TRADING STOCKS FOR A LIVING

Trading Stocks for a Living For many people, trading stocks for a living is an enticing prospect. Giving up the day job and spending our time at home, perhaps listening to our favorite music, while using our wits to grow our wealth - it sounds great. In fact it sounds so good that our natural caution sets in. We tell ourselves that if something sounds to good too be true, it probably is.

Let's broaden the question beyond stock-trading and ask, "Is it possible to trade computers for a living?" "Is it possible to trade cars for a living?" And then ask again, "Is it possible to trade stocks for a living?" The answers are yes, yes and yes! And your aim is the same in each activity - to buy cheap and sell dear.

Most enterprises can be profitable - if you have the right skills and attitude. Stock trading can be profitable provided your skills and attitude are right.

Trading stocks for a living with any degree of success demands the use of objective, repeatable criteria to make your decisions. Buying and selling on the basis of "gut feel" or "feminine intuition" is unscientific. You need to develop a measurable strategy that, if successful, can be repeated over and over again.

Trading stocks for a living demands you use strict money management methods to preserve your money if you hit a losing streak - you will hit one sooner or later. Usually sooner.

Trading stocks for a living demands you have a mindset which refuses to swayed by (limited) trading losses in the pursuit of long term gain.

Trading stocks for a living demands the realization that, although the world's markets represent a huge pot of cash, the cash is unlikely to be easily won. Other smart people are chasing that cash too.

In my experience, too many people read a couple of books about stock trading and think they have learned all they need to know. They start trading and promptly lose a large part of their capital. You can no more become a successful trader on the back of spending a few nights reading a book than you can get a Ph.D. via the same process.

Provided you are prepared to work hard, read a lot, learn a lot, and rehearse your strategies through paper trading before trading for real, you may succeed. There are no guarantees.

There are many people who trade very successfully. They are not about to tell you their secrets though. The best trading strategies are jealously guarded secrets.

The material on this site will help you develop your own.