Advice please!!!

I'm looking to start trading as somethig to fill my time and (hopefully) earn a little more money. I've gradually left my old work, (nothing in finance), but I have got an old degree in economics.

I've been on a couple of trading courses including Greg Seckers, but was simply overwhelmed by the amount of information (as well as staggered by the cost!!!). I need something simpler and more for beginners.

Searching the web I've come across http://www.trade4success.co.uk who are running some educational workshops for under a 100, but don't know if they're worth it.

Has anyone any experience of them, know any other courses, or got any advice for a virgin trader.

Thanks for reading and for your help.

Subscription to shares mag is a great way to learn about the market as a whole, how to trade + the different methods, great source of tips and news for a whole range of different companies. If you find one you like in Shares then check MoneyAM for a thread for more info, then the company's webiste along with Reuters etc. All should give you a solid base for good investments.

If you are a novice

How to read the Financial Pages
By Michael Brett

Beginners Guide to Investment
By Bernard Gray


The Zulu Principle and Beyond the Zulu Principle by Jim Slater

The Pring book had a CD to go with the book and is very good. (IMO)

Technical Analysis for Dummies By Barbara Rockefeller 1

Introduction to Technical Analysis (With CD) Martin Pring


I wish I had read the last two books earlier and from experience I read again and again especially when I am making money. They help me to keep my feet on the ground and when I am loosing to remind me it is possible to make money and limit my losses.
It also warns you about ramping, scams, frauds, greed and has very useful Web page refs. Etc.




If you are a novice and can use a PC this may give you some useful ideas for a small pot, but if you are making money invest in a software package to manage your portfolio and download end of day prices and has charting an and Fundamental Data.

Personal choice for me is Sharescope. But others use different packages. And you can get the coverage of Fundamental and Charting on line and also manage your portfolio. From Comdirect, Barclays, Smile, Etc. but they are a bit clumsy and you have to be on line/

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Remember many make more money out of workshops and books than the market itself.



Book Author Votes
Reminiscences of A Stock Operator Edwin Lefevre 4
Swing Trading: A Guide to Profitable Short-term Trading Marc Rivalland 4
Come into My Trading Room: a Complete Guide to Trading Alexander Elder 3
Market wizards Jack Schwager 3
Technical Analysis of Stock Trends Robert D. Edwards, John Magee 3
The master swing trader Alan Farley 3
Trader Vic I & II Victor Sperandeo 3
Trading in the Zone Mark Douglas 3
Disciplined Trader Mark Douglas 2
Encyclopedia of Chart Patterns Thomas Bulkowski 2
Japanese Candlestick Charting Techniques Steve Nison 2
The Market Maker's Edge Josh Lukeman 2
The Way to Trade: Discover Your Successful Trading Personality John Piper 2
Trading for a Living: Psychology, Trading Tactics, Money Management Alexander Elder 2
Trading Systems and Methods Perry J Kaufman 2
A beginner's guide to short-term trading Toni Turner 1
Aerodynamic trading & TA for the Trading proffesional Constance Brown 1
Bear essentials Simon Cawkwell 1
Big Trends in Trading: Strategies to Master Major Market Moves Price Headley 1
Education of a speculator Victor Niederhoffer 1
Evil's good book of boasts Simon Cawkwell 1
Extraordinary Popular Delusions & the madness of crowds Charles Mackay 1
Fooled by Randomness Nassim Nicholas Taleb 1
Getting Started in Technical Analysis (Getting Started) Jack D. Schwager, Mark Etzkorn 1
Hot Commodities Jim Rogers 1
How I trade for a living Gary Smith 1
How to trade in stocks Jesse Livermore 1
How to win as a stock market speculator Alexander Davidson 1
Into the Upwave: How to Prosper from Slump to Boom Robert Beckman 1
Introduction to Technical Analysis Martin J. Pring 1
New Concepts In Technical trading Systems J Welles Wilder 1
New market wizards Jack Schwager 1
Practical speculation Victor Niederhoffer 1
Secrets for Profit in Bull and Bear Markets Stan Weinstein 1
Secrets of the undergroundtrader Jea Yu, Russell Lockhart 1
Stock market wizards Jack Schwager 1
Technical Analysis and Stock Market Profits (Traders Masterclass S.) Richard Schabacker 1
Technical Analysis Explained Martin J. Pring 1
Technical Analysis for Dummies Barbara Rockefeller 1
Technical Analysis of the Financial Markets John J. Murphy 1
Technical Analysis Plain & Simple: Charting the Markets in Your Language Michael Kahn 1
Technical Market Indicators (analysis and performance) Richard J Bauer, Julie R Dahlquist 1
The 21 Irrefutable Truths of Trading John Hayden 1
The Art of the Trade R.E. McMaster 1
The Complete Guide to Options Selling James Cordier & Michael Gross 1
The Downwave: Surviving the Second Great Depression Robert Beckman 1
The four biggest mistakes in Futures Trading Jay Kaeppel 1
The Stock Selector System Michael D. Sheimo 1
The Truth about Markets John Kay 1
Trading Day by Day: Winning the Zero Sum Game of Futures Trading F. H. Chick Goslin 1
Trading in the Zone Ari Kiev 1
What Works On Wall Street James P O Shaughnessy 1
Why smart people make big money mistakes and how to correct them Gary Belsky and Thomas Gilovich 1




Another book for later perhaps is

The UK Traders Bible. By Dominic Connolly.

This is packed with information.



Good luck.

Lucky Buggers make a lot of money while intelligent buggers can still loose money by doing the right things.

Fred, do you own a bookshop ?

No, just read a lot.















But not many of the above. Can't or won't afford the majority of them.

But if anybody wants to ger rid any of them I will be prepared to clutter up my house with them.


