How do I determine the best stock to trade?

This is a common issue confronting new share traders who have decide to go the online route and do it themselves.

As you have mentioned “trading”, I will assume that it is not long term investing that will be the philosophy of your account. First, you need some education about how you will trade once you have chosen your stocks or sector. There are a myriad of books on trading and you will find pearls in many so keep reading but there are two good ones to start with. “The Art of Trading”, by Chris Tate, is concise and to the point and it will give you a start. Second, “Come Into My Trading Room”, by Alexander Elder is a reference for all time for traders.

The next step is to formulate a Trading Plan. This is not easy but by writing one you will begin to formulate a clearer idea of what you are going to trade and how you will go about it and what your expectations are. It might be as simple as, “Aim to invest $1000 across 50 companies trading under $0.10”. It could be “Buy Blue Chip companies only”. It could be, “Invest in Mining companies that show an uptrend on the weekly chart and whose price has crossed up and over the 30 Day Moving Average and take profits when it crosses for two days under the 30 Day Moving Average.” These sorts of statements are the foundation of your plan and you need to determine your position sizing, loss limits per position, percentage of account exposed etc.

Now you need to determine where to find your targets. You may already have some bias toward mining companies or healthcare companies or transport companies. If you have some affiliation with an industry then search for those companies that you will have some understanding of. Whether you are going to be a fundamental or technical trader, you will at least understand what you are putting your money into and this will help greatly. Financial Press articles are also a good place to start, as the news is often a story of change or update.

You can collate a list form the sectors that are listed on the ASX website. You can then break them down further by various screening methods such as: those that are trending up on a weekly chart, those that have a market cap over $100 million or other such parameters that you have chosen.

Once you start investing, your learning curve will steepen. It is amazing how the interest levels suddenly improve! So Fundamentally or Technically or a combination of both, there is a lot to cover and this is serious business, because your money was hard won, make sure it is not easily lost.

Disclaimers: The views expressed in this article are not intended as general advice.