Practicing share investing.....

Blah99

willing2learn wrote: »

No, i didn't know that could happen......LOL I know nothing!

Incidentally, I am now also wondering if there are any systems to help people pick stocks, ie if you feed in certain criteria would they bring up stocks for you.....?

By the way thanks for any responses :-)

Yep, there are software packages that will trade for you based on indicators etc. I strongly suggest you don't use them. Personally I don't put a huge amount of faith in charting as a "science" - 2 charting experts can pick 2 totally different indicators off the same chart and both will claim they are right. My main use for charting is to gain an idea of what other people (who do use charting) might do. In a way it's a self-fulfilling prophecy...

There are plenty of systems that help you select stocks based on criteria. Interactive Investor has a stock filter function, ADVFN has toplists, and there are software packages like Sharescope (not a recommendation) that will do the same for you.

However if you're looking for possible investments there are other things you can do. For example I'll use the ADVFN toplists for some ideas, but mainly I read what's in the Investor's Chronicle. Over time I've built up a list of 20-ish companies I like the look of, and I keep them in a "Possible Longs" monitor in ADVFN. Over time I watch the share price and the company news and, when I'm ready, I pick my entry point and buy in. I generally have about 20 companies on my active longs. That's enough because I don't believe you can keep properly up to date on daily news and price moves on more than 20 companies (at least, not if you don't want to spend all day with your nose at the screen).

By the way don't use the phrase "picking" stocks - gamblers pick stocks. Investors never pick stocks, they select them based on research. Also, do you use candlesticks when looking at charts?

itsmickdundee

Blah99 wrote: »

Yep, there are software packages that will trade for you based on indicators etc. I strongly suggest you don't use them. Personally I don't put a huge amount of faith in charting as a "science" - 2 charting experts can pick 2 totally different indicators off the same chart and both will claim they are right. My main use for charting is to gain an idea of what other people (who do use charting) might do. In a way it's a self-fulfilling prophecy...

There are plenty of systems that help you select stocks based on criteria. Interactive Investor has a stock filter function, ADVFN has toplists, and there are software packages like Sharescope (not a recommendation) that will do the same for you.

However if you're looking for possible investments there are other things you can do. For example I'll use the ADVFN toplists for some ideas, but mainly I read what's in the Investor's Chronicle. Over time I've built up a list of 20-ish companies I like the look of, and I keep them in a "Possible Longs" monitor in ADVFN. Over time I watch the share price and the company news and, when I'm ready, I pick my entry point and buy in. I generally have about 20 companies on my active longs. That's enough because I don't believe you can keep properly up to date on daily news and price moves on more than 20 companies (at least, not if you don't want to spend all day with your nose at the screen).

By the way don't use the phrase "picking" stocks - gamblers pick stocks. Investors never pick stocks, they select them based on research. Also, do you use candlesticks when looking at charts?

That's exactly what I do too - well, I tell a lie, as I have bailed out of the stock market completely over the last few months courtesy of not wanting to "risk" my money. But I've built up some reserves and am looking at reinvesting.

And you've guessed it OP, I do the same top 20 list of companies. Each is researched and technically analysed. They are in order of strongest (or most likely to make a good return). If I hear of a tip or find another company that sounds interesting, that too gets analysed and researched. If the figures add up, it goes into my top 20 and the lowest (or weakest) on my list gets scratched off/relegated.

Also, in terms of selecting stocks, why not use a stock screener? It can save you days worth of finding out which companies are looking like a good prospect and you can even tell the screener which sectors to look in.

There are various options to "screen" - you could look for companies which are trading at half their fair value estimate, with say a 1% dividend yield and so on.

It will search the market for you and could uncover some real gems once you've thoroughly analysed them. Take a look at Morningstar, Digital Look and Yahoo Finance.

Also, the Investor's Chronicle might have some useful tips - but I wouldn't rely on it as gospel. You don't know what agenda these people might have, so always conduct your own research. Never blind invest just from "what you've heard".

Blah99

itsmickdundee wrote: »

Also, the Investor's Chronicle might have some useful tips - but I wouldn't rely on it as gospel. The stock market is so unpredictable, very few get it right more often than not...

Quoted for emphasis. The IC is staffed by some very, very smart and very, very experienced experts in various areas, and they get it wrong quite regularly. That's a warning all in itself.

ebyard

This is a bit silly, but I look closely at local companies. I'm in Oxford so we have a lot of hi-tech firms here, and university spin-outs which do their thing, then sell to a more well-known firm (mostly medical related stuff). By reading your local newspaper you can see what they're upto before it gets picked up on by the bigger news outlets.

But I always apply the same rules to any company: research, research and research!

