Saturday, June 27, 2009

The Basics about Penny Stocks

You may have heard about these penny stocks and wondered exactly what they were. If you have had an email address in the last ten years then it is likely that you have seen email advertisements that are touting some penny stock and telling you that you can strike it rich for very little money down. These kinds of scams exist in many different areas of life these days and have become prolific because of the internet. They have given penny stocks a bad rap and it is not a true indication of what they are.

Penny stocks get their name from the low issue price. It is not to be taken too literally, though. They are rarely a penny, although it is possible. Their per-share value is capped at $5. There are some out there that define penny stocks in different ways such as market capitalization but this is not really accurate. While it is true that penny stocks are almost invariably small capital companies this does not mean that it is how they are defined. It is more likely that they fall into this category due to smaller capital but the Securities and Exchange Commission gives the stock price as the indicator.

So you might ask what is really the difference, and why would they have another category of stocks? Really, the thing that sets penny stocks apart from other stocks is where they are sold. Most of the stocks in companies that you are familiar with are sold on large stock exchanges like the New York Stock Exchange or the NASDAQ. Think of companies like General Motors or Coca Cola and you get the idea. You might not have heard of every company on these exchanges, but they are all large enough and offer enough stock to be there. They are also governed by the SEC and are watched much more closely with respect to financial reporting and transparency.

The penny stocks themselves are not governed by the SEC, but the brokers are. There are certain things that they are expected to do and in fact required to do. Technically they are not to solicit penny stocks, but must receive an order for stock from the buyer. The broker should always provide the advice that they have given you in writing, and they are required to send you a written report every month that makes it clear what you are holding along with the current price of the stock. It is wise to do a little checking with the SEC when it comes to your broker. You don’t want to find out after the fact that they have been disciplined for breaking these rules. There is no need to learn a hard lesson this way.

These penny stocks are traded on the over-the-counter market and they are not always that easy to find. The over-the-counter market is basically for those companies that do not meet the minimum standards to be on the major exchanges. They are sold by brokers, usually who deal primarily in this market.

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Is it Safe to Trade Online?

This is a question that is almost invariably asked when someone is thinking of getting into the online trading world. For the most part it is fairly safe but there are things that you can do to make it even more so. As with any time in history, there are people out there that want to do things the easy way and get a thrill trying to take something that is not theirs.

If you have an up-to-date computer system with recent software you are one step ahead. Using a browser with 128 bit encryption makes it very difficult for hackers to get in and get the information that you are looking for. If you think of how many credit card transactions are done on the internet on a daily basis you will realize that this would not be happening if there was not a certain element of safety.

Another way of protecting yourself online is to use passwords that will not be easy to decipher. Do not use your dog’s name, or your mother’s maiden name. They might seem like they are not that easy to figure out but there are much safer combinations that you can use. First of all, using a mixture of numbers and letters increases the strength of the password. Using the same logic as the names, do not use your birthday or your address. Try using your friend’s birthday backwards followed by her middle name spelled backwards. It will be so odd that you can’t possible forget it, and nobody is going to guess that one on you.

Hackers can find your passwords in other ways as well and you need to be aware of them. There are viruses out there and trojans, some can even record the keystrokes you make and send them back through your own connection to a thief on the other end that will then have a party with your accounts. Make sure that you have up-to-date virus scan security software on your system.

Finally, watch out for things that are the traditional type of scam. The email that you get that promises penny stocks that will increase immensely in value in one week are an example. Nothing is that easy. If it was everyone would have done it already and that company would already be the size of General Motors. Be diligent and be safe, and you can enjoy the world of online trading.

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How To Purchase Online Stock

Online trading depends on same principles & skills as offline trading thus make use of them to guide your actions and thinking.

