As you know, it can be very easy to lose money by investing in stocks if you don’t know what you’re doing. Fortunately, being smart when it comes to investing in stocks doesn’t have to be difficult. Here are a few tips that will help you experience success when investing in stocks.
Do Your Own Research
A vital tip that you should follow when investing in stocks is to do your own research. While it’s fine to get suggestions of the best stocks to invest in, you should ultimately do your research. Before you invest in stocks, look up the track record of the company. When you invest in stocks, you essentially own part of the company, no matter how small this part might be. If needed, contact the Investment Department of the company and ask questions about the company’s products and services. Overall, you just want to get a good feel as to whether the company has worthy stocks to invest in.
Don’t make the common mistake of researching a company after you purchase the stocks. Also avoid investing in a stock just because your friend happened to be successful with the same stock. Previous success, especially the success of another person, does not guarantee that your success.
Market Open
In general, it’s best to avoid purchasing stocks when the market opens. At the market open, there are always pops that will make the investment not worthwhile for you. These pops typically fade within an hour or so. You should purchase stocks about an hour before market closing, or an hour after the market open. Just take a look at any stock’s daily chart and you will see that stocks tend to hit bottom in price at around this time. The ideal time based on chart trends to sell your stocks can be around market open or about 1PM (ET).
Set Target Profits
The hugest mistake that people make when it comes to stocks is thinking that the price of a stock will continue to increase indefinitely. At some point, you need to be willing to sell the stocks and lock the profits. That way, you won’t have to deal with the price of a stock crashing suddenly. Therefore, you should set a target profit for selling your stocks. As you gain experience as a stock investor, you can raise the target profits over time to match your level of experience.
It’s also important to have the discipline to ignore your emotions when it comes to investing in and selling stocks. You should always leave your emotions out of the equation when it comes to determining whether you invest in a stock or not.
As you can see, there are many things to consider when it comes to investing in stocks. If you’re not careful, it’s very easy to lose thousands of dollars. However, those who know what they’re doing can make large profits.