Stocks and shares?

I have just signed up with TD waterhouse stock brokers, and i have only little understanding of how stocks and shares work. please could you tell me more about them and please give me any websites explaining them and how to determine which stocks to buy?

thanks

Youâ€™ll find out "stock tips" aren't really tips at all. Stock tips donâ€™t do anything for you, but make you late for the party.

To do successful trades, you have to have your own set of trading rules. AND follow them.

I'm going to share with you some of my trading rules. I can tell you 70+ members of our trading groups can't be wrong. We follow our own sets of trading rules. Whether or not you'll use them is another matter. I'll also include some trading sayings. My family invested A WHOLE LOT of money and time to discover the following:

A] "On Wall Street there aren't any gifts."
No one gives anyone else anything - not even stock tips.

B] BUlls [BUyers] earn money.
BEars [SEllers] earn money.
Pigs get fat.
Hogs [Greedy Traders] get slaughtered. They lose the money in their trading accounts.

C] Here's what no one in our trading groups won't do:
1] We WILL NOT trade "cheap" [inexpensive] stocks. We will not trade .BB [dot BB, .OB [dot OB], which is the Bulletin Board],
.PK [dot PK], which is the Pink Sheet]
O-T-C [Over-the-Counter].
The above stock categories/classifications are far too risky and volatile.
2] We WILL NOT trade any stock which trades less than $26.51 per share. We do not want to be part of any "pity party".
3] We WILL NOT trade any stock which has less than 400,000 shares/volume per day. Volume less than this makes the stock too risky and volatile for the retail trader. Those traders having more money can trade stocks with less volume.
4] We WILL NOT trade any IPOs [Initial Public Offerings]. These stocks do not have any history to follow. They are far too risky.
5] We WILL NOT trade any stock with less than 18 months of trading history.
6] We WILL NOT trade against the trend.
7a] We WILL NOT trade any stock betwen the price of $45.01 to $55.51 - up OR down. Stocks in this range are known as "the doldrums" - they have a tendency to get stuck and not move.
7b] We WILL NOT trade any stock from $73.01 to $76.51 another "doldrum range".
7c] We WILL NOT trade any stock from $94.01 to $106.51 - another "doldrum range".

D1] When we do our research, we check the following: The Earnings Announcement Date. This happens 4 times each year, about every 3 months. Different stocks have different EADs.
D2] We check for stock splits.
D3] We check the sector and the industry. We check for the trend in that stock's sector.
D4] We ALWAYS check the news for each stock we are interested in making our investment in.

F] When ALL the criteria and rules are met, Plan your trade. THEN trade your plan.
When you know the proper strategies, know how to use them AND you follow your rules, you can earn money when the stock goes up.
You can earn money when the stock goes down,
You can earn money when the stock goes sideways.
USUALLY numbers in the stock market are expressed in percentages and in dollars and cents.
Here's an example:
ABC is currently at $27.50 per share.
You did your investigating and research. This stock passed ALL your rules.
You have your entry at $27.78 or 1% to prove the stock's trend.
Your target is $30.56 or 10%
IF the trade should go against you and you lose money, you will get out of the trade at $25.56 or 8%. This is so you can trade another day.

As a foot note: We DO NOT put any more than 15% of our total trading account balance in any one trade. If our balance is $10,000 we do not put any more than $1,500 into any single trade. Our entry is $27,78. We can buy 50 shares of ABC. For some reason or another, brokers and others like rounded off numbers of shares.

It's your hard-earned money.

Before you invest, you really should investigate what you are investing in.

As you are doing your investigating, sometimes you'll come across financial or investment terms you never heard before. You can usually find excellent, easy-to-understand definitions of many financial and investment terms by going to this free site, recognized by Y! A as a "Featured Knowledge Partner":
http://investopedia.com
Investopedia also has a free, paper trading platform. You can set up a virtual account and almost trade as though you were trading with your own hard-earned money.
http://finance.yahoo.com is also recognized by Y! A as a "Featured Knowledge Partner"

Thanks for asking your Q! I enjoyed answering it!

VTY,
Ron Berue
Yes, that is my real last name!

In my opinion, it is best to take a long-term investing approach.

