Three Myths of Stock Trading

By W. Alan Gay

I've been a Stock Trader for over 15 years, and know the business inside and out. I didn't start at a fancy brokerage firm with sophisticated training courses. Instead, I made my success my own way, failing here, tweaking there, using seminars and self taught classes to learn what I needed as I went.

While this method may have taken me longer to succeed, I have accumulated a lot more real world knowledge about stock trading than a lot of those brokerage house taught investment advisors who only know what they learned from their boss. For instance, I have learned over the years that there are misunderstandings that constantly recur when talking about stock trading. Here are three of them:

First, is the myth that only certain types of people make successful stock traders. True, those folks who can analyze stock trends and pick the big winners are typically left brained thinkers (more than 60%), which is probably how this myth originated.

But there really is something in stock trading for every type of thinker. If you aren't a left brained analytical type, you just need to find a process that works well for you. I am definitely right brained, and I am being completely honest when I tell you I would hate to sit around and analyze stocks all day. Despite this, I have made a great living trading stocks. Anyone else can too.

The second misconception is that stock trading has a lot of risk to it, even more than running a small business. Now, I will be the first to admit that plenty of people have lost everything in the stock market, and of course those are the stories we see splashed over the papers that terrify a lot of people.

But I have learned that it is a matter of setting up the right process to place your stops and limiting your risks to a level that you are comfortable with. If you can do that, stock trading is really a very low risk profession. For example, I have worked out a process that results in a 75% or more success rate with my trades. That is hard to beat, and you would be hard pressed to find another business that can give you that kind of low risk situation.

Finally, how many times have you heard that its a full time job to make consistent big money in the stock market? Absolutely true for some kinds of trading and especially if you don't have good stock pickers to rely on. Then you are stuck doing the grunt and the leg work in a fast changing environment " sure that takes a lot of time.

However, rest assured it is possible to make a full time living trading stock for 2-4 hours a day. What you do with the rest of the day is up to you! The trick is to find a process that meets your comfort level of risk and is very efficient with your time. There are a lot of courses available and I agree it can be intimidating to find the one that's right for you. Investigate several choices and make sure to ask lots of questions before signing up. If you don't get satisfactory answers to your questions, move on fast, customer will not improve once they have your money! If you research your options knowing the right process is there for you, you will be on your way to success at stock trading before you know it. - 23208

About the Author:

W. Alan Gay has been a stock trader and coach for fifteen years. His free report describes Alan's trip to becoming accomplished at trading stocks and gives effective tips he and his students have used to consistently trade profitably. Click to obtain a free copy of his report and learn more about how you could be trading stocks profitably in as little as fourteen days.