There are many effective stock trading strategies online today. There are also courses and books sold online with proven strategies that could save you the time to find an effective strategy. Most traders often spend a lot of money looking for someone to train them on the best trading strategy.
Fortunately, you can come up with your own stock trading strategy through hands-on learning. Creating a strategy is surprisingly easy. All you need is a piece of paper, an objective mind, and access to trading charts.
Below are seven tips to help you develop a long-term trading plan:
1. Create Your Own Ideology About the Market
Before you take steps to develop a stock trading strategy, ensure you have a rough idea of how the stock market works. Based on your knowledge about the market, why do you want to start trading stocks? How do you intend to make some money from trading?
Creating an ideology will help you create a foundation for your trading strategy. It will also influence how you approach stock trading.
Ensure you take your time to read and understand as much as possible about the market — study both fundamental and technical analysis. Remember, to avoid thinking of stock trading as a get-rich-quick scheme; you will have to put in a lot of work and energy to start seeing results.
Don’t fall for people who claim to teach strategies that guarantee you will earn hundreds and even thousands of dollars every day. These are likely to be scam artists.
2. Set Aside Some Money for Trading
How much money are you willing to invest in the stock market? Set aside these funds and use them exclusively for trading. You should also evaluate what percentage of your funds you would be comfortable investing in different trades.
Most successful stock traders often prefer to risk around 1%-2% of the total amount in their account on every trade. For example, if your trading account has a balance of $50,000 and you prefer using 1% of the funds, you will only be risking $500 on each trade.
When trading, always be prepared to lose. Thus, you should always have some extra money saved if you lose all the funds in your trading account.
3. Choose a Trading Market
What market are you looking to join? Numerous entities can be traded on the stock market. Some of these include futures, equities, company shares, and forex.
If you want to trade forex, you need to understand more about the currencies and how they work. You also need to know what you’re selling or buying. So, take your time to research more about different types of forex brokers and understand how the trading margins are calculated.
On the other hand, if you choose equities, ensure you understand what company shares are. You should also know what penny stock and blue-chip are and the difference between the two.
The goal is to take your time and learn more about the market you want to trade. However, you can’t start your learning journey without choosing a trading market first. Check out KJ Trading Systems to learn more about trading stocks and develop an effective strategy.
4. Select a Suitable Time Frame to Trade
If you’re inexperienced in trading, it can be very tricky to choose a trading timespan. For instance, it’s hard to know whether your trading strategy is best suited for daily swing or quick scalping. To choose the right trading timespan, you need to start by observing the market.
Remember also to consider all the factors involved. Trade for more extended time frames and spend that time studying the market and how the curves move to get an idea of how the market works.
Choosing shorter trading time frames will reduce your learning periods. Conversely, choosing more extended trading time frames will help you learn some valuable tips to create your trading strategy.
If you have a lot of time to spare, consider intraday trading. This helps you observe how the market behaves during different times of the day. It will also help you determine the best trading time frame for you.
5. Start Small
It is very easy to get overwhelmed with the numerous stock options available. To avoid this, start by focusing on one stock at a time. Then, examine the stock, understand all concepts about it, and how it’s traded to determine if it’s the right one for you.
Tracking one stock at a time is easier and will help you find and take advantage of trading opportunities. Today, traders are finding it relatively easy to buy and sell fractional shares. Thus, you can trade with smaller amounts of money that you’re comfortable investing in the stock market.
6. Use Limit Orders to Cut Your Losses
Plan your entry and exit strategies before you start trading. This includes deciding the type of trade orders you would use when entering and exiting trades. For example, do you prefer using limit orders or market orders?
Market orders are executed using the highest available price in the market at that time. Therefore, there is no price assurance. On the other hand, limited orders don’t guarantee the execution but will guarantee the price.
Limit order trading will help you sharpen your precision skills and set a realistic trading price. This limits your losses and increases your chances of making a profit.
7. Be Realistic
Your strategy doesn’t have to win all your trades every single time. Ensure you’re realistic with your strategy’s return on investment (ROI). Avoid building high expectations.
Most successful traders only have 50%-60% successful trades. While most people may think that these numbers reflect losses, they don’t. It means that the traders make more money when they win than the amount they lose when a trade fails.
Start Creating Your Stock Trading Strategy Today
There are many options for stocks with many different trading strategies for each stock option. As a result, trading can be quite tricky, especially if you don’t take the time to learn more about the stock market.
Creating a stock trading strategy requires a lot of discipline, time, and skill. Most first-time traders often fail to create a working strategy. However, if you follow the above seven tips, you will create a successful, long-term trading strategy and boost your chances of making a profit.
Did you like this article? Check out other posts on our website for more informative tips.