Stock Trading - Can you make money from it?

Should i try my hands at buying/selling stocks with my spare cash? I'm trying to get another source of revenue.

My target is at least 1% profit every week.

Some of my friends say it's possible and told me to try paper trading first at stockalicious.com, some say don't bother and put your money in emigrantdirect.com instead.

Who is right?

 

If you ask me, I would choose forex

 

Long term investing makes it easier to make money on stocks if you have the knowledge about some market. Shorter term is more stressful and the risk is higher. I wouldn't do it without some heavy technical analysis knowledge.

 

Most people who have made big fortunes in stocks have made in by investing and not trading...

In the long run very few traders make profits.

I do short term trading every now and then, but all my big profits have come from my investments...stocks that I have held for a long time...hope you get my point .

 

Learn the fundamentals, then look into CANSLIM for technical analysis. It's a proven strategy for technical investing that has a good track record.

 

You can make money doing short term trading with stocks but I would not recommend that you do it unless you really know the market and if you're prepared to lose whatever you put into it. As with anything the more you educate yourself about it the better you will likely do.

 

Only the "M" in CANSLIM is technical analysis. The other letters are fundamental. Here's a wiki link for CANSLIM explaining it. And here is a site explaining technical analysis.

 

FOREX can be a good bet - currencies like the USD, GBP and Euro are strong enough (and sort of predictable enough) to make nice profits on

For example: the UK internet rates will be going up again to 5.5% next month (99% likelihood - inflation is 1% above target), which should temporarily increase the GBP's strength against the USD. However the UK economy could soon hickup (due to high inflation), thus reducing the exchange rate again.

And I've only been into economics for 6 months - it's pretty predictable stuff

 

you might want to consider mutual funds as an alternative

 

stock trading is risky
its like gambling pretty much if you are going for day trading

 

if it's pretty predictable stuff, that means the market is very efficient. Hard to earn from it

 

The target of making 1% every weak is very feasible. If you want to trade stocks you need sophisticated tools that will help you in making technical analysis and research before buying into stocks. See this site for more help http://beginnersstocksinvest.com/

 

Stock trading system is become profitable if you are investing in a proper way. Stock market is very tricky and risky market it require smart trading otherwise you suffer huge loss also. Stock rates are fluctuate frequently noone predict it only experts can predict it so when it comes to investing in the market it is better to consult some expert because they can give you advice or suggestion that will help you out in taking the decision.

 

Yes you can make money from it millions of people across the globle day trade for a living either for investment banks, hedge funds or for themselves at home. Some people perfer to join a team of people who trade their own accounts in one room it's called an Arcade and it can be very beneficial for sharing trading ideas.

Everybody has bad days, bad weeks, and bad months sometimes but it just depends if you can pick yourself up from that and get back to it. You have to be fearless too, lot of mentally strong people have lost the plot because they just can't handle the swings.

 

All the traders make profits.

 

That's wrong.

 

In order to "trade" means to buy and sell in the financial markets. How does the system, which can hold one billion shares trading on a day's work is a mystery to most people. By investing in ETFs, you are buying a basket of securities, which is to diversify investments and reduce risk. Level of diversification achieved will depend on the selected type of ETF. If you invest in ETFs that cover the whole market is well diversified portfolio of lower risk.

 

All that info, and you still didn't answer his question.

 

Before you consider to invest in stocks or in any other financial instrument make sure you have the knowledge to do so.

Its a serius business and like any other profession it requires you to learn, reading books and any other valuebale source you can get.

A good mix of learning by doing and to study books etc would be a good approach.
By learning by doing i mean to try it with an amount you defenetly can afford to loose.
There is a psychological difference between a demo account and a real account.

 

Now days it's tough to make money day trading, especially with the rising popularity of flash trading you're going to be competing with computers. I highly suggest looking at companies long term and making investments that way instead. Warren Buffet, the 2nd richest man in the world deals with long-term value investing. Go long term.