There are many different factors you can use to select the stocks you choose to invest in. There are also many different tools you can use to screen out stocks that don’t meet your criteria. For the purpose of this article, I am going to use the screener available for free at USA Today. You can work along with me by opening up a new tab and entering this web address: http://markets.usatoday.com/custom/usatoday-com/screener/screener.asp. This is one of my favorite tools, because 1) it’s free and more importantly 2) it allows you to enter in many different factors.

To start off, the main categories of screening are listed on the left side of the page. They are price, volume, fundamentals, technicals and ‘exchange and industry.’ You can use any or all of the factors for your screening process.

Under the price function you can enter a range of prices you are interested in, for instance between 12 and 15 dollars. And then you can look at ones that have risen or fallen a percentage during the day, hour, 15 minute or five minute period. You can also enter if it is trading above or below the 52 week high or low. So just using two of those parameters, if we search for a twelve to fifteen dollar stock that has risen 1% in the past day; press the next button and then choose how you want to view the results. Default settings have been selected already, so you can just push the “show stocks” button and look at what is available. On the day I did this I got 119 different stocks that fit that range.

You can then go back and check out the next area for screening I recommend, which is the fundamentals section. If you use the back arrow function on your browser, you will not lose the criteria selected. The two available tools in fundamentals are the price to earnings ratio (Abbreviated P/E) and the market capitalization. For the sake of discussion, I will enter a P/E of 5 to 10, and a market cap between 100 and 500 million. Press the “next” button and then the “show stocks.” On this particular day that brought the number of stocks that fit the criteria down to one.

By using the tools already discussed you can see how this could help you in your selections. Look at what parameters you think you ideal stock would fit into. Try entering different amounts in the various fields and see what results pop up. The amounts that I used for the example here are not necessarily what you want to look for. They were merely used for illustration purposes.

Maybe you want to concentrate only on companies that have large market capitalizations. That means that you are investing in companies with a worth of over 10 billion dollars. How you set your search parameters is another discussion, the simple fact is you can use this tool to help you to separate the stocks you are interested in from the rest of the market. The more factors you decide to use, the more selective your results will be. You can choose companies that had a constant growth of 15 percent per year for the past five years, past five quarters, etc.

Once you have found the criteria for your stock selection and used this tool to give you some companies that meet that criteria, then you are ready to examine the companies, doing your due diligence, and decide which really looks good to you.

Another good stock screener with tons of features is MSN Deluxe Stock Screener. It is probably the best free stock screener available, and one of my favorite. To access it you will have to use Internet Explorer because it looks like it doesn’t work in Firefox. It is pretty advanced though, so you will definitely have to know what you are doing.

Another good free stock screener is Yahoo Finance Stock Screener. But make sure you check out all three to see which one is the best for you.

Stock screener is truly invaluable tool for finding good stocks so in the future I will talk more about it and how to use is to find potentially good stocks.

I thought of getting into day trading on many occasions, but never actually did it because it required too much dedication and time that I did not have. Day trading is actually a very stressful full time job, and very few profit from it.

So to be honest, I think I am glad I never became one. Day trading is extremely risky business and can lose you a lot of money in a  matter of minutes. Money that you do not have, because many day traders trade on margin.

The biggest lie about day trading is that you can actually make consistent profits with it! I have to let you know about the key factor that means you will not be successful unless you are very, very lucky!
There is no way on this earth that you can predict the day to day volatility of investments that are this short term!

Why?

Volatility in the short term is random and fluctuates like the lights on a graphic equalizer! There is no software or person in the world that can accurately predict this.

Most traders will avoid day trading like the plague, unless investing in ‘safe’ options like banks or government entities, with increases practically guaranteed.

If you see day trading systems advertised online and it very likely you will, always cast a skeptical eye over their profit claims, as they will not have hard evidence to back their claims. Don’t fall for the clever advertising that in most cases is compiled by people who have never traded in their lives!