Online trading has made boom in the stock market industry. It has also made everybody to enjoy an excitement & thrill of the stock trading online by using your computer. It has also made possible to carry on trading even though you are out from the town, thus, you can have proper check over market scenario from all over the globe.
In fast & busy life of today’s, nobody has got time to visit stock brokers and firms to collect information or else to invest in the schemes. Thus, discovery of the internet has now proved to be best tool in stock trading that has given a rise to online trade stock from comfortable ambience of home and office. There is no doubt, that the stock trading online is the most suitable way of trading but some points need to be considered when being involved in it.

You must always search correctly for renowned & reputable company prior to investing in the stock market since there are many sites on internet that carry out deal in business of selling & purchasing of the stocks. You must go through reviews & testimonials of other investors who are in link and you can as well visit the bulleting boards in order to grab information about various companies.

There is one more choice of investing in big name companies who have got their own stock trade online. You must invest in companies that are on their commitments in order that your invested sum should not go in drains.

There are lots of websites that are linked to buying or selling of stock to the foreign markets whereas few are linked to foreign & domestic markets. You must decide before with which company that you would like to begin trade in order that you must not mess up with the things. Example, in case you are interested in the domestic market but your have got linked with site that only deals in the foreign market then it may create problem for you. You must always opt for a site of the stock market who are fully safe as your personal and financial information needs to be inserted on a site to start stock trade online.

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Is it a Successful Strategy for swing trading?

This can actually be one of the most successful strategies in the investment world. As with every type of trading, there are stories of people who have enjoyed unbridled success in this practice. Of course, there are also many people out there who wish to sell you their book on how they had such amazing success. You might not have to spend too much on literature to learn how to be a swing trader. You need an understanding of the markets, a good brokerage to let you trade at a reasonable price and the patience to hold onto a stock just long enough to see your profit realized. A little bit of luck never hurt either.

Trying to hit the absolute top of the price will be difficult. That may be something that is best put aside as a strategy. More important is to get close to the top. While the time frame is not as short as day trading, it is still relatively short. If you wait too long your profit might be lost. If you sell at what looks to be close to the high position, you now have made a profit and you have additional funds to put into something that is lower to the trough. You can make a lot of trades like this. Since you are not buying and selling the shares in the same day you will not be subject to the rules that govern pattern day traders.

Knowing when not to swing trade is important. It might sound odd to give up on your trading strategy but it has been shown that this is not such a good practice and works much differently in any kind of extreme market. If the market is particularly bullish or a tough bear market then the rules change and you might be better off finding a different strategy while things calm down a little bit. That can mean either moving into something closer to a buy and hold strategy, day trading or even getting right out and putting the money under the proverbial mattress until the storm is over.

Picking the best stocks to swing trade is also going to determine your success. You are looking at price fluctuations when you are engaging in swing trading so you want most other things to remain as stable as possible as you try to peg where the peaks and valleys of price changes end up. If you are trading in small cap then you might get more volatility than you bargained for. Large cap might be the better way to go. Choose correctly and see if you can get the timing right, you might just turn a nice profit on swing trading.

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The Benefits of Online Trading

Think of all the great things that we can do online now. We can shop for cars, furniture or houses. We can send flowers to someone in another country. You can do your banking and you can even find the love of your life. Now, you can also make money by trading stocks, commodities, futures or currency online.

There are so many things that make the online trading experience superior to the old methods of trading. If you are obsessed, and your accounts have you so excited (or worried) that it is keeping you up at night, you can get out of bed, log on in the middle of the night, any time of day or any day of the week and see what is going on. This can also mean that you can make trades in a different time zone, or work in a market that you could not have accessed previously. It also means that you can spend more time trading if you so desire.

What works for the trader also works for the brokerage firms. They can automate so much of what they do and trade in volumes never before possible. Once they have their infrastructure in place, they can have you clicking away at home, earning them commissions on trades. It is a win-win for everyone brought about by technological advances. With the ability to do more volume in trading, the brokers can also offer you your trades at a lower price per trade. This is especially good news for those that are interested in getting into day trading; volume is the key and with a low transaction price you are much better able to turn a profit.

