Tons of people I know are dropping money in the stock market these days and have no idea why they are losing. Well in the very short term it's been hard to make money with the markets the way they have been, but I hope people don't let that get them down. The stock market is the thing that drives our world. I've been investing since I was 18 years young (over 35 years ago) and these days it's simpler then ever to earn a profit in the markets.

Do I know some big secret? No, of course not. If there was a solution where you never lot money then I wouldn't be telling you ha ha. Can I tell you how to earn money more easily and consistently? Well there defiantly is a way. That's what I'm going to write about now. Something that can help every investor our, regardless of their skill level is stock investing software. I remember the old days when I had to sit down for hours on end (as did other agents at my firm) and do calculations every day. I disliked it. Going through the stock market entirely was imposable for one person, heck, it was hard for hundreds of us. It was hard, boring work and I'm glad that it's not something we have to do in today's world.

Since the advent of stock trading software like tradeoptimizer all you need to do is look up the stock you are interested in and you can find out basically any technical information you want. Some software will scan the whole market for you and tell you what stocks fit your criteria. This saves people literally hundreds of thousands of hours yearly. I can't even fathom the number of hours I would have banked over my lifetime with a calculator on my desk figuring out how much earnings ratios had changed.

online trading can expose market conditions and history for anybody who is paying attention.

It takes a little research, but snap shots of market history and conditions are available.

Probably the most important thing is to recognize the different bubbles that come along. This is where the strength of on-line stock trading and options trading can be front and center. So much data is within our grasps. There is no reason to float up in any bubbles up higher than you want to go. Acting as online stock brokers or online brokers, the data is all at our fingertips.

In the 1990’s, we had the technology stocks bubble. There was to be no end to the rise in technology stocks.

The internet had reached a critical mass of sorts, though it was (and is) still evolving; yet, like the rise of past communication systems — telephone and ra-dio– there was a great run up in the stock of many companies that really had no viable business plan.
IPOs were made on the basis of guarantees that held no more heft than a cool breeze in the tropics. Venture capitalists emptied their pockets into the piggy banks of kids still in college that started companies with names that sounded like a baby talk, such as “Google”.

A few obviously made it, Google being the shining example. Most startups of the time didn’t. Even some older companies that had a firm history in technology left their straight and narrow and tried to innovate way beyond their curve, most with disastrous results.

Then September 11 interrupted the markets and threatened to send the country and the markets into a tailspin. Interest rates were lowered and even though many had lost millions and billions in the tech stock bubble, the easy and now cheap money was pouring into a so-called bedrock investment: real estate.

There have always been bubbles and crazes. Just ask the Dutch, who saw tulips trade for more than gems centuries ago. The insanity of the crowds not wanting to be left out creates a “me too” type of thinking. All the lemmings buy.

Real estate has always had a speculative side. Levittown, NY, the first mass market tract housing suburb, was built mainly on speculation. However, it was not pie- in- sky, as a number of factors such as better roads, returning World War II service men and the longing to leave the inner cities came together in the right factors to make the smart money spend a little there.

Today’s issues in real estate have been intensified by government distortions in the lending standards and free and easy money. These two tines of the pitch fork have been added to a third prong of packaging up this devil’s brew of promises and selling them across the world.

All is well and good when the bubble is floating upward; a real stab to the heart when the bubble starts to lose elevation.

It was quite a ride up yesterday.

Never in my time doing online stock trading and options trading has there been anything like it. Of course, it was a record increase, so it’s all history.

It is really a matter of confidence. If most of us believe that the markets have been stabilized, then stocks will continue to perform to the plus side. If not, then this will only be a temporary rise. The panic has not reached the retail level yet, but last week it was close. Perhaps last week was the bottom.

Now, for anybody involved in online stock trading, including individuals as well as online stock brokers, there is the question of what stocks and opportunities are out there. Some businesses have suffered real losses, and even if the stock market indices race upward, there is no guarantee that the businesses that have lost so much capital can recover and prosper.

I pulled out my research from last week and looked through it. I had looked into a number of market sectors, with the idea that sooner or later a bottom would be reached, and that there were solid investments to make.

I looked again at the financial sector. Now that the US government is going to be buying stocks in large banks, some of those might prove interesting. My focus, however, will be on those banks that were never in any jeopardy of folding, because they had not been involved in making or holding any sub prime paper. There are a few of those.

