I’ve been trading stocks for many years and to some extent, I still don’t know how to read the stock market. The overall market is just something to use as a benchmark in our economy. I’ve had days where I’ve made some big gains in one trading day, but the stock market was either flat or it lost some value.

If you’re one of the season traders, you’re most likely thinking that I was shorting the market, but that’s not the case. I invest in the stocks to go up in value, not decrease. Shorting a stock is one of the many stock market strategies that investor use to increase their profits, but as an average investor or beginner, it is not an easy strategy for you to use. Of course when the stock market has made some large gains in a short period of time, one might want to look at the Proshares Ultra-Shorts. The reason for that is because these stocks actually go up in value when the related industry, sector or indicies takes a dive.

I don’t recommend any beginner to try trading stocks in this manner. Instead learn as much as you can in regards to buying stocks to go up in value. Later on you can learn about shorting stocks. When you learn how to trade stocks and to get a feel for the market, then look into trading stocks on the long side (to go up in value) and short side (to go down in value) to increase you profits.

Learning how to read the stock market is something that takes a lot of time to be able to successful doing, but there is so much more you can learn about in the mean time. Study the companies you’re looking to invest in. Reading their balance sheets, listening to their conference calls and read their quarterly reports. That is what it’s going to take to make profit when buying and selling stocks on wall street.

Simply put, a stock is a share of ownership in a large (or medium sized) company. If you own a piece of a company you are considered one of the “shareholders” and receive a certain amount of money for your investment. To define the notion even further, a person that owns stock in a company, owns a piece of that company. The more stock you own, the more pieces of the business you own, and the more dividends of profit are shared with you. At the same time, losses can also effect that ownership and in some cases can even eliminate the ownership.

Buying and trading stocks is the core business transaction of the stock market. As an individual you can directly trade with others that have shares in companies, or you can use a middle man (stock broker) to help you trade. There are many different paths to travel down in regards to exchanging money on a regular basis, and it can be quite stressful to do it on your own, which is why most often, people utilize brokers to do the trading for them.

There are no sure things in regards to investing in the stock market. While there are ways to earn a lot of money with a small investment, there are a lot of ways to lose money and in some cases never see a return on your preliminary investments. With that in mind, it should be noted that it’s not recommended for amateurs or novices to invest without help. It’s also recommended that people looking to invest in this type of industry, should have a good amount of disposable income. By utilizing disposable income, rather than using savings, or other funds, a loss can have less of a negative impact. While it is never fun to lose money, losing disposable income is a lot better than losing financial nest eggs or funds relegated for something else.

Complications arise with buying and trading stocks on a regular basis. There is a huge industry dedicated to analyzing, talking about, and reviewing news regarding directly to stocks. The Wall Street Journal, for example, is a newspaper that is dedicated to talking about and displaying stock analysis and business speech. Becoming an expert trader is tough, and can take years of study, and is not something that everyone can do successfully.

Buying and trading stocks is one of many ways to make large amounts of money, if utilized correctly. However, it comes with great risks, especially when there is so much speculation going on. Whether the country is in a recession, or a time of great success, looking at the stock market with dollar signs in one’s eyes, should never truly be done. Always pursue more knowledge of trading in order to make educated investing decisions, by reading the latest stock investing tips. Never assume you know enough, or are an expert, unless you truly are. Weigh the risks involved with buying and trading stocks, and consider whether it’s the right thing for you in regards to your short term and long-term investments.

According to the government and Wall Street, the economy is recovering, but is that really possible with all the information that coming out lately? We hear about unemployment, foreclosures, nationalized services and so much more that are not doing so well.

The stock market will have one hell of a week ahead with a barrage of earning reports coming out this week. as well as some economic reports. I expect the markets to go up this entire week, the reason is that the forecasts for this quarter were kept low along with many analysts playing it safe by going with a company’s forecast. When forecasts are kept low and the company reports better-than-expected, the stock price will rise. 2010 has been expected to have a 3% economic growth for the year and at the current pace, we’ve already exceeded that number.

With that in mind, I look forward to good things to come this week in the stock markets. I also know enough to know that it won’t last. The markets have moved up too much over the last year without any real evidence of a recovery. Too many companies are at their 52 week-high, which means that there might be very little gains left to be made, if any at all. The “smart money” is already in the markets and are getting ready to bail out. Don’t be one of the “average Joes” that try to chase a stock, only to take the plunge as everyone else has made the big gains and are getting out. Look for a pull-back in the major indicies before getting in. I consider a 6-9% pull-back to be healthy and the right time to start building a position in companies that you’ve been keeping an eye on.

The real move downward will be in the summer months when I expect to see the real estate have three negative reports in a row. The good numbers that we are seeing currently is because of the first-time home buyers credit from the government will end at the end of April. Once investors see that the sales were only good because of the tax credit along with the steady unemployment rate, Wall Street will see that the Emperor has no clothes on.

Understanding the stock market isn’t hard, but it does take time. There are too many variables to actually get it right all the time, but if you look at those variables and other stock investing tips promoted here, it will help you get it right most of the time.

DO’s

1. Do your homework on each company that you want to invest in. You need to make sure that you reduce your risk with your investment.

2. Make sure that you leave your emotions at the door. You don’t want to make decisions with your heart. You will be a better trader when you can do this.

3. Have an exit strategy in place before you but into any company. Make sure that you have a limit stop in place to reduce the amount of your loss.

4. Make sure that you try to expand you knowledge in the area of stock trading, as well as learning different aspects of the stock market. There’s a lot more than just stocks involved in Wall street.

5. listen to different shows and news broadcast that involve the markets. I like CNBC, they cover the markets like no one else.

DON’Ts

6. Don’t take tips from people who say that they have some great information on a particular company. Insider trading is illegal and if they had information on a stock they wouldn’t be sharing it with you.

7. When a stock has just jumped up in one day, don’t think that that stock is going to do the same the next. A lot of times it will come back down from other investor who are taking their profits from the day before.

8. Don’t buy your total position at once. Ideally you would buy your stocks in increments so if the stock price drops you can purchase more to help lower your cost basis.

9. Don’t think that a bull and a bear market are the same. A bear market is more volatile and can fool people into thinking that it’s a bull market.

10. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. What I mean by that is that you need to diversify you portfolio in several sectors. If you put all your money in the energy sector and the price of oil comes down, your portfolio will suffer on every position.