You should be aware that their trade records are compiled with hindsight, after all if we all knew tomorrow’s outcomes today we’d all be very rich! Always check out the small print – the disclaimer – and they will tell you that the figures are hypothetical.

If you take one thing away from this blog post, please put the odds in your favor by looking at long term investments.

A high percentage of us dream of leaving our tedious 9 to 5 jobs to live the high life but don’t know where to even start looking for alternative means of income. Well you are here, reading this blog, which means you are interested in investing so why not take some steps to start making a living trading stock? Actually, you have already made the first step by visiting coolinvesting.com.

I don’t mean to sound too personal but how old are you? I only ask because the younger you start to start to learn and invest in stock markets the better. Just imagine being able to retire at 30. Perhaps they should teach an investing class instead of algebra at school!

You can’t really dive in blind folded and expect to make a substantial amount of money so to start of with it is all about learning, reading and then actually implementing the strategies.

Action is the key. Why not start by saving about $1000 and invest that in a low risk stock that will grow, even just a few percent. Then sell this stock and use all the money to reinvest.When you are just starting out do not be tempted to buy yourself any treats with your profits – no jewelry or fancy cars!

Reinvest it all until you have a substantial nest egg and can seriously say that you are earning enough from trading to be your sole income! How cool would that be. With proper knowledge and discipline it is very much possible.

Trust me.Take action. That is most important.

A few days ago we’ve taken a look at three of the main countries with exchanges – United States, England and Japan. Now lets have a look at one of the more obscure if you like countries that most people do not think of as trading nations.

Ireland for example has two exchanges the Irish Stock Exchange (ISE or ISEQ) and the Irish Empire exchange (IEX). The ISE actually came about through a merger of the County Cork and Dublin exchanges (both of which have been in existence since 1793).

From 1973 to 1995, the Irish Stock Exchange was a member of the International Stock Exchange of Great Britain and Ireland (now called the London Stock Exchange) but they broke the link with England in 1995. The ISE closed trading floor in Anglesea Street, Dublin 2, and turned to an electronic trading form called ISE Xtra. This is owned by Deutsche Borse Group which uses the same platform.

Even though it is not compulsory for them to do so most public limited companies use this exchange for their business. In more recent years the exchange has been under pressure with firms moving to the London and NASDAQ markets but this can only mean things can get better. As we all know with different markets in the past when things go down hill a bit they only have one way to go and that is up. This, I am glad to say, seems to be the way the Irish maket is going.

The Irish Empire Exchange is the newest of the two exchanges being launched on 12 April 2005. It was created to suit the needs of small to medium sized companies and for the ISE’s Developing Companies’ Market and Exploration Securities Market. It’s total listings so far is twenty two and requires a market capitalization of five million Euros.

The merger with the more successful Exploration Securities Market was envisaged to create a market of authoritative critical mass to appeal to micro-cap listings of Irish companies. Another reason it was created was so that the companies which had left the ISE market to go to London (because it was broadly less expensive) would have a choice to stay in their indigenous country.

The IEX has determined to be a great success as vivacious and vibrant companies such as Irish Estates, Abbey Homebuilders, AGI Therapeutics and Norkom used the market once they have come to it and finance an acquisition spree such as Newcourt and Irish Estates.

For future reference the IEX has seen an enormous innovation on the part of the ISE Trust. This is shown with the fact, that on opening the market had eight listed companies, has now grown to twenty-two. It is this quick growth and variety of business that the IEX should continue to succeed for many years to come.

We all hear of these weird abbreviations, with lots of different letters in them that don’t really mean anything to those who do not invest. They are stock exchanges!Okay let’s begin with some of the best known stock exchanges.

The London Stock Exchange is the original and one of the three most heard of and most used exchanges in the world. It may not be known by many but the London stock exchange and the Borsa Italiana have merged and it has alliances with eight other European stock exchanges.

This means they have created a leading and diversified European group that makes it a force to be reckoned with and is worth taking a long and hard look at.

