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If you are one of those who are trying to get his or her luck in the stock market by trading, then the best thing that you could do is to familiarize yourself with the nature of the venture.

It is best if you have already mastered the basics when it comes to stock market and trading so you will know exactly what are you getting into. If you are already armed with the basics, then you could somehow estimate where your involvement in stock trading could take you.

The keys to success

If you are not careful and prepared enough, chances are you are not going to make it in stock market. This is because the industry’being the largest in the world that generates billions of transactions non-stop’takes a lot of knowledge, experience, guts, and decisiveness in order to be successful.

To be able to become successful in the stock market, one must be very wise in dealing with transactions. One must also know where to trade, the peak season for the trading, the techniques to be used, and the updated strategies to generate as many transactions as possible.

Aside from the qualities mentioned, you can survive the world of trading in stock market if you:

- have the ability to decide on the length of the transactions. This is very, very crucial for a trader to ensure that he or she still has a portion of the market that can be penetrated. A successful smart trader should decide first if he or she would go long term or short term on the process. This is a very crucial decision because it will somehow give direction to the transaction and will somehow give a hint, which one will be very successful for you.

- controlling emotions. The biggest problems that majority of the traders in the stock market are having the idea what to expect in the industry. Studies show that the biggest problem that most people in trading stocks experience is dealing with their emotions.

- have enough guts to start big. Although short term stock trading can do a beginner good’by closing transactions in short period of time’it will do them bad in the future because these have no stability. They say that it is better to plot a stock and trade it to ensure that this is where the direction and stability can be seen.

- have the ability to detach from emotional baggage. This is indeed very hard because most of the time’especially in the times of need to generate transactions’traders become anxious that there will be no transaction that will take place within the day. There are also those that let their emotions rule over their rational thinking, which usually leads to incorrect means of dealing with the problem at hand. Although it’s human nature to experience certain levels of emotional dilemma, it is best to detach yourself from these if you really want to be successful in the stock market.

Through the years, the stock market has been one of the most viable business ventures one could get into. This is because the nature of the business itself doesn’t take too much one’s time if he or she already knows the ways to get the investment rolling. It is also one of the easiest means of making the value of your money into double, only if you know how to handle it properly.

Getting started

The stock market is all about selling. It’s all about testing your trading skills and how far you could push your limits. If you are among those who would want to take a risk and join the exciting, complicated world of the stock market, here are some keys to help you get started:

- arm yourself with knowledge. You can get enough information on stock market by enrolling to specific courses that focus on it. You can also read a lot of books and other reference materials that talk about it. But the best thing would be is to visit various websites that offer free and seemingly limitless information on it. If you want more first-hand information, by try asking people you know about their experiences in the stock market.

- always persevere and work hard. This formula always works once you get into stock market. Because if you don’t give up and you keep on working hard to achieve your goals, a lot of opportunities will be opened up to you. Persevering and working hard will also keep your feet firmly planted on the ground.

- look forward to a healthy competition so you would not be complacent. This could be done by keeping yourself up-to-date through always monitoring the current trends in stock market to keep your knowledge up-to-date. This can be done by constantly monitoring the stock market through magazines and news reports in the industry.

- re-assess yourself and know where you stand. This is very important before you get into stock market because it indicates your personal assessment on your current status in the market. Knowing where you stand will also help you determine if you are still in the right path of success.

- device and plot your strategies. Although strategies don’t always work in the stock market, it is best that you have your own strategy to start with. If you are able to come up with your own strategy, it means that you are ready to deal with more difficulties ahead of you.

- always reflect on your goals and realize them. Just like in any business, having a goal is a very important key to achieve success in the stock market. If you know your goals, then you will know if you are still faring well or you need to re-assess all your short and long-term goals.

- don’t give up when your fail. Venturing in the stock market is not always about being success. Keep in mind that there will always be windows for failures along the way and accept that this is part of the industry’s nature.

One of the many fascinating attractions of the stock market is its many choices and options for you to make better decisions while doing the business.

Contrary to what some people think, the stock market is doing everything to try to make everyone a winner. It is good that you should be familiar with the stock market’s options.

Stock options

Stock options are contracts to buy (or sell) stocks at a particular price at a future time. Stipulated in the contract is the option of the buyers of not being obligated to exercise their right to buy the stocks.

However, the option sellers have the obligation of selling underlying stocks if the buyer wishes to buy them presently.

Call option

Call option is the name to describe a contract to buy. Buyers hope prices will rise so that they can have the stocks for a lesser value.

Meantime, the call option sellers either do not expect changes in the stock prices or they accept partial loss of profits made from selling the call options.

Sample call option

An investor might buy a call option on IBM (for instance) with $50 strike price. The price is the same as the current price in $40 and the cost call of $5.

If the stock price rises above the combined amount of the strike price and the cost of the call price, the buyer can exercise his right to buy. He makes a profit by reselling the stocks.

He seller also gains from the price increase of $55 from the original $40 plus the sold call at $5. If the price stays below $55, the call is not exercised.

The seller, however, gains $5 and the buyer loses $5. (The stocks are usually traded in lots of 100.)

Stock details

Options are exercised on specific stocks. It contains the details of the stock: the name, the strike price, the expiration date and the premium.

When the option cannot be exercised after the expiration, it is considered worthless. (Per tradition, expirations usually end on the 3rd Friday of the month.)

Put option

This is the option to sell a stock. The option-holder has the right, but not the obligation, to sell a particular stock within a certain time period for a certain price.

Here, the buyer expects the fall of the stock prices but h refuses an outright sale in case the price goes up again. The seller here accepts the stocks at a low price because he feels the price is stable.