This kind of makes for a strange situation. Should I buy into the well managed banks, which were never in trouble, and most likely won’t be in trouble. Or do I buy into the larger banks that will be partially owned by the government? Will the “government” banks actually be unfair competition to the ones left in the free market? That could be. And if so, their stock prices will remain depressed.

It was quite a ride up for the markets, and it will probably go up again today. I just wonder how long the upside will be sustained, given that a plan of some sort has to ultimately show results. I guess there is that window where the confidence will remain high due to a grace period, but if it becomes clear that confidence is still low, things will begin to sell off again.

Only time will tell on this. We are in completely uncharted territory. Some fortunes have already been made, and more will be made. It’s just going to take paying attention to a lot of detail.

We have a small club that meets to discuss stock trading and options trading. It’s not an official club of any type; it’s just a couple of us meet for breakfast very early twice per month on a Saturday.

We’ve had a lot to talk about, lately.

The subject of short selling has been hot recently. Some — like me– argue that it’s necessary to have short sellers in order to keep some stocks liquid and to eventually determine a bottom.

Some of our club disagrees, arguing that there is a conspiracy to drive down the price of certain stocks and then make a killing on what you know is going to be a lower position. I can believe this, too.

But, I’m not sure you can regulate such a thing.

At this point, I don’t know if anybody is certain what is going on.

Even in this age where I can keep track of my portfolio with a click of a mouse, I’m still confused. Maybe uncertain is a better term. Online stock trading has made my life easier, at least, in the respect that I can execute the trades I feel and think I have to make much more easily than ten and fifteen years ago.

The club met last Saturday and talked about the bailout — or “rescue plan” for some time. Most of us are convinced that it is neither. The banks and all purchasers of derivatives have not been saved by any means, and those who have gotten into homes with sub prime mortgages and interest only loans are still faced with the same risk.
On the way to the meeting I counted the number of “see through” houses (empty houses), and I saw way too many.

I’m cautiously optimistic that the action by Congress may stabilize the US markets for a short time, but going forward is unpredict-able, as we are in a global economy, and nobody can trace all the bad paper.

Most of the others in the group believe the same thing, that the only thing certain is uncertainty.

We paid our bills and then left.

When I first started online trading, my favorite things to buy and sell were transportation companies. Many sectors of the market had been deregulated for about a decade, and the real win-ners and losers were starting to be decided.

At that time I was working in the transportation industry, and was keeping on top of all the changes, because I had to for work. This, I felt, gave me an advantage on any stock broker, online stock trading or online trading.

I divided the sectors.

There was surface transportation, air transportation and sea transport.

All three had their troubles at the time, especially surface. There were a number of the old line surface hauling companies that were suffering. They were up against stiff pricing competition from upstarts, which didn’t have the same costly overhead to deal with. These upstarts, in-itially, were eating the established trucking companys’ lunch. In fact, they were eating the breakfast, lunch and the dinner.

Ultimately, the industry consolidated, and put pressure on the upstarts and through pricing and good infrastructure, managed to get rid of many serious challenges. Once the industry consolidated, it made choosing winners and losers much easier.

Even those companies are cyclical; they still represented respectable buys, especially at the low point of the cycles. The survi-vors would and could weather the storm and will be around even during the bad times.

Rail transport, as a sub sector of transportation, had already undergone major consoli-dations, so it was just a matter of looking very closely at the ba-sics, such as Price/Earnings ratio and Cash Flow Analysis. Once the technology bubble dust settled and the housing bubble commenced, it was easy to see that rail transport would be a winner, as materials for the building had to be moved, and rail is still one of the most economical ways to do it.

Air transportation was trickier to pick winners and losers, especially after September 11.

I made one bad choice, where the carrier went kaput, and I lost all on it. The second choice was much better, as it was a budget carrier and had been long established. Plus, the carrier hedged its fuel options and negated the rising cost of jet fuel as a factor in over all costs.

Sea or Ocean transport is very much a global industry. There are a number of very big players and market leaders, and once again it was a matter of just examining the fundamentals and looking at where the areas were for growth.

