Starting of in the trading business

deno120

Hi all,

I am fairly new to posting on this board so please bear with me if i have not grasped all the trade lingo just yet.

Ok my situation is as follows:

I am interested in trading stocks to supplement my current income. I am self employed and work 3 days a week. I would like to trade full time on the other 2 days while also keeping an eye on the markets on the days I work.

I recently invested in some shares:

Aib - bought 7900 at 0.67, sold 4900 at 2.70, held onto 3000 shares. So made a profit on these.

Anglo: bought at 0.18, spent €2,500 - lost this.

Want to reinvest my profit plus some more in shares.

I see this as a long term job for me so dont want to rush into the market just yet, i know we got lucky with aib as it could of gone like anglo. I am prepared to read up on the workings of the stock market so any recommendations for good books would be great.

Mainly I would like to learn from someone, i am educated to degree level and have run a business so have some business savvy as such but really need someone to sit down with and watch and learn and see how its done.

Does anyoine on this board who trades either full time or part time offer this kind of thing. I know there are courses but reading some forums they seem to be money making spins. I would prefer and think i would benefit more from one to one tuition be it for a day or for a few hours just to go over the fundamentals of it all.

Any help or replys would be appreciated.

Thanks

ixus

IMHO, you need to get the psychological part of trading under wraps first.

There are a lot of different ways to trade and a lot of markets. If you are interested in the markets, you will find the Market Wizard books fascinating and should take some lessons from them. You should be able to get them for about €10 each.

These books have been recommended a number of times on this site but, I have yet to have a poster come back and say "thanks for the tip, they were a great read and I learned a lot" which is surprising. Suggest to me they never read the books.

deno120

ixus, thanks for the reply. I think you are totally right in getting to grips with the psychological part of trading first. I specialised in marketing for my degree(many years ago) and agree that in order to understand how any business operates you first must understand the psychological make up of it. Thanks for the recommendations on the books, I will make that my first port of call and will let you know how i get on.

Raskolnikov

If you ask me, it's much, much more difficult to be a successful stock trader, rather than a stock picker with a long-term horizon. If I was you, I would be trying my hand at paper trading for a few months before I even contemplate throwing money at anything.

With that said, if you're sure about trading, you need to forget about Irish stocks. For one, you're paying 1% stamp duty. Secondly, you've also got ridiculously high brokerage costs. You should be looking at a broker that does American stocks (you are open to the risk of fx charges though).

ranger4

Raskolnikov wrote: »

If you ask me, it's much, much more difficult to be a successful stock trader, rather than a stock picker with a long-term horizon. If I was you, I would be trying my hand at paper trading for a few months before I even contemplate throwing money at anything.

With that said, if you're sure about trading, you need to forget about Irish stocks. For one, you're paying 1% stamp duty. Secondly, you've also got ridiculously high brokerage costs. You should be looking at a broker that does American stocks (you are open to the risk of fx charges though).

I agree most irish broker charges are ridiculously high but there are a few who arent too greedy, sharewatch arent too expensive.

deno120

I have contacted sharewatch and am in the process of setting up an account with them. I am interested in the other markets but to be honest dont know where to start with finding a broker for these.

I am going to do some paper trading with the irish stock market to try and get to grips with some of the fundamentals of trading and see what i can learn from that. As i was saying in the first post, i see this as a long term plan and want to arm myself with enough information before i put my money to it. I really want to understand how everything works and get a feel for the stock markets.

My husband is currently investing in some shares. He was thinking of AGI shares as they have been low for quite some time. I understand a report is being released tomorrow. Would anyone recommend these shares. I know pharma can be risky but he is thinking of a long term investment.

Also any other info on the best route i should take to achieve my goal would be great.

Thanks

Raskolnikov

deno120 wrote: »

My husband is currently investing in some shares. He was thinking of AGI shares as they have been low for quite some time. I understand a report is being released tomorrow. Would anyone recommend these shares. I know pharma can be risky but he is thinking of a long term investment.

:eek::eek::eek:

I don't think there are enough shock emoticons to express how I feel about this post.

1. AGI Therapeutics have not made a single penny since they were founded.
2. They essentially were a play on one drug, which ended up failing in a clinical trial. There is nothing else in the immediate pipeline.
3. They will run out of money within a year.

If you want to invest in a promise, well, you deserve to lose your money.

deno120

thanks for the advice, i think i will tell him to stay well away from them. I hadnt done any research on them myself so was in the dark about this company.

Idu

deno120 wrote: »

He was thinking of AGI shares as they have been low for quite some time

Every time I see this written in a thread it makes me cringe. Shares will be low for a reason, the key is to pick the companies that are undervalued and have growth potential over the ones who are low because they are worthless dogs of a stock.

I have no personal opinion on AGI, Raskolnikov seems to make some decent points for staying away from it, but the worst mistake a new investor can make is to make trading decisions based solely on looking at a chart

Time Magazine

Idu wrote: »

the worst mistake a new investor can make is to make trading decisions based solely on looking at a chart

But the price fell!!!

Raskolnikov

Idu wrote: »

I have no personal opinion on AGI, Raskolnikov seems to make some decent points for staying away from it, but the worst mistake a new investor can make is to make trading decisions based solely on looking at a chart

Don't get me wrong. I don't think it necessarily a bad idea to invest in something that's risky. For example, when General Growth Properties went bankrupt, I bought a few shares after I read a presentation from Bill Ackman that said there was a very good chance that they would emerge from the bankruptcy process. It came down to statistics in the end. It seemed like there was a 50/50 chance that the company would remain in bankruptcy. If the company went bankrupt, you would lose 100% of your money. If they emerged from the process, you would double or triple it.