Stock Trading Systems – The Lexicon
While there is no more a surefire method for picking stocks than there is for picking lottery numbers, there is a reason to have a system when doing stock trading. You need a plan, which gives you metrics and bellweathers for reading charts and trends and measuring how you’re doing against complex goals. Charts are visual representations of stock prices over time, and you can familiarize yourself with them in the financial pages of your local news paper. Think back to algebra, and plotting curves the vertical axis is the price, and the horizontal axis is time, usually in days or weeks. Make sure, when comparing graphs, that the vertical axis is the same for multiple stocks. Sparkline graphs are a recent innovation and give you an instant visual impact on a wide range of numbers over time.
Charts can be made on an Excel spreadsheet or custom software. Day traders track the prices in hourly and 15 minute increments, focusing on several related stocks in a sector. Long term investors look for patterns and trends on price charts over months and years, looking for cyclical trends, new product rollouts and new information...