Investment opportunities

These stock options are used to protect against losses and can be used as investment opportunities as well. They are commonly used in combinations in the purchase of stocks.

In a bull market, stocks and call options can be bought and put options are sold. In a bull market, investors are allowed to take full advantage of rising prices.

Stocks and call options can be bought and put options can be sold in a bull market. In a bull market, an investor is allowed to take full advantage of the rising stock prices.

During a bear market, investors can sell stocks, sell calls, and buy put options to limit their losses and generate profits. In an unstable stock market, a mixture of puts and calls are used to maximize profit potentials for all.

There are several trading strategies used by investors in buying and selling in the stock market. These strategies are used by investors to check out the stocks to buy and the time to sell them.

These strategies count up to more than a hundred ways, all tried and tested, all effective, and have been so for many years. Experts advise beginners to investigate some more of these basic trading strategies.

Hedging

Hedging is a way of protecting an investment through the reduction of the risks involved in holding a particular stock. One way is buying a put option.

This allows the selling of the stock at a particular price within a certain time period. In turn, this offsets the risk of a decrease in the stock prices. (There will be a value increase of the put option as soon as the stock price falls.)

Selling financial futures like the S&P 500 is another way of hedging against market declines. However, the most expensive hedging strategy is to buy put options against individual stocks.

Investors with big portfolios is better off if they buy a put option on the stock market itself for the reason that it protects them from general market declines.

Dogs of the Dow

This strategy (popular in the 90s) entail the buying of the best-value stocks in the Dow Industrial Average. These are the ten stocks with the lowest P/E ratios but with the highest dividend yields.

This tactic hinges on the idea that these ten lowest companies have the most potential for growth. The Dow Index have their listed companies as those which have a reliable investment performance.

Pigs of the Dow

This is a 180-degree variation of the Dogs of the Dow strategy. In Pigs of the Dow, five of the worst-performing stocks on the Dow are selected, based on their price decline percentage from previous years.

The twist lies in the assumption that these Pigs of the Dow, the worst-performing five stocks, are going to rebound more than the others will.

Buying on margin

Buying on margin is buying stocks using money from a broker. Because of more stocks received despite the low investment, the investor is given more by margin buying rather than by full payments.

In the event the stock loses value, the losses in margin buying is correspondingly bigger. In order to limit these, investors have stop-loss orders when buying on margin. This is usually about 10% of the total account value.

Dollar cost averaging

This is investing fixed dollar amounts on a regular basis. (Example: monthly buys of shares from a mutual fund.)

A price drop will cause the investors to receive more shares for their money. Conversely, a raise in the price will cause fewer shares bought.

Value averaging

Value averaging is the alternative to dollar cost averaging. This involves a decision to have investments set to a regular value.

If the price of the fund increases, the investors will put in higher dollar amounts to match the increase. If the fund price decreases, they will spend less money. Their investment will average out to the actual cost of the fund.

To date, value averaging performs better than dollar cost averaging strategy most of the time. When used in tandem with the other stock market strategies, value averaging can actually help in securing investment fund growth.

Traditionally, stock market transactions are done in trading houses generally called stock exchanges. These are the places where buyers and sellers of stocks meet and do business on expansive trading floors.

The original intent of a stock market is to facilitate trading between buyers and sellers in one place to reduce risks. Simply put, the stock market is nothing more than a sophisticated farmer’s market of buyers and sellers doing their business.

Traditional exchange floors

Like any other market place, people in these sites could become agitated and noisy and just plain excited with the prospects of earning money.

Sometimes, you can see glimpses of these transactions in news reports ‘ traders talking on two-way radios or telephones, waving and yelling, and furiously sending signals with the other traders on the floor.

Virtual stock exchanges

Lately, with the advent of the computer and the development of the internet, another type of stock market exchanges came into existence. These are the virtual stock market exchanges, usually a network connected by computers where the trading is transacted electronically.

Market types

The stock market has two distinct types of market ‘ the primary and the secondary market.

The primary market is the place where securities are created by means of IPO (initial public offering). The secondary market is where investors trade previously-issued stocks without the participation of the issuing owner-companies.

This is the market we all know (and see) today at the stock market exchange floors. (In the stock market business, the company need not take part in the trading of its stocks.)

NYSE

The New York Stock Exchange is the most prestigious in the world. It was founded more than 200 years ago in New York City by the original 24 stockbrokers and merchants.

With companies like Wal-Mart, General Electric, Coca-cola, McDonald’s, Citigroup, and Gillette among others in its rosters, the NYSE is the market of choice for the biggest U.S. companies.

Traditional trading

In NYSE, the first type of exchange was done on the trading floor on a man-to-man basis. From the brokerage firms, orders go down to the brokers who transact business at the trading post where buyers and sellers are matched.

The prices are determined using the auction method ‘ the current price is the highest amount the buyer is willing to pay, and the lowest price someone is selling. As soon as a trade is completed, the deal is sent to the investor who placed the order via the broker.

NASDAQ

The new and 2nd type of exchange is the virtual kind called an over-the-counter (OTC) market, led by the very popular NASDAQ. These markets do not own central locations or floor brokers. Trading is completed through a computer-and-telecommunications network of dealers.

The tech boom of the 90s made NASDAQ a serious NYSE competitor today. Now, the NASDAQ is home to many of the largest technology companies (Microsoft, Oracle, Cisco, Dell, Intel and others).

Other exchanges

All the major cities and business hubs around the world have their own exchanges and trading houses. Some are still doing traditional man-to-man transactions while others are into the modern high-tech models of selling and buying stocks.

Whatever trading models are used (traditional or high-tech), the stock market is here to stay.