Look at unknown companies (to you, at least) and see WHY they're unknown, what are they doing, are they likely to grow? researchresearchresearchresearch!

Cheers

willing2learn_3

Blah99 wrote: »

There are plenty of systems that help you select stocks based on criteria. Interactive Investor has a stock filter function, ADVFN has toplists, and there are software packages like Sharescope (not a recommendation) that will do the same for you.

However if you're looking for possible investments there are other things you can do. For example I'll use the ADVFN toplists for some ideas, but mainly I read what's in the Investor's Chronicle. Over time I've built up a list of 20-ish companies I like the look of, and I keep them in a "Possible Longs" monitor in ADVFN. Over time I watch the share price and the company news and, when I'm ready, I pick my entry point and buy in.

Thanks so much Blah99!

Now i have a list of sites to go and practice on. Now it's a case of choosing......and obviously the stock screening ability will be useful if i'm just practice trading.....it stops all the fundamental analysis that i'd have to go through just to practice....although i believe in fundamental analysis, I just think it will be more time consuming to do it and i need time to settle on some stocks for real investment (which won't happen in the near future anyway).

The list of sites i've gathered (not recommending) is:

Interactive Investor
ADVFN
Sharescope
Sharewatch
Digital Look
TCNet
Investopaedia
stockhouse.com

I guess the more money one is able to spend on a site the more screening functions there might be available. Don't know, just guessing...I have to make do with free stuff for now.

I will try not to say stock 'picking' from now on - lol.

Going to have to go (got to be sociable as at relative's house!).

thanks again!!!!!!

willing2learn_3

itsmickdundee wrote: »

Take a look at Morningstar, Digital Look and Yahoo Finance.

Ah! two more to add to my list!

This subject is HUGE!

Blah99

willing2learn wrote: »

Now i have a list of sites to go and practice on. Now it's a case of choosing......and obviously the stock screening ability will be useful if i'm just practice trading.....it stops all the fundamental analysis that i'd have to go through just to practice....although i believe in fundamental analysis, I just think it will be more time consuming to do it and i need time to settle on some stocks for real investment (which won't happen in the near future anyway).

I know you're not possibly suggesting that using stock screens are going to save you from doing any research at all, not after all the advice everyone has posted in this thread They will save you some time though, definitely.

willing2learn wrote: »

I guess the more money one is able to spend on a site the more screening functions there might be available. Don't know, just guessing...I have to make do with free stuff for now.

Hmm, well, I think it's easy to get sucked into the trap of paying lots of cash for lots of different services, and trying to spread yourself too thin by looking at too many websites.

When starting out - even when trading for real and not just virtual trading - you'll be able to get by just fine without paying a single penny for any service, from stock screeners to real time price monitoring. Don't think you need to pay lots of fees and subscriptions to services just to trade properly.

willing2learn_3

Blah99 wrote: »

I know you're not possibly suggesting that using stock screens are going to save you from doing any research at all, not after all the advice everyone has posted in this thread They will save you some time though, definitely.

I know what it sounded like - lol....but no. Just that at the moment it would be nice to get some stocks up on a screen and look at the charts without all the researching, just because i'm currently trying to get my head around the technical indicators.....but i wouldn't necessarily be sticking with what comes up.

If i were doing it for real, i would expect to do the fundamental analysis too....and indeed would eventually be doing it for practice trades....but just trying to understand the charts at the minute.

Today i tried the stock screener on Digital Look. I thought the questions were rather basic (that it asked)......I was expecting to have to gives lots of detailed criteria for the stocks that i wanted.....and was expecting to not know how to do this...

Blah99 - interesting that you are saying we don't need to pay for all these functions to do real trading.....just goes to show what i know.

I think i'm looking too deeply into it then, trying to find more and more information on how to make trading easier - and what i should be doing is practice with what i already know.

GiusCo

I'm also keeping an eye on the market, probably entering by the beginning of next year. In particular, I'm now looking for statistical tools.

What about http://www.britishbulls.com/ ? It's free, online and quite interesting, also revealing the fundamental of their advice (candlestick method). I'm not confident enough to have a punt at their daily table, but the weekly suggestions appear to be more balanced and fairly rated. Any tip?

Thank you. Joe.

Blah99

I am fairly dismissive of these tip sites, especially ones that claim to recommend trades based on indicators like that. Looking at the site they've recommended BT, who just issued a earnings forecast warning and are in a long term down-trend (as well as being in a highly regulated and competitive/commodity-style market). Wouldn't be my choice.

If you like the indicator-based stuff take a look at Interactive Investor, who have a chart-based technical analysis system that shows you the various buy/sell signals.