Trading and Live Prices

Tuesday, 3rd August 2010 13:22 - by Boredmum

As I have mentioned previously, I tend to regularly trade a little in order to maintain my interest in the markets and make some money. This can be on a day-to-day basis, depending on if I can find a stock to trade. Now I know that sometimes Investors look down on Traders. I see enough comments to back that up. We do, however, need many people buying and selling to create a ‘market’. I know how it feels; you have been holding a company share for a while, the share price has very possibly taken a beating and the majority of holders are sitting on a loss. A little bit of news or rumour comes your way, the sp starts to move, and it’s ‘Oh no, the Traders have arrived’. It is not nice as you see them come in; many times at very near the bottom of a share price, then they sell and are off with their profit really quickly. For that reason, I tend not to post on the chat forums for my purely 'trading' stocks. The one thing I will say is that if you have a view towards stocks that is not entirely long-term, then you really can’t be without live prices. Many times you see people asking for a live sp, but it goes beyond that. I am using the lse.co.uk features. I have mentioned some of the benefits before; like having 15 ‘Quick Picks’ (Sign in, go into an individual share, and then click on the red pin by the name) constantly on my screen with live prices regardless of what page I visit. If I am trading a share, I use the ‘Live Prices’ button. I especially like this as it shows each trade as it comes through – time & date, value, price paid, red for a sell, black if in the middle of ‘Buy and Ask’ prices, and blue for a buy. It is imperative that you use such a tool if you trade. I am getting quite good at working out the next move, telling when there is going to be a tick up or down for that matter. If I am only in short-term and note a lot of ‘value’ sells, and then feel that a tick down is coming, I will sell. This is great when only trading for a couple of points in a share. You can react quickly. It is worth bearing in mind that the monthly cost of such a feature is minimal compared to what it can make or save for you. Happy trading!