| If you have been thinking that you need to make | | | | the time. This allows you to get a picture in time of |
| your first stock purchase, then I recommend that | | | | what was happening when you bought it. Once you |
| you paper trade first. What is great today is that it's | | | | sell the stock, do the same and put these in a folder |
| much easier to "paper trade" than ever before. Most | | | | for review when you are sitting in cash and not in |
| online brokerage accounts come with a stock | | | | the market. |
| simulator in them and mine was no different. | | | | Reviewing past trades, whether on paper or for real, |
| What this allows you to do is to get use to the | | | | teaches far more than you can ever learn in a text |
| mechanics of how trading works while not losing any | | | | book. It's the real world that teaches the lessons of |
| real money. It also means that you won't make any | | | | how to make money in the stock market. And, until |
| real money either if you are correct in your stock | | | | you get out there and actually do it, you'll never get |
| selection. A lot of learning comes from making | | | | the experience you need to be an "investor." The |
| mistakes rather than from being correct all of the | | | | sooner that you do that, the faster you'll become a |
| time. | | | | successful investor. So, get started by making a |
| After you make a stock purchase, you should also | | | | stock purchase, either in a simulator or for real. |
| print out the stock's fundamentals and stock chart at | | | | |