How to learn investing or how to learn trading is a mystery to most beginning investors and traders. While the principles of investing and trading are simple, they are not easy to follow, and most investors and traders lose money! But, there is a way to make it easy to win and harder to lose … and, even automatic!
If you would like to learn how to invest in the stock market safely and profitably, the discussion below on How to learn investing and trading is meant to help you get started in the right direction – but, only you can ‘walk the walk’! It does not matter whether you live in Australia, India, United Kingdom or North America – the principles of technical analysis and market psychology are the same worldwide. If you are serious about achieving financial freedom and securing your family’s future, the following steps can help you get started with stock investing and options trading.
It does not matter if you have a little money or a lot right now, if you complete the three steps listed below, you will set yourself on the path to financial freedom – to be as rich as you wish!
To inspire you to start NOW, here is a secret from best-selling author David Allen (who is recognized by many as one of the world’s leading experts on personal productivity) – ‘If a task can be completed in less than 2 minutes, do it immediately’.
The following 3 ‘next steps’ should take less than 2 minutes altogether, and will get you started on the road to stock investing and options trading, and achieving your financial goals.
- Take 15 seconds to sign up for Market Club’s FREE* no-obligation Trading Boot Camp with 10 easy-to-understand lessons that cover the basics of market psychology and technical analysis.
- Take another 15 seconds and think of a friend or friends you’d like to share the ‘Investing’ journey with. Friends can help encourage and support each other until you both realize your dreams.
- Take 30 to 60 seconds to call or email your friend(s) NOW to tell him/her about your plan to learn about investing and trading, and ask them to join you on what can be the most exciting and rewarding journey you will both take. Set a date and time when you will sit and discuss how to plan your ‘How to learn investing and trading‘ journey. Start by reading more of the ‘secrets’ described on this website, and share the site with your friends.
HOW TO LEARN INVESTING AND TRADING
Congratulations! By deciding to learn investing and trading, you have taken a very important step towards ‘taking charge of your life’, and working towards achieving financial freedom. After reading ‘How to learn Investing and Trading‘, you will have an ‘easy to follow’ guide to help you achieve your goal. Before you can ‘start making money’, you need to be prepared for the stock market. Just as you wouldn’t expect to be successful at just about anything without proper training, you cannot expect to be successful at investing and trading without learning ‘how to invest’ or ‘how to trade’. Just as important is knowing ‘How to learn investing and trading’, as not all paths will lead to success.
Often the most difficult aspect about any endeavor is just getting started – ‘how to begin’ and ‘where to begin’ are two common questions every beginner asks. We sometimes get overwhelmed by too much information, and ‘give up’ even before we get started. ‘How to learn Investing and Trading’ solves that dilemma.
Here are 3 action items to get you going.
1. RECOGNIZE THE POWER OF COMPOUNDING AND PUT IT TO WORK
Hailed as one of the greatest discoveries of modern times, the concept of compounding interest is one of the most important principles to understand as it will simplify greatly the task of ‘making money’ by making your money make money for you. Those of you who are young (especially teenagers and folks in their early twenties) should not lose the great TIME advantage you have by starting early – by starting NOW, you can take advantage of the Power of Compounding to leverage your investments. Those of you who are ‘older’ should teach younger folks ‘How to learn investing’ early, and capitalize on their greatest asset – TIME. To use a gardening analogy, if you plant an acorn and care for it well, with time it will grow into a great oak tree. If you wait until your later years to ‘plant your acorn’, you will have fewer years for it to grow, no matter how much you water it, you will not be able to match a tree that started growing earlier. To learn more about the awesome power of compounding (with mathematical proof), read ‘Power of Compounding’. It is extremely important not to delay in starting to learn investing and trading – resolve to do something TODAY (even if it is only reading more on this website), and commit to doing something everyday – even if it is a just a ‘little’ – it could be reading a few pages of a book, checking out an investing website, talking to a friend about something you’ve read, emailing your thoughts or ‘tips’ to one of your group – do something everyday. Remember, the earlier you start investing, the more you will have with less effort because you are putting the power of compounding on your side.