A good website I like to visit is:

www.low-cost-stock-recommendations.com

It is absolutely free. There is nothing for sale. I do not know why it says low cost, but I enjoy the website.

motleyfool.com
low-cost-stock-recommendations.com
taipan.com

If you are just starting investing I would stay away from stocks all together and invest in Exchange Traded Funds instead. They provide low expense ratios and offer diversification. An inexpensive way to do this is through sharebuilder.com

Sharebuilder has some good beginner information and only costs $12 per month for 6 trades. After you have at least 20,000 in ETFs then you can get into individual stocks. Use the extra time to read all you can an educate yourself before making the change to stocks. Some good sites with more advanced information are investopedia.com seekingalpha.com and ifa.com

If you are still convinced you want to jump straight into stocks I would use zecco.com instead of TD Waterhouse. Zecco provides 10 free trades per month if you have a balance of at least $2,500. They also have an online community where you can ask questions and get advice.

Check out DRIP Plans before you make a final decision. They are great long-term strategies.

Looks like Ron has some good advice. This is my own personal

system. The key to making money with it is cut your losses if

things don't go the way you planned.

If you want to just get your feet wet and experiment with some

quick trades, here is something you can do. This is just my on

personal system I use. I know I probably should know more about

the companies I trade but some of these stocks I don't even hold

but an hour or so, others I may have 2 months. This is just an

example. I'm not recommending that you put any money in it.

Just watch it to see if this system may interest you.

1) Go to Yahoo Finance sector list or use some kind of site to

find out what the hot sectors are at the time you are ready to

buy.
http://biz.yahoo.com/p/s_pr1d.html

Healthcare appears to be a hot sector for 2/15/08.

2)Go to MSN Money Deluxe Screener and set up a screen to find the

best healthcare stocks.
http://moneycentral.msn.com/articles/common/finderpro.asp

I'd use something like:
market cap of >= 500,000,000
PEG Ratio Above 2 = false
Current Ratio >= 1
Annual EPS Growth Rate >= 0
Recent Qtr Surprise % >= 0
EPS Growth Next Yr >= 0
Industry Name = Health Care Plans

You come up with 5 Stocks
HUM, CVH, AGP, HS, MOH

3)MSN has a stock rating system that I like to check the stocks

against. Saves time on researching myself. StockScouter
http://moneycentral.msn.com/investor/StockRating/srsmain.asp

This is the rating for the five stocks: (10 being the best)
HUM=7 CVH=10 AGP=8 HS=7 MOH=9

I usually stay away from the stocks under 7.

4)Next Chart the stocks
Any good stock charting tool should work.
I'll use yahoo since I have it up right now.
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/ta?s=GE

On each, chart 50 day and 200 day moving averages.
I am looking for a certain stock pattern. I want the 50 day
moving average to be approaching or crossing the 200 day moving

average from below. These are the stocks I want to look at.

The only one that comes close for today in healthcare is ticker

symbol HS.( I don't really like the down trend I see in it)

Now I want to check to see what is going on with this company in

the news, especially since it appears that it is in a down trend

for the month. I'll use Yahoo again for this. -- It appears that

there is no negative news.

So now I have my stock picked for the next day or two. Now here

is the trick to making a fast buck on it. You have to be very

disciplined with it!!!

a) only trade on a good day. I usually look for the futures to

be up that morning. Also check to see what is on the calendar

for that day - like FED meetings or whatever that may affect the

market negatively. Avoid those days. To risky. IF you can't

make the trade within two days, start over. Checking to see what

sectors are hot again.

b)Decide up front how much money you are willing to lose on the

trade if it goes wrong. $50-$100 on a $5000-$10,000 trade.

c)If you can watch the market, try to pick a good time to get in.
usually for me it's right after the morning dip around 10am.

d)If you are going to watch it, be ready to sell if it drops to

cut your losses at the $50-$100. If you can't watch it, set a

Stop order under it to sell at $50 or less.

e)If it starts climbing and you are making a profit and can't

watch it, set a trailing stop order under it. I use about 1%.

That way it will sell if it turns but you will still make

whatever it topped out at - 1%.

I'm an amateur at this. This is just my own personal system. I

usually make a profit on each trade. The only time I don't is if

it drops back to my Stop point or I don't stick to the system. I

go through these steps with each trade. Sometimes I may listen

to Crammer or others to find what the hot sectors are but

basically use the same system.

Ex: trading with $5000
5 trades
took a loss on three
made 2% on one
made 5% on one

$5000 -50 -50 -50 = $4850 + 2% + 5% = $5194.35

Good Luck! (Remember! Cut your losses early! and protect your

profits with trailing stops!)

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