daytrade diaries...the fat lady sings today , page-56

DynamicDream - you may be surprised to hear this but I just recently graduated from university with degrees in engineering and business lol.

For me share trading is a hobby and probably developed from family friends who were interested in trading and also by wadinbg through different trading forums etc. I've been seriously investing for about 3 years now. The first place I used to visit was IncredibleCharts - a website that has a great forum and heaps of information on indicators etc.

It also offers a great (free) charting software which I recommend you download and study. In my opinion, to really enjoy share trading you need to have a technical and a fundamental basis to your knowledge. Technical analysis (TA) revolves around using historical data to forecast future movements (charts, indicators, etc). TA is really useful if you are trading in the short term (like I am at the moment) or want to pick and entry for a stock for the long term.

Fundamental analysis is basically finance, economics and accounting. These three business aspects are what the management themselves use to run the company so its important to have a grounding in them. If for example someone says, "The tech sector has a higher P/E ratio than the mining sector", you should be able to understand why and the implications of it. Now since I majored in finance this was all taught to me at university (albeit in a more theoretical sense). If thats not the case for you, you could always look through the internet or buy a 2nd-hand textbook. There are some great websites that explain every aspect of business finance.

The next step is to get yourself a trading platform. I currently use CommSec which is the brokering arm of CommBank. Its free to join and all you really need is an account with money in it if you are wanting to trade. Otherwise you can sign up and paper trade (imaginary trade) for a certain period of time before you leap in. Also remember that brokerage is between $20-30 for small trades. So if you invest $500, you need serious capital gain to offset the $60 you'll be spending on buying and selling a single parcel from a single stock. Therefore I recommend you invest at least $1000 in any one stock to make it worth your while.

Ultimatley you need to develop a passion for anything you want to be good at. When I started at the tender age of 17, I knew little and my interst would fluctuate like a sinusoidal curve. But as I grew older, I spent more and more time on it and nowadays I really enjoy it. I can make a weekly salary in a few minutes of trading. Thats the power thats available. And dont listen to the people who say that this is a bad time to trade. Right now is the BEST time to trade because 1/ its volatile and 2/ this financial crisis has never happened before so you can learn a LOT.

Also read what guys like nikk0, highlandlad and macrae12 have to say. These guys know what they are talking about and are very friendly. Read through forums including past day trading threads - you will learn a lot.

Good luck and keep asking questions!