How to Buy and Sell a Stock

By Michael Swanson

I've been using technical analysis for years to make money in the stock market and have found it to be a key to my success. Most people just put money into the stock market without any plan on when they are going to buy a stock or sell a stock. But if you don't know when you are going to take your profits then the market will take them from you.

You see you have to do more than just get an idea from TV or read about a hot stock in a magazine to make money. You have to know basic trading tactics and fundamentals and put them to use. That is where understanding price action and stock charts comes in.

There are three key things you need to know when it comes to charts and technical analysis. First you must understand that the price of a stock is already factoring in the future. A stock is high because people think the future is good and low when they think it is bad. So if you want to make money based on that you are trying to outsmart the entire world.

The second principle is that prices move in trends. There are predictable trends that repeat over and over again that you can take advantage of. The trader's mantra is "the trend is your friend."

The third principle is that history repeats itself. Traders and investors will react in the same way to the same conditions of the past, because the psychological motivations that drive them never change. This enables you to profit from patterns that repeat themselves in the stock market.

From these principles the technician attempts to identify trends in the market and reversals of trends. To distinguish trends from meaningless short-term fluctuations they use one of two types of analysis or a combination thereof: charting and mechanical trading systems. Chartists use graphs of stocks to identify meaningful patterns in the price and volume action of a stock.

The whole secret to investing is to get your emotions out of it as much as possible. Most people by because they fear missing out on more gains and sell when they let losses pile up and can't take them anymore. You just need to make rules to let your winning positions run and cut your losing positions quickly so they won't eat up your account balance.

There are many books worth reading when it comes to stock trading and technical analysis. There are also some good trading courses out there. The world is at your finger tips if you just start to educate yourself.

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