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Stock Market Courses Online

Stock market courses used to be restricted to college or graduate students, or professionals who received training while at work. However, with the advent of the Internet and direct access to a variety of resources by anyone with an internet connection, online stock courses have become an increasingly effective way for individuals to further their knowledge of how to invest in the market.

Before beginning your search for a stock market course, you will need to consider your goals for investing. If you plan to invest only your own funds, you should decide whether you are investing for retirement, for extra income, or as a full-time business. Depending on your choice of one or a combination of these goals, your strategy should probably vary.

After deciding what your investment goals will be, you can decide which type of online course will be most helpful. Check a reputable stock market forum for suggestions. Several different types are available, differing in cost and in the scope of what is offered. You can find some of these courses by simply doing a Google search, or from any of your favorite search engines. Obviously the low end of the price spectrum is free. Thinkorswim is an example of a company which offers at least some of their online training courses for free.

Other companies charge several thousand dollars per course. An example of this type of company is Investools. The instructors for the more expensive courses are individuals who have excelled in various trading strategies and are in turn teaching them to their students. These are not your usual stock market 101 courses. They also offer ongoing access to charts, historical data, and tips for investing, skills for finding top stocks, charging for these services on a monthly basis. If you are unable to find an online course by searching the internet, you could try asking at your local library for help in finding some companies which offer training programs. Or, if you have a friend who is skilled at his own investments, consider enlisting that person’s help in locating the right course for your situation.

Before selecting a course, and especially one of the more expensive training options, you should consider your own investment knowledge and experience. Are you familiar with basic financial terms, with the ebb and flow of the stock market? If you don’t understand basic concepts of profit and loss, of buy price and sell price, and so on, you need to find a more basic course as a starting point before you buy stocks.

Additionally, you should consider your own financial situation. Do you have a large amount of capital with which to begin investing in the stock market? If you are on a tight budget, you will likely have to start small, and will not be able to invest large amounts either in the market or in training for investing. Also consider your own tolerance for risk. Are you unable to sleep at night because of worrying about your investments? If so, there are types of investments you may want to avoid, such as stock options, because of their increased volatility and risk for losing not only your initial investment, but also owing money beyond what you put in.

Whether you plan to invest for fun, for vacation money, for your retirement, or even as a full-time job, you can find valuable and useful information at a variety of price points on the internet. Consider your situation first, and you will be on the right road to selecting the best course to meet your needs.

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Joining A Stock Market Forum

Editors note: Guest post written by Richard Lauder, who also guest posts at Beating The Stock Market

A few years ago, I joined a free online stock market forum whose recommendations and “tips” never really yielded any significant profits. Most of them use the “Pump and Dump” attack, where several sites send out mass alerts on a particular small cap stock and cause a bit of buying spree on that stock. You will sometimes see a large percentage increase in value, but usually a very short term rise in these stocks which amounts to just a few cents per share. Be aware that it usually falls again just as fast as it went up, so you need to be ready to get out fast. That’s the “dump” part of the equation. If you have the time and patience to closely watch and trade these stocks often, and at large volumes, you can make some profits.

I usually stick with one of the “big house” sites for research, news and stock market 101 type of information. These guys spend a lot of time, money, and resources to come up with their data, and I can access all of it just by paying to trade on that site. Most of these sites will offer options in membership to where the more you pay, the more of these tools you will be able to access. The old saying still holds true, “you get what you pay for.” While there may be some sleeper sites out there that occasionally hit on some fast risers, you will pay for them, if you can find them in the crowd with all of the others.

As you have always heard, do the research, follow the leaders, and stay in it for the long run. Most of the recognized large trading firms now offer online trading for from four dollars up to twelve dollars for each basic market trade. Some of them will require a minimum starting balance of several hundred dollars. There are a couple of really good sites that have no minimum balance requirements, and actually offer some pretty impressive research and tracking tools. My recommendation is to study the difference in the types of charts, graphs, history, and tracking tools that are most commonly used, and learn how to use them before you buy stocks. Once you find which method works best for you, and become comfortable spotting trends and patterns, then find the site that offers these along with your basic trading platform. Check for a stock market course in your local area. You can pick up some good stock market tips and information there.

You also need to decide what kind of trader that you want to be. A day trader has to have a lot of knowledge and resources, and must be in the position to study and trade pretty much 24/7. A commodities trader, and especially short sell traders need to be even more in tune with what they are doing and pay even closer attention. At this stage, you are most likely just diving into stock trading and will be an occasional trader. My advice is to start small and take your time learning the ropes until you have a good understanding and good “gut feel” for what you are doing. If you are interested in only being an “investment trader,” where you want to put some money into something and not have to deal with the details day in and day out, then you will most likely not be the stock market forum type.”

These forums are more for traders who pay attention to the market every day, and trade at least several time per week. As with everything online, there is some junk out there, there are a lot of scams out there, but then there are some real jewels to be found. You just have to take the time to dig them out.

© 2010 Buy Stocks Online
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Stock Market 101

Learning and investing in the stock market can be both very rewarding and risky. The more one studies and learns about the stock market before investing the better prepared and more successful they are likely to be. So where should one begin their personal stock market 101 learning experience? It is best to start with either reputable sites or the business section of the newspaper for stock market tips and advice. The stock market like any market goes up and down, prices of individual stocks rise and fall.

To best follow the market, choose top stocks of companies that are familiar such as Disney or Coca Cola. Every stock has a “ticker symbol” this is the symbol you will need to enter to see the stock price. Disney is DIS and Coca Cola is KO. Follow the stock on a daily basis and you will notice that the price will rise and fall. Try and understand why the prices are rising or falling. Is there a piece of company specific news that is positive or negative? Is the stock trading higher or lower because of some general economic news. Understanding the underlying companies business is critical to learning about how to invest in the market. Learn the mechanics of the market.

Companies on the stock market have their “shares” traded. Follow the number of shares traded on a daily basis, this is called the “volume.” Try and figure out why volume may be heavy or light? Notice the trading range of a stock, or how high or low the price has been over the last 52 weeks. Study companies in similar businesses to the companies you are following. So if you like and follow Coca Cola also look at Pepsi Cola and try to understand why one company may be doing better than another. Read the market summary before you buy stocks because it’s important to understand why and individual company rises or falls, but equally important to understand why the whole market moves in one direction or another.

Very often macroeconomic trends move the market. Data such as unemployment numbers or consumer confidence numbers. To truly become a wise investor get a calendar of when all the relevant economic numbers are announced and follow those number to see if they were as expected, better than expected or worse than expected. See how the market reacts to each of these scenarios.

Follow the Stock Markets around the globe. The US stock markets are the largest in the world but almost all countries have stock markets. Of particular importance are the markets in London, Tokyo and Hong Kong. Markets influence one another if it is a good day on the New York exchanges, international markets will tend to respond positively. News in one part of the globe affects the rest of the globe and the same holds true for foreign and US markets there are all interconnected.

The primary rule of thumb is, don’t invest a penny unless you really understand how the market works and why a particular investment is attractive. Also always be aware of the relationship between risk and reward. The riskier the investment the greater the potential reward and the greater the potential loss. The less risky an investment the lesser the gain or loss. Finally, have fun, the stock market is never static it is always changing and moving. Good luck.

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