Day trading is a practice as old as the markets, but what it really means is that stocks and commodities are being bought and sold in the span of one day. This is the complete opposite to after-hours trading or late trading, when exchanges happen after the trading floor closes for the day. Brokers are then classified sometimes as to the time they begin dealing like day traders, after-hour traders and late traders. To get financial info you should look at telechart platinum.

As a rule, the trading process and methods can be the same, regardless of what time the traders move into action. However, there are certain assets and securities that are being exchanged only during the trading day, such as: currencies, stocks and stock options. There is also a market for many of futures contracts like: commodities, equities, and interest rate futures. I like to get my information from telechart 2007.

There was a time when day trading became the exclusive playing field of financial institutions (i.e. and major pro investors. Other investors who did not meet a certain financial criteria was somewhat relegated to after-hours trading, although this was not a formal option. More recently though, an increasing number of casual traders have entered the market.

There are really a couple of reasons for such major changes. One: technological evolutions (like the World Wide Web) are paving the way for speedier communication and financial transactions. If you consider the online forex trading, lots of people are basically dealing with internet money - although it can be changed into cash at any time really. Finally if you want a second opinion look into telechart.

Plus, casual traders can trade stocks in the investment markets - in all the financial markets, all the time, no matter where the are - even worldwide. When you see that one small investor, then you should think what all the worlds big banks and financial institutions can do that are following day trading profits.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_FH7MF9gKg

Second: more recent and easier legislation, locally and world wide, have made it easier for lots of investors who don't meet the level of financial criteria otherwise. That means that anyone who wants to, has a computer and internet access, and has a little money to spare (a small a start as $100 will do) can start trading on the net.

In regards to casual and novice day traders over the World Wide Web, the best selling technique so far is short-term trading. As the name suggests, this technique means buying stocks for a very short period of time and then selling it immediately. Following that logic it means that the return on investment can be achieved very fast in a short span of time. Depending on what stocks you're talking about, that technique can be executed in just a short time or as long as a couple of months.

Long-term trading is also prevalent during the day trading hours, but usually, it is the larger financial institutions who handle such affairs. A good example of this is dealing with mutual funds. Assets in the mutual funds can be held by the stock holder for years on end, and some even pass from one generation to the other. The stock holder earns his or her keep by simply letting the stocks grow and partake of the dividends either on an annual, semi-annual or even monthly span.

We had our initial meeting of our online stock trading group. It was a diverse crowd, with men and women of all ages. Our knowledge was all over the board, too. Some of us had been trading for years, and some had never even had a brokerage account.

Jim was the organizer of the group, but was not going to necessarily be the leader. That task went to Sarah and John.

Sarah was a new trader, and John had been at it for many years. He referred to himself as a dinosaur and not very good on the computer but getting better. Sarah was all gung-ho and had recently opened accounts with a couple of brokers.

She thought that this was the best time to buy, but was exercising caution because of the instability of the market. One day it was up and one day down.

Sarah had copied some information from a government web site, which outlined some cautions to take for anybody considering online stock trading and trading options online.

Essentially, the site reminded traders that they are not directly linked to the market, and that when you click to buy or sell, you may not be doing so in real time.
Also, to go along with that, we should make sure that the quotes and account updates are in real time, too. If not, how long is the delay?

Some other things to do are to research the firm for strength on a number of different levels: financial and operational. You don’t want to get involved with a brokerage that can’t prove its financial status, and you don’t want to be working with a company whose web site and computer operations are not state of the art, or are shutting down.

We decided to have a selection of “officers”, so somebody could take charge. Sarah was elected president, and John was to be the vice president. I offered to be the secretary and keep the minutes of the meetings. I thought this would help me to pay attention.

The meetings were to be every other Saturday morning at 6:30-am, at least while the markets were so erratic.

These are the best and the worst of times for any investor. It depends on how you call it. Fortunes can be made or lost. Online stock trading means a lot more now than it did even two years ago, but only if you are serious.

Online stock trading and options and all its assets can mean survival of your portfolio or can mean tremendous gains. You have to use the tools at your fingertips.

First, like an online stock broker, you need an understanding of the market conditions.

I don’t think there is a person alive today who can tell you how this will all play out. These are most bizarre times.

Banks and financial institutions all across the world are struggling. Not all, of course. But enough where the grease of the modern financial and business sectors — credit– is not being applied freely enough. The parts are starting to grate against each other, creating –not heat, in this situation– a chill.

