Many people are intimidated by the idea of investing in the stock market, and with good reason. Although there is a lot of potential for building long term wealth through your investments, there is also substantial potential for failure, which can result in merely breaking even, or in some cases, losing all the money you invested in the first place. In order to be successful at stock market trading, you have to know how to monitor the market and pick out clues that will help you choose to buy stocks that will perform positively.

One of the most important things to learn about stock market trading as a new investor is how to analyze the information that you have about a certain stock, and use it to make a sound decision about whether it is worth buying at the moment or not. Many new investors will simply look at the consumer market, and choose to put all their money into the biggest company that seems to be having a successful year. The only problem with this strategy is that things change, and the public opinion is fickle. What happens the next year when the company comes out with a product that everyone hates? Your stock will plummet, and you'll have to scramble to sell just to break even.

When first starting out with stock market trading, you have to make sure you fully understand the principles driving the fluctuations of the market, and what these price movements can tell you about the future profitability of a stock. Technical analysts spend their time charting price movements on x and y axis charts, noting the volume of stocks that are being traded each day. Over time, these analysts can evaluate this data to see if any trends or patterns are visible in the numbers. Then, these patterns can be used to help them make predictions about whether the value of a stock is likely to go up or down in the near future.

Another important thing to realize about stock market trading is that you don't have to go it alone. Even if you're not interested in putting the responsibility in the hands of a professional broker or trader, you can still use the experiences and training of market professionals to guide your decision making process. Look for online communities where they analyze the day's stock charts and give you tips about movements to look for in you securities.