Stock Trading – Trading Stock in a Bear Market

By Nathan Pennington

Here’s the thing. Many of us are uncomfortable with shorting a stock. Yes, going short is how you can really clean up in a down market, but it’s just not comfortable to us. Yet, we want to make money even when the market isn’t healthy.

What are we to do?

First up, you could trade put options. And if you’re really good at that, you can make money hand over fist.

However, for most of us, just trading options naked is the same thing as playing the lottery. You will lose money. You will get stung.

So, here’s how I recommend you trade in a down market.

1) Only trade with companies that are leaders in their industry. No taking gambles now. You need strong, big companies.

2) Only trade companies that are actually making money. Avoid companies that are losing money.

3) Only trade companies that are projected to make even more money

4) Sell calls on the stocks that you do trade.

See, when you are trading very safe companies that are doing well, and you add the downside protection of selling a call (because of the premium that you collect), you are trading safely in a bear market.

We could even take this a step further and you could buy a protective put on the stock as well. That would give you even more flexibility as your downside is more or less totally protected (except for the price of the put).

But then the premium from the calls should even that out for you.

Trading Stock – Plan to Be Successful From the Start

By Carl G. Robertts

There may be a lot more to trading stock profitably than one might think. Without the proper training and guidance it is the most difficult thing in the world to do. I’m just saying that there are certain things that must be done by anyone looking to trade stocks profitably.

The very first thing you must do when planning on trading stock profitably is to decide that you’re going to take it seriously. I completely understand why some might think this sounds like blanket, generic advice, but your attitude towards any endeavor can often times determine how well you will do in that endeavor. This is also not to say that you should not have fun when learning stock trading, but also realize that this is not a game, but a tremendous opportunity to not only profit, but to accumulate wealth as well.

Have a plan. There, I said it, have a plan. I don’t think that anyone without a plan actually ever truly feels that they will be successful in their venture. Often times it is because plans in the past have failed or that attempts they have made have failed. Truthfully, those past attempts don’t have to have anything to do with future attempts. So what are we really saying here? What I’m saying is that if you don’t have a plan and you don’t plan to have a plan then you should not count on stock trading for generating income or wealth. Take your time and give a lot of thought when creating a trading plan.

Everything runs on fuel of some sort. We as human beings run on food, liquids, and air. It doesn’t really matter how big we are or how strong we are if we don’t have enough of any of these things we will not survive. Successful stock trading or trading of any type for that matter runs on fuel as well. That fuel I speak of, is capital. Capital is the lifeblood of any business. It does not matter how many of the other necessary factors of the business are in place if capital is insufficient. This is why it is so very, very important to adequately capitalize your stock trading account in order to be successful.

These are but a few of the necessary factors in trading stock successfully.