I've been actively trading the stock market for over 2 years since January 2008. This period have been really exciting with the 2008 economy collapse as well as the 2009 comeback. Over the course of this crisis, I've managed to provide advice to a few friends as well as family members, and with a bit of luck, none of us have loss any money during the period. In fact, all of us have managed to ride through the patch with some decent profits.
My interest in the stock market dates back all the way to my university days, that's about 13 years ago. My mum was the one who introduced me to the equity market and most of what I learn in the early days were from her. As I read more into the market, I also discovered how little she knew. Thinking that I'm a "smart" undergrad, I "studied" the market and tried dabbling with it. Not surprising though, I loss my entire savings and swore then that the equity market is a scam!
My passion for it didn't went away though, and not before long, after I started working, I'm back learning more about the market again. Throughout the past few years, I've attended candlestick courses, technical courses, chart formation, indicator readings, even to the extent of taking the Chartered Financial Advisor level 1 course. I've also attended some of the heavily-advertised-how-you-can-be-a-millionaire sort of trading courses (check out our Straits Times Money section and you'll find plenty of these).
All I can say is, NONE of this methods worked. At least they don't work for me. This could be due to many reasons including trading psychology and risk appetite. So over the last 2 years, I've developed a trading system of my own. It took me a very long time, with lots of trial and errors and minor tweaking before I've decided THIS IS IT. The system is basically low risk enough for me, and hit rate is good enough to be making some decent income. I've added in some fundamental analysis part from the little that I've learnt during my CFA course.
Is this the perfect system? Far from it. My system suits me and works for me. Period. And my advice to any of my readers who wants to learn equity trading, please go for some technical courses. Understand what are the different type of indicators, chart formations etc. Learn how to interpret candlestick charts. A good technical course should last for about 3 months. DO NOT SIGN UP FOR THOSE 3 DAYS COURSES THINKING YOU CAN LEARN ABOUT TRADING IN SUCH A SHORT TIME SPAN. Once you understand, you can learn to appreciate why certain people will tell you the entry point, cut loss point and profit point is. Even if they get it wrong, you know the reason for entering in the first place (you can't be 100% right but not knowing why you do it is 100% wrong). Also, do read up alot on the listed companies. Know what's their business, where their business is, how have they been faring etc. Keep up to date with market news, it's tough in the beginning but after a while, you'll get used to it and it actually becomes pretty addictive :).
Enough said, I've started this blog to share with anyone who wants to know what I'm looking at and what I'm trading. You may use my post as guidelines for your own trade but please do understand I make mistakes as well. In the long run though, I do wish that all of you can start making some extra income, and that this blog has managed to help you through.
Thank you for reading.
Regards,
The Journalist
