How To Navigate the Perilous Stock Market Trading Ways

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Your ultimate stock trading strategy must embody three immutable rules: Keep it uncomplicated. Keep it stable. Keep it repeatable.

If your plan has these three things as its basis, you will be successful. If not, then the reverse.
The successful stock trader has a plan. It is a plan of attack, a plan of risk and reward, and a plan to know when to run away, and when to stay. Without a plan, success, if any, will be brief and not unrepeatable. New toys are always fun, but for the bread and butter stock trading, it's always best to stick with what works.

When you develop your trading plan, it must be reality based. It's not like betting on your favorite football team. You can't play favorites in the stock market. You go with what your analysis tells you that works.

If your a beginner, researching whether you actually want to dip a toe, or just like getting pounded with stock market stuff for fun, here is some stock market 100 for you.

There are three different levels of brokerage firms.

• Full-service brokers
• Discount brokers
• Online brokers

Obviously, full service brokers cost more, but they have more services. This is who you use if you have plenty of dough, but not a lot of time or interest in doing it yourself.
Discount brokers don't charge as much, and they have fewer services. They won't bring your lunch to you, and they won't hold your investing hand. These are the guys you use to place your trade after you have done your own diligent research on the matter at hand.
Online stock brokers are very similar to discount stock brokers, only there is no office to walk into.

The yokels, the suckers out there do not possess the ability to succeed. Don't let this be you, or you'll wind up in Potter's Field for sure! Stock market success stories include people who possess a positive attitude, and a strong desire to come out a winner, although they have experienced more than one failure or stock market boo boo along the way. Their PMA (Positive Mental Attitude) keeps them going. Of course, a note of caution... All the PMA in the world won't help if you just don't have what it takes to work the stock market trades. This comes under the heading of "knowing thyself."

To assess your risk threshold, which in turn will help you pinpoint if you even need to be investing in stocks, and if you are, what kind, answer these bullets:

• How much am I willing to lose on any one trade without becoming emotional?
• Do I feel more comfortable buying and holding stocks for only short periods of time or do I like to buy and hold stocks for the long-term?
• Are the fundamentals of a stock or the chart of a stock more important to me?
• Do I like taking risk?

Getting great stocks is usually no accident. Sure, every once in awhile someone throws a card and comes up all aces, but you can't go around betting on your future based on cards which are face down. Research is the key to happiness in the stock trading world. And then, you must be able to act on your research in a dispassionate way. If for example you are passionate about pork bellies, but your data shows it to be an unwise investment when you have a little jingle, then go research something else. You can always come back to your precious pork bellies when the market warrants.

One stock market expert lists his favorite ways to stay out of trouble:

Never lose more than 50% on a option
Never lose more than 10% on a stock
10% annual return this year in my IRA
20% annual return this year in my trading account
Be more patient with my trades
Spend 1 hour a week researching the stocks that I want to invest in
Develop and apply money management rules
Learn how to trade options
Keep 20% of my account in cash for new investment and/or trade ideas
Use your time wisely. Research, research, research! A great source for more beginner stock investing information can be found here: http://www.investsharp.com. Writer Randy Smotone is as sharp as they come.

Of course, there are two ways you can do your part to do your utmost to insure stock happiness and that is to invest in The Prudent Speculator, a Forbes Publication, and the Forbes Special Situation Survey. As investments go, this is pretty much a no brainer. Buy at a low cost, and reap HIGH rewards!