Nailah Wright - Stock Market Investing Tips

1. Stock Market Investing Tips Nailah Wright

2. Trades that used to take more than a week to process now take only moments. Almost all trading was done through a broker and large commissions were commonplace. Now, just about anyone with a computer and an internet connection, or for that matter a smart phone, can trade with the ease of a few key strokes and with commissions a fraction of the old days.

3. Be prepared to educate yourself with as much information as possible. While it's true that even the most informed traders make mistakes, the more you know, the less likely this will happen. This means immersing yourself in reliable, timely and knowledgeable advice. If you're not willing to take the time to properly educate yourself, you might want to leave investing to your broker.

4. Open an account with one of the well known discount brokers. Scottrade and Ameritrade are two of the best but by no means your only choices. Find out who fits your needs the best in terms of minimum balances, commission structures, educational materials, online services, and most of all customer service. If you are new to this game, having a reliable source for answers to your questions or helping a trade go through in some cases is a valuable asset.

5. Be very careful about acting on "stock tips" from just about any source. Unless you can verify the information is legitimate and timely, don't waste your money. There are so many scammers out there pumping the markets with false information to take advantage of the uninformed trader. I would suggest you find a reliable newsletter that fits both your stock trading style and your budget and try a subscription.

6. If you're going to trade individual stocks, you need to spend some time managing your account. No, I don't mean you should be looking at your account every few hours or for that matter even every day. However, keeping an ear out for what the market is doing every few days and checking the performance of your stocks at least once a week would be reasonable.

7. Try to find stocks or investments that are undervalued and have strong positions in their industry. Research them a little to find out if they have unique advantages over their competition or have high barriers to new competition entering their market.

8. Always use limit orders when buying and selling stocks. A "limit order" is simply stating the price you will pay for a stock when you purchase, or what you will sell it for when you are selling. Yes sometimes you will miss getting a stock at the that price, but if you always place market orders you will bet burned by a market maker who will manipulate the pricing and gouge you.

9. Use trailing stops with all of your stock market investing. A trailing stop is a price set usually 25% below the current price of the stock. It should be calculated immediately when you purchase the stock in case the stock misbehaves and reverses direction. This will preserve your capital and prevent large losses.