A big chill.

Unlike the first part of the 20 Century, where many business were smaller and funded their growth through their own revenue, we in the 21 Century have come to rely on credit as the means for not only starting the concern but for stoking the engines of expansion.

With credit at a premium, only the strong are surviving. Few are thriving.

Some of the strong are the national governments and their central banks, but even those face troubles. Iceland, for instance, is in a national crisis right now, with a run on its currency.

There are those who argue that markets should be pure, and those businesses and companies and banks that made poor choices should be allowed to fail.

Others will argue that some institutions are too big to fail.

Both arguments have merit.

Ultimately, the choices made now are going to effect online stock trading and investing for some time to come.

Still, can anybody really afford to take a “let’s wait and see” approach and bury their assets under the metaphoric mattress of treasury bills or bonds? Or even in gold bullion or stocks?

Not if they want any standard of living in the future. A huge baby boom demographic is nearing an age where they thought they might be sitting on the beach somewhere in a third home. Undoubtedly, this will not be the case for most of those dreamers.

But if they work at it and are intelligent, they can leverage their portfo-lio for the best.

The time to buy is when blood is running in the streets. For online stock trading, this is new territory. The blood is not yet running, but there is plenty of hemorrhaging from many houses or nations across the globe.

I’ve been up in the wee hours to watch the Asian markets, then the European markets. I can’t sleep anyhow, so I might as well try to do something. Yet, when I come upon what looks like a buy, I’m held back, because the action or inaction of the European Union or its individual nations, gives me great pause to reconsider.

Stop and think that they have an even lesser handle on this international rolling crisis. The European Union is supposed to act in concert, but has yet been able to do so. I try to read the reaction to different events on the online stock trading site, but often nobody has anything unique to say.
This is causing the dollar to rise. Despite the troubles here, the United States is still being regarded as a safe haven. Amazing!

Even the Pope has weighed in. He has advised that the world’s economy is built on “sand”. Sitting where I sit, I wonder if it’s even built on that solid a base.

Tomorrow, being my own online broker, I’m going to check all the consumer stocks in all the sectors, from drugs to food staples.
I’ll look for value, and see which ones might have the strongest brands. Caution is needed, though, because sometimes these are not always the best buys.

A number of them, like Home Depot, face a fickle and squeezed consumer, but also face stiffer competition from the places like Lowes.

Still, if oil continues to fall, it should bode better for consumer stocks as a whole. It might be worth looking into a mutual fund or an ETF, but after it’s all thought out and looked at, I’m still looking fondly at cash. But cash will yield practically no return and, with inflation, actually lose me money.

The blood is not yet running in the streets, but I want to be prepared when it is.

With the markets riding up and down like an out of control roller coaster, online stock trading is the one place to assess what you’ve got and the alternatives to sectors that are getting pummeled.

The problem is, it’s hard to find a sector that’s doing well. In fact, there is not one sector that is trading and trending up.

Before online stock trading and trading options online, when you had to either phone your broker or go in and do business, you had a much slower reaction time. At least as a retail stock customer. The big players, of course, had access to the market in real time, and were able to execute trades immediately in most cases.

In 1987, when the market took a nose dive, I didn’t have immediate access to my broker. At that time I couldn’t call out at work, so I lost a lot that day. Fortunately, the market recovered in a short period of time and I was more than made whole. Probably, if the world had had access to electronic trading, it would have been different to the downside for awhile.

Now I can at least observe my individual holdings, and even though they have ridden up and down, at least I can see what is going on, and can execute trades when I want.

Still, some of the long-established havens during harder economic times are not exactly doing great. The consumer stocks, the companies that make up the staples of life, they are down as well. Most of these businesses produce items that are not considered luxuries, so I am going to be making a bet soon that they will attract some serious money.

Most of Europe right now is in a panic, with the central banks not knowing what to do with the bad paper that has polluted a lot of financial institutions. The European Union can’t agree on one course of action, so indi-vidual countries, such as Ireland and Germany, are acting on their own to protect their economies.

This has driven the dollar up against the Euro. Eventually that money will have to find its way into something that produces better yields than a treasury instrument. I’m betting some of those foreign investors will find consumer stocks here.