Fear and Greed is the real thing you need to learn about investing. And everyone loses money while they learn it. Stay in the game and good luck!

This got me seriously thinking, so I finished opening my account and transferred $5000. At first I found it very nerve racking when stocks would move. I would get excstatic when they moved up, and so down when they took a dip.

I then read an online book which taught me to curb my “fear and greed”. This was another vital lesson. Definately critical. I started to stop my losses and capture my gains following the carts (although I have tweaked the level where I buy- for MACD instead of buying when it crosses the line, i buy when it moves a step in a different direction). I use http://www.stockcharts.com (it’s free!) to analyse for MACD and the other indicators. I have learned to be happy with my small gains.

To do this, you must have a discount broker that chages minimal amounts for trades.

Since learning how to conquer fear and greed, I have made 12% in 2 months. We will see how it goes… so far I’m happy.

Thanks.

D

The secret is risk management. Yes, boring, I know. But that is the one skill that will prevent you from losing money.

I use it all the time.

Hope that helps.

I also wanted to point out that there are 2 very different types of investors. Long-term position investors, like Buffet, or Phil Town — and shorter-term traders.

What I like about shorter-term is that you have stop-losses in place to protect your capital.

With a longer term view, you can start seeing a stock go down, and then lose faith – start to question yourself and sell. I hate being stuck in a position I can’t really get out of.

But it totally depends on your personality. Make sure you trade in line with your personality.

And you are right that Phil Town gets a hefty fee. He himself discloses that he gets $10,000 and up for Investools seminars. Nice work if you can get it.

Anyway, you’ve given us something to work from. I’ll check out the Alexander Elders books and hope to see some light.

And I’m sure he gets a hefty commission from Investools.

But stock investing is definitely not as easy as a couple of calculations. There are many ways to look at valuation, but I don’t think it’s realistic to think you should be calculating these figures manually and expect to uncover a hidden gem that Wall St. has not capitalized on.

I have found Alexander Elders books extremely helpful – especially “Come Into My Trading Room”

But I guess the point is, there is no magic bullet. Phil’s book is not it – although I found it very helpful as my introduction to the stock market.