Practice Share Dealing Strategies With Virtual Share Trading
Share trading is one of the easiest ways to make money and it is also one of the easiest ways to lose your money if you do not know what you are doing. That's why it's a good thing there are virtual share dealing systems online that you can join and practice before you start using real money on the stock market trading. This way you can work up your confidence and at the same time learn your mistakes without paying for it.
You need to look for a website that offers virtual stock exchange. They can be considered as "fantasy games", but how the stock moves, its gains or loses follows their real life counterpart.
It's really easy to sign up with these sites. Most of them offer free registration for new users. You will get some basic starting money when you are starting out and can even set your own condition to "win".
Then you need to decide on which stock exchange market do you want to play in, which stocks you want to try investing money in or do you want to join a public or private game. Some of these games offer prizes to the top 5 earners.
Remember that you're playing this virtual stock market as part of your training before you enter the real stock market trading. Fill out your curiosity about any kind of stocks or mutual funds you want to try investing on. There is no use practicing for fun if you do not intend to use the knowledge you gained on the real deal.
You can experiment with a lot of share trading strategies (https://www.independentinvestor.com/share-dealing/strategies/) that you can use in your investment. Usually when you play virtual share trading, you can register for multiple profiles to test different strategies on each of them. You can then compare them side by side to decide which strategy suits you better.
Just because you are using fake money does not mean you can put little effort into it. Some virtual stock portfolio host will offer you some market research and even real time stock quotes. They would even let you compare your performance with other players or other portfolios inside your account.
There is no reason not to join virtual share dealing with these free resources available to you. You can lower your loses and increase your gains by getting enough practice and testing out different strategies. You can bring your knowledge and investments into the real stock exchange only after you have confidence in your stock market trading skills.
You need to look for a website that offers virtual stock exchange. They can be considered as "fantasy games", but how the stock moves, its gains or loses follows their real life counterpart.
It's really easy to sign up with these sites. Most of them offer free registration for new users. You will get some basic starting money when you are starting out and can even set your own condition to "win".
Then you need to decide on which stock exchange market do you want to play in, which stocks you want to try investing money in or do you want to join a public or private game. Some of these games offer prizes to the top 5 earners.
Remember that you're playing this virtual stock market as part of your training before you enter the real stock market trading. Fill out your curiosity about any kind of stocks or mutual funds you want to try investing on. There is no use practicing for fun if you do not intend to use the knowledge you gained on the real deal.
You can experiment with a lot of share trading strategies (https://www.independentinvestor.com/share-dealing/strategies/) that you can use in your investment. Usually when you play virtual share trading, you can register for multiple profiles to test different strategies on each of them. You can then compare them side by side to decide which strategy suits you better.
Just because you are using fake money does not mean you can put little effort into it. Some virtual stock portfolio host will offer you some market research and even real time stock quotes. They would even let you compare your performance with other players or other portfolios inside your account.
There is no reason not to join virtual share dealing with these free resources available to you. You can lower your loses and increase your gains by getting enough practice and testing out different strategies. You can bring your knowledge and investments into the real stock exchange only after you have confidence in your stock market trading skills.
What You Need to Know When Opening a Share Dealing Account
For any new beginner who seeks to open a share dealing account (www.independentinvestor.com/share-dealing/choosing-broker/) and embark on the new adventure of dealing shares online, it becomes a daunting task when faced with the large number of trading brokerages all vying to get you to become their client. So what are the most important aspects to look at when deciding on a share dealing account?
Here are some of the major considerations and you should compare them carefully before deciding which trading firm to trade with:
Commissions and other charges
This comes as no surprises as it's probably the single biggest cost of becoming a trader. Trading is a negative sum game. You pay commissions to your broker whether you make or lose money in your trades. It then becomes necessary to choose the trading brokerage with the lowest costs. Consider the trading commissions for each transaction, financial charges for holding or shorting positions, margin charges etc and decide which brokerage offers the best prices that's suitable for your trading strategy.
Trading platform
This is the trading software or website provided by your brokerage to let you analyze the stock market and execute your trades. The platform should come with the most popular and advanced if not all the charting tools and indicators available right now. These charting tools should be easily set up and prices should be real-time and updated on the charts instantaneously.
Trading orders
With the advancement of trading strategies, more types of orders are now required for the advanced trader to effectively execute his trading strategies. All trading brokers should now allow stop-loss orders, OCO orders, target orders, the standard buy sell limit and market orders etc to allow the trader a winning chance in the market. Make sure you know you can execute your trading strategies with the types of orders allowed before opening the share dealing account. Or else, you will find that you can't execute your trading strategy effectively and then it will be a big hassle to you.
Trading alerts
There are many types of traders out there employing different strategies with different time horizons. Some are day traders who watch the market non-stop, others might be swing traders who trade off of daily charts, and longer horizon position traders who hold positions for days or weeks on end. Whichever kind of trader you are, you will sure be able to benefit from trading alerts sent out by your trading platforms to inform you of the opportunities that arise in the stock market. This way, you free yourself from having to sit in front of the computer and staring at the monitor all the time.
All the above make up the basic criteria for choosing the right share dealing account for your trading strategy. Go through them when you are comparing trading brokerages and do not settle until you find the one that works for you.
Here are some of the major considerations and you should compare them carefully before deciding which trading firm to trade with:
Commissions and other charges
This comes as no surprises as it's probably the single biggest cost of becoming a trader. Trading is a negative sum game. You pay commissions to your broker whether you make or lose money in your trades. It then becomes necessary to choose the trading brokerage with the lowest costs. Consider the trading commissions for each transaction, financial charges for holding or shorting positions, margin charges etc and decide which brokerage offers the best prices that's suitable for your trading strategy.
Trading platform
This is the trading software or website provided by your brokerage to let you analyze the stock market and execute your trades. The platform should come with the most popular and advanced if not all the charting tools and indicators available right now. These charting tools should be easily set up and prices should be real-time and updated on the charts instantaneously.
Trading orders
With the advancement of trading strategies, more types of orders are now required for the advanced trader to effectively execute his trading strategies. All trading brokers should now allow stop-loss orders, OCO orders, target orders, the standard buy sell limit and market orders etc to allow the trader a winning chance in the market. Make sure you know you can execute your trading strategies with the types of orders allowed before opening the share dealing account. Or else, you will find that you can't execute your trading strategy effectively and then it will be a big hassle to you.
Trading alerts
There are many types of traders out there employing different strategies with different time horizons. Some are day traders who watch the market non-stop, others might be swing traders who trade off of daily charts, and longer horizon position traders who hold positions for days or weeks on end. Whichever kind of trader you are, you will sure be able to benefit from trading alerts sent out by your trading platforms to inform you of the opportunities that arise in the stock market. This way, you free yourself from having to sit in front of the computer and staring at the monitor all the time.
All the above make up the basic criteria for choosing the right share dealing account for your trading strategy. Go through them when you are comparing trading brokerages and do not settle until you find the one that works for you.
Photo used under Creative Commons from wuestenigel