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Originally posted by abk33139
I know you're probably all fired up and ready to place your first trade, but before you do, I would strongly recommend that you paper trade a little while, until you have demonstrated to yourself that you are capable enough to formulate a trading plan for a particular stock, have the ability to enter with a good risk reward ratio (risking no more than 4% on any one trade), be disciplined with a stop loss, and be able to take your profit at a projected target.
If paper trading isn't your thing, then fire away -- but just promise me that you will treat the market for what it is; brutal, unforgiving, surprising, unexpected and always always always right. From the beginning, you should block out all emotion and act only on logic. Expect to make mistakes, and prepare yourself to learn from them. Only you are responsible for them; not the market, not the newspapers, not the brokers or the market manipulators. Take full responsibility for your losses, and treat them as a business and training expense. And be on the lookout for your mistakes that lead to profit, for these are the most dangerous of all!
If you haven't traded before, you will soon discover that trading stocks is much more complicated once you have real money on the line. You will experience many different emotions as your chosen stocks fluctuate up and down.
I see you're restricted with your account, but it would be much better to use a direct trading platform such as Interactivebrokers.com (a penny a share). Not only will your orders be executed instantaneously, but commissions are low. But if you can't and you're stuck paying $30 for a round trip, then I would suggest having no more than two separate stock positions open at one time. Otherwise, your fees will hurt, especially if your trading plan employs stop losses (which I highly and strongly recommend). Many people don't employ stops, but I can tell you that if you're only having two positions, you will definately want to use them. A 50% or worse hit on one of those stocks means a quarter of your capital is gone in one trade. By limiting your loss to 4% or lower, it means that you can take a few hits, looking for the stock ride that gives you 15% or better. Remember this: it's the person who LOSES best that will WIN best in trading. You will have losses - there is no question about this. So why not learn to accept them, plan for them, and to even love them. It's OK to get stopped out. Stops will save your capital, and teach you a lot about yourself. Stops are good
Good rule of thumb in trading is BASSAR. Buy-at-support-sell-at-resistance. Do this, and you will do well. Be patient. Don't chase. Don't fear you'll miss a move and jump the gun, because you will more than likely start the trade in the red, and worse, get stopped out only to see your pick turn and go in the direction you wanted. It's better to miss opportunity than lose cash. You can afford to be patient. You don't HAVE to have an open position all the time. Having no position IS a position. Learn about Fibonacci retracements and waves, and regression channels. Check out www.quotetracker.com for their great free charting, and check out their pivot points indicator, which will draw your intraday support and resistance lines for you. Armed with that knowledge, you can attempt entries at the ideal intraday points rather than resistance levels where traders take profits. Remember, the big boys that are accumulating stock will buy at support and boost the move, thus this is where you want to buy your train ticket.
On Siri, I am expecting some more retracement in the short-term before any futher bullish run. I would wait a while before entering. I follow it pretty closely, and will post charts from time to time in my thread. Webs is very bullish on it and is in it for the long-term, and got a good entry so he's holding it. If you like the prospects, then seriously consider waiting to buy at solid support areas.
All the best, and I pray your first trade is a profitable one!
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First, I probably got into the market on the stupidest day - election day. Stocks were going up that day and there were a few things that I bought and paid a little too much for (like SIRI). Had I waited another week, I would have bought at a much lower rate. Lesson learned. I was so anxious to jump in that I didn't make some good choices. I did buy about 5 different stocks, and as of today 3 of them are up (including my commission fee for buying, but not including the selling fee) and 2 are down. Some stocks I bought hundreds of shares (SIRI) and some I bought as few as 25 shares. I see that as a mistake. I should have focused on 2 stocks (3 max) and gone from there. One of the stocks is down 4%, so I'm wondering if I should sell. Right now its only a deficit of $11 (plus the $15 to sell), so maybe I should get out before I lose more on it (this is a stock I only bought 50 shares of). 
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