2. BEFORE INVESTING IN THE STOCK MARKET, INVEST IN YOURSELF
Often folks new to the stock market are keen to invest their money and see it grow, and will put their money in investments recommended by friends, colleagues at work, or an advisor they hear of on the television without truly understanding the fundamentals of investing – this is a mistake! Unless you are knowledgeable in the finer nuances of how the stock market works (‘the stock market game’) and How to Trade, you will inevitably lose your money in the stock market, become discouraged, think that the system is ‘rigged’, and give up on investing and trading. Most folks who ‘give up on the stock market’ when they are young do so because no one taught them how to learn investing and trading the right way. Often, they return to the stock market when they are older and more mature – unfortunately, they will have lost the great time advantage they had when they were younger. To prevent such discouraging experiences, invest in yourself first by spending the time to learn the Secrets of Successful Investors & Traders. Contrary to popular belief, you don’t need to be able to ‘pick the right stock’ to ‘win in the stock market’. The real secrets of winning ‘the stock market game’ are proper money management (asset allocation) and risk minimization – these are the real keys to success in the stock market. To learn more about these secrets (with the mathematics to prove the concepts for those who insist on hard numbers), read ‘The Stock Market Game’. See Investing and Trading resources for a list of good books and websites that can help you on your adventure of learning investing and trading. Some books you may be able to borrow in your local library and some web resources are free; however, others you may have to pay for. Start with the free stuff before you choose to pay for your education. Unfortunately, most books and websites don’t teach you how to learn investing, they just teach you about investing and trading. ‘How to Learn Investing and Trading‘ seeks to solve that problem by showing you how to learn investing easily, as quickly as possible, and have fun doing so.
If you have money to invest, you should consider opening a brokerage account – not to invest, but to avail yourself of the many educational resources that brokerages have for their own customers to learn how to invest and trade better. For example, OptionsXpress clients have access to a wealth of information in the form of How-to guides, videos and archived webinars, a virtual trading platform with real-time quotes, as well as free workshops and seminars. They will actually allow you to open an account and DO NOT require a minimum deposit before granting you access to the educational materials (see link below). You will however have to deposit money in the account to be able to invest any money. Besides, money placed in a money market will earn interest (while not much in the current era, most likely more than that earned in a bank).
3. BEGIN AN INVESTING AND TRADING GROUP
One of the best ways to increase your likelihood of success in learning investing and trading is to do it together with a group of friends. As you may have experienced with other activities, learning is always more fun when done in a group. Similarly, learning investing and trading can be both exciting and fun IF you have a group of like-minded friends who share your interests and want to achieve financial freedom at a young age. Having a group will allow you to discuss what you have learned, share ideas and challenge each other’s thinking. You could start your discussion with sending them this link for this site (‘How to Learn Investing and Trading‘) to get them interested and allow them to understand why you want to start a group. Amongst things you might consider sharing are books you’ve read, websites you’ve visited, investing strategies you are testing, etc. For a list of books and websites, see Investing and Trading Resources. For those who are more interested in trading, you can share ‘hot tips’, discuss news events that might cause stocks to move, debate option trading strategies to capitalize on market movers, etc. For more about trading systems and methods, see Trading Secrets and The Stock Market Game. Ideally, once you create your group, you will want to meet at a given location regularly (every two weeks or once a month) – this could be at one of your homes or even a coffee shop. If you cannot meet in person often, in this day and age, with social networks like email, Facebook and Twitter, it is very easy to communicate (email /tweet) even if you all have very busy lives. Here’s a philosophical thought for you to consider about beginning an investing group – when you grow really rich, wouldn’t you want to enjoy life with the people you care about most? Wouldn’t it be nice for them to have as much money, and have had the same experiences (fun) acquiring it?
Next Steps
If you haven’t done the 3 steps above, do yourself a favor and find and read David Allen’s book Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity; it contains simple practical advice which will change your life forever, and help you achieve your goals, financial or otherwise.
If you did take the above three steps right now, you are likely an action-oriented person who will enjoy David’s no-nonsense book. You have also now set into motion a force that can propel you to success in stock investing and options trading. In addition to the FREE trading course, commit to viewing the FREE daily educational videos to understand how the market functions. At your first meeting, take time to share your dreams and goals, review what you’ve learned or pick one or more of the Investing and Trading Resources to review prior to your next meeting, and set a date & time for the next meeting. At subsequent meetings, review what you have learned, discuss what you do not understand, and share your investing successes (or failures). Inevitably, in time, you will be well on your way to financial freedom. You’ve got an exciting journey ahead of you, and it might sometimes seem challenging … but, just remember that many have trod the path you venture on and have succeeded.
Good luck!
JonLuc
*Savvy readers will probably be asking “Where’s the catch? Nothing in life is free” – the truth is that Market Club does hope that once you have seen what they can offer, you will sign up for a paid subscription. However, as mentioned in How To Trade, the right trading system is the one that works for you, and only you can decide whether it is the one for you; but, the FREE lessons and FREE videos are indeed free.
