| When you invest in the stock market, you need to | | | | other market information centers. Short term investors |
| make a plan, a stock market lesson plan, in order to | | | | use their own powers of investigation to hunt down a |
| achieve your success. Before you put your hard | | | | stock and track the movement, or short cut it with the |
| earned cash on the line, learn as much as possible to | | | | use of a service that make recommendations on |
| protect it when you invest. | | | | stocks to purchase. |
| Stock market lesson plans | | | | 4. Evaluate your stocks and decide ahead of time |
| 1. Learn about the market. | | | | when to bail. |
| Watch how the market functions. Many times the | | | | Particularly short term investors need to add this to |
| stock that you spent time and effort to study the | | | | their stock market lesson plan. Frequently the thrill of |
| financials, learn about the management team, checked | | | | making money seduces a short term investor into |
| the analysts opinion, studied the sector and the effect | | | | holding the stock beyond the peak and they lose all the |
| that the economy has on the product or service and | | | | profit. Knowing when to hold 'em and when to "sold |
| watched the financial profile tanks when it was | | | | 'em" is important. |
| supposed to go rise. This just gives you more | | | | 5. Focus on one market. |
| knowledge. The lesson learned on this, is that the | | | | It's impossible to follow all the stocks and maintain |
| market is not real, it's what people perceive to be real. | | | | sanity. Focus on one sector, size or selection method |
| Often stocks rise and fall on rumor and the fickle | | | | when you first begin. Long term investors understand |
| nature of the stock purchaser. It is a supply and | | | | that portfolios are built on sound diversification, but |
| demand market that, while it tends to have cycles, still | | | | when they first begin investing, it's impossible to learn |
| is subject to the media and the opinion of investors. | | | | everything about each stock on the market, so they |
| 2. Decide whether you are a short or long term | | | | focus on one area, buy a stock and study for the next |
| investor. | | | | purchase. Short term investors don't have the luxury |
| No stock market lesson plan would be complete | | | | of time, but they also don't need a balanced portfolio |
| without including the type of investor you wish to be. | | | | for their style of investing. They focus on one sector |
| Short term investors make their decisions based on | | | | and follow the stocks in that area. Frequently they |
| the movement of the stock and daily price change. | | | | narrow the selection process by using size as a factor. |
| Long term investors purchase for the growth potential | | | | Remember the smaller the stock the more volatile. It |
| of the company. | | | | only makes sense that a movement of ten cents |
| 3. Use the appropriate tools for the type of investor | | | | doesn't effect Microsoft as much as it does a stock |
| you are. | | | | that costs thirteen cents. The good news is micro-cap |
| Long term investors use company and product | | | | or penny stocks don't involve a lot of money for |
| information found on the company website and | | | | investing and if the increase is ten cents, it returns a |
| investigate the potential for growth. Their tools are | | | | nice profit in a short period. Sometimes the use of a |
| "Baron's", "Dow Jones Online Financial News" and | | | | stock picking service aids them in gaining that profit. |