasionally catch.

Rule 5:Master one style.

Keep learning and getting better at this one method of trading. Never jump from one trading style to another. Master one style rather than become average at implementing several styles.

Rule 6: Let price and volume be my guides.

Never listen to any opinion about the stock market or individual stocks you are considering trading or are already trading. Everything is reflected in the price and volume.

Rule 7:Take all valid signals that show up.

Don’t make excuses. If an entry signal shows up you have no excuse not to take it.

Rule 8:Never trade from intra-day data. There is always stock price variation within the course of any trading day. Relying on this data for momentum trading can lead to some wrong decisions.

Rule 9:Take time out.

Successful stock trading isn’t solely about trading. It’s also about emotional strength and physical fitness. Reduce the stress every day by taking time off the computer and working on other areas. A stressful trader will not make it in the long term.

Rule 10:Be an above average trader.

In order to succeed in the stock market you don’t need to do anything exceptional. You simply need to not do what the average trader does. The average trader is inconsistent and undisciplined. Ask yourself every day, “Did I follow my method today?” If your answer is no then you are in trouble and it’s time to recommit yourself to your stock trading rules.