But for god sake don't tell my wife.

Thanks for the help guys. I appreciate what your saying about magazines and books, problem is I'm not a reading type person! I much prefer listening and being able to ask questions.

Are there any OU type courses or even short seminars that anyone's been to and can recommend?

Thanks

I was dyslexic when young, but I learnt to read because iit was less tedious and cheaper than attending poor workshops.

open a cmc account with the minimum deposit.1 PP stakes bets.Best way to learn

And lose money if you don't understand the market.

I first started trading by joining a local Investment Club. We met at the local pub once a month and invested 50 a month each. Even if some of your investment decisions turn out to be duds, on a percentage basis you should still break even. But the whole point is to meet other people who will give you ideas on investments which you haven't thought of and also to meet a few people who are complete nerds, BUT who you can learn from.
Many inv. groups are looking for members. A search on The Net should give you your local groups.

Fred my expanded point is: you can go on LOTS of expensive courses read every book going, but actual trading is the reality check. I was a fantastic paper trader.Ive gone on lots of courses.Why teach if your a market guru Surely its easier to stay at home and quietly make your mint???
Yeah get the basics in your head, and then have a go at trading.
All theory no Practice makes Jack/Jill a poor boy

Finally ignore all advice/ramps its all contradictory. It is!............No it might not be.............:-D

Ps I have a copy of "Introduction to Technical Analysis (Without CD) By Martin Pring" That you can have Janeys and its FREE.Click on my name and leave your E-mail address if you want it

Many thanks to everyone. Reading is unfortunately out of the option, but thanks for the advice and offers on books, etc. Looks like I'm going to have to keep looking for something out there.

On a slightly amusing note:
Did speak to trade4success today, quite funny that they seem to be taking totally the opposite view to all the other courses I've been on, saying that the course is for beginners (I understood some of what they where saying!) and that making money trading is hard work... bit different to the normal marketing spool. Worth phoning them up and having a chat if you want cheering up, wont say why, but it made me laugh!!!

I have to say janeys, if reading is not your thing then you're not going to be a successful trader. You really do have to be able to read and assimilate information quickly to do the job, whether that be posts on bulletin boards, market news, or trading techniques.

There's lots of things you can say about trading/investing, use a stop loss , cut your loseses, don't try and catch a falling knife, play the percentages, use spread bets, CFD's ect: get level 2, understand how the market makers work and the list goes on.

If you want to know how not to invest just read all the posts on the SEO thread those investers broke all the rules in the book.

Call me a cynic, but I rather thought this was a 'plug trade4success' thread.

Sorry janeys, you have an old degree in Economics, but you don't read?
I could say a lot more about enticing freshers in the belief that there's a simple art to making money in this game, but I'll shut up now.

Sorry, definitely not plugging anyone. As I said at the top, I've been on Greg Seckers courses as well, and I'm not plugging his course, and just to try and even things up a bit, I've been on an Acutrader course as well. So I'd like to stress I am not plugging any company or product and from experience I would say Greg Secker was very good, but expensive and far above my level of understanding. As for the aforementioned company, I have no idea how good they are!

I got my degree several years ago, before diabetes wrecked my sight. I can read large print, and like looking at graphs, but I have difficulty reading a lot in one go, that's why I don't want to get into reading books.

I was trying to get other people to tell me what courses if any they'd been on, and if they where any good. All I've done is call up this company, and had a conversation with them which I felt was potentially worthwhile. Therefore as well as other courses anyone could recommend, I was hoping someone could tell me if the aforementioned company was any good, or not.

Hope that clears things up.

Time to say 'sorry' again then.
I do apologise.

Janeys - I am not sure if they have any current plans but Money AM have had meetings in the past and for a tenner you can get a lot of information, practical advice and meet an awful lot of strange people (i.e. the people on these threads!!). They are a great bunch, it is a good laugh and you can get plenty of helpful advice and pointers for starting out in trading. We were all new to it once and benefited from sharing the experience.

Frankly, there are very few courses that I would spend my money on but it could be worth going to one of CMC's freebie sessions (with David Jones on TA) or City Index ..that type of thing. They do them countrywide.

Chocolat I apologise if I have misled anyone in thinking I am affiliated with any company and thank you for pointing out it sounded as though I was plugging a company.

jj50 The MoneyAM sessions sounds like a good idea, do you know when the next one is planned? I hadn't realised that there where any free sessions, have you (or anyone else) been to them? And are there any catches, like opening accounts.

janeys: The MoneyAM Traders' Days have been great events at a token cost to attendees of 10, largely for the catering (yes, you get a light lunch). The burden of the cost was met by MoneyAM and co-sponsors, like the Spreadbet companies who would tout for your business. The featured talks are pretty much vendor-neutral, with some entertaining and animated demos of trading techniques. Very enjoyable events with a social dimension, a chance to meet like-minded people. Even Chocolat and myself *blush*.

I'm not sure if further events are planned in the near future, but a Spring event in London has been traditional. Which part of the country are you in?

Janeys, there is no right or wrong way to invest!!
I have known very succesfull people who have spent their lives going against the rules and investing in plumetting basket cases and those who have lost the lot. Some stick rigidly to a learned formula or plan and make good money, but some do the same and end up almost bankrupt.
FWIW, I have been succesfull by simply starting so small I could afford to lose the lot, learning from my mistakes which were therefore inexpensive and probably cheaper than any course or shelf full of books.
I listen in the pub, at work, in the playground of my kids school. Which products or services are they all talking about. Which shops are full on a Saturday afternoon. Which are empty. Who are hiring more staff, who are shedding them? What nonsense are the EU forcing on us now? Who will benefit?
The answers to these give me lists to research and from there I invest.
It works for me, but WTFDIK.
Good luck however you try.
Alan