On top of being able to do trades online once you get comfortable, you can also educate yourself online. Most of the software that you will be using will come with useful tutorials, popup boxes to help you out when you get stuck and sometimes even an online helpdesk function to answer your questions. Part of the joy of working online is that when you are having a problem, you can often just flip over to your browser window and find the help you need in seconds. I am forever looking up everything on the internet from how to cook a turkey to finding out what a frost plug is on a car. With the internet we have all become able to bring the world to us in a few clicks, and this includes the world of stocks and other securities.

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Friday, June 26, 2009

The World of Online Trading

The world of the internet has opened up so many possibilities for us that were not previously available. One of the areas that is talked about a lot and has become big is the world of online trading. For those of us that are a little older, we can remember when everything was done with paper and rotary telephones. Those days are not so far in the past but they are long gone in some senses.

One of the great things about online trading is that it is available to virtually anyone. If you are of legal age and have some money set aside that you can play with you can get into the game. The software and the web interfaces that are used in online trading these days are almost completely free of bugs and are fairly easy to use, even for those that are not that computer savvy.

There are plenty of advantages that this online revolution has brought about. One great thing about the online trading is that you can do it from anywhere that you can get an internet connection. With a laptop computer and a wifi connection you can sit by the poolside and make trades. Don’t get too close to that pool with the laptop however; modern technology has not brought waterproof computer hardware yet. This works out especially well for those that plan to make a living from online trading, or already are. You don’t have to locate close to a city center and pay a fortune for a postage stamp sized apartment just to get to work. You can live in a place that is much cheaper and where your dollars earned online go that much further.

Online trading also allows for a few things that the old methods didn’t. You can enter and move at your own pace. You don’t have to worry about your broker getting impatient with you when you aren’t making him or her enough money. The software doesn’t really care how often you log on or how long it takes you to click. You can allow yourself the time to become accustomed to the world of online trading nice and slow, and then when you are comfortable you can then pick up the pace and increase the frequency of your trades.

The type of trading that you choose to do online also offers a lot of choice. There are now companies that offer currency trading with their own dedicated software as well as the traditional trading in stocks. It might be a little more complicated to get into, but you can also look into trading in commodities or futures. There are many options, and you can try one at a time and then build on your repertoire.

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The Different Methods of Day Trading

There are almost as many different methods used by day trader as there are day traders out there. Some are effective, some are not. It would not be true to say that any one method is the right one and will provide big profits for everyone who tries it. Two different traders may use the same method, but applied to different securities they may have drastically different results.

Contrarian and trend following methods are pretty much the exact opposite to one another. Here is a good example of how the same method can have different effects for different investors, or completely opposite methods can both provide profit for the investor. For the contrarian, the belief is that if the price of the stock has previously been rising, then it will tend to fall. If the stock price has been on the rise, it will then be more likely to drop. The trend follower on the other hand believes that the direction of the stock price will continue whichever way it is heading.

Spread trading is the practice of taking advantage of the difference between the buying price and asking price of a stock. It is more commonly referred to as Scalping. It is not completely unrelated to the guy selling tickets outside the concert; he takes advantage of different purchase price and selling price and makes a profit. The day trader does this in a much shorter time frame but the concept is still the same. There is less risk involved in this method, but of course not as much room for large gains.

Range trading can also be effective for some day traders. It follows the assumption that the stocks of a particular company will trade within certain range, with a price ceiling and a price basement. If the price ceiling is reached, the trader will sell, and if the basement is reached, it is time to buy. This is the buy low, sell high notion. It is easier said than done, as this is what all investors would like to do.

Some keep it simple and try to play the news. They watch for information in the media or tips from industry insiders that might give them some insight into whether or not a companies stock is likely to rise or fall in price in the near future. If a company is on the verge of announcing disappointing financial reports, this would be a good time to dump the stock and either lock in the profit that has already been made or to minimize the loss on that particular trade. This would be the most common practice among day traders. Most traders will use more than one strategy in unison or at different times depending on market conditions.

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