Before this happened you may have known of the London Stock Exchange by the abbreviation ‘LSEG’. It is now the LSE.

You may have heard of the FTSE (Financial Times Stock Exchange), which is not actually a stock exchange but an index of the best performing companies within the London Stock Exchange.There are three main American stock exchanges, the first of which is the AMEX that started out in 1842. Let’s not get too much into the history of these things, although it does go back to colonial times, where almost everything about stocks and shares comes from. So let’s blame the British for making us all lots of money (why not they do it so well)!

Then there is the NYSE & the NASDAQ.

Out of the three major American stock exchanges, the AMEX (stands for American Stock Exchange) is known to have the most liberal policies concerning company listings, as most of its companies are generally smaller compared to the NYSE (stands for New York Stock Exchange) and NASDAQ (stands for National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations).Another major force in the world of stock exchanges is the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE), only established recently after the Second World War on April 1st 1949. This exchange has grown within business and popularity not just in the Western world but also has helped other companies and even governments within Asia develop within the world wide community.

Getting to know all these different exchanges is not difficult, but will need some additional research. We will be spilling the beans on these and more stock exchanges, so come back soon to look at more information on these and the lesser known markets which are up and coming and ready for your investments!

In years gone by, stocks were traded in a static place and still are (like the New York Stock Exchange on Wall Street), a building or somewhere where people can physically check and make decisions on the price for the commodity they are trading in. Everyone has seen the clips on TV and films of people waving their arms about shouting at everyone around them buy, BUY! Sell, SELL! What is not televised is the other side of trading – the virtual side.

This type of trading has happened for years before the Internet, it may have been a lot slower with telegrams, phone and even horseback! The one thing that people were not able to do centuries ago was use other countries stock markets each and every day. Now we can! Did you know you can travel the virtual world with your stock market investments even if you have never been outside your village, town or country? You can be that person shouting BUY or SELL at the computer screen in the comfort of your own home and by the click of a few buttons maybe make yourself rich.

On the Internet you can constantly check different movements, rates and fluctuations and make money from different stock markets both around the world and the clock! You can still trade, even when US markets are closed. That’s right, on foreign stock markets. As one market closes another will be opening. Just remember in between making money on different markets to get some sleep! While you are sleeping you can even earn money too, such is the nature of investing. So never forget that you can use different country’s stock markets. Of course, this requires additional knowledge so it is definitely not something beginners should get into.

Over the next few months, we will be highlighting some of the strongest stock markets around the world and why they would be worth investing in, along with some rather excellent investing tactics and strategies.

Today was a great day for markets. Dow Jones surged to above 14,000 for the first time in two and a half months, and the blue chip index rose more than 200 points. To be exact, Dow Jones is currently sitting at 14,087.55 which is its record high, ever, after rising 191.92 points, or 1.38 percent. Nasdaq jumped 39.49 points to 2,740.99 which is 1.46 percent increase and S&P 500 jumped 20.29 points to 1,547.04 or 1.33 percent.

The profit warnings from Citigroup and UBS apparently did not scare off investors, and it looks like they were eager to get back into stocks at the beginning of the fourth quarter after pretty weak third quarter. Because of the bad news from Citigroup and Swiss bank UBS AG many seemed very confident that Feds will make another interest rate cut at Oct. 30-31 meeting which will definitely send stocks up even more, so it looks like investors just didn’t want to be left behind.

Overall I believe we are in for a very interesting fourth quarter. Check out the 5 year Dow Jones chart bellow.

Yesterday was a huge day for stock market. Dow Jones has jumped 336 points, after Fed’s lowered the interest rate by half points. This was the biggest one day gain for Dow Jones in the last five years. And I am expecting markets to finish higher today as well.

Considering that most of you who read my blog are beginner investors, I will briefly explain why lowering the interest rate had such a dramatic, but positive effect on the stock market. Although interest rate and stock markets are not in direct relation, decrease in interest rates almost always reflects in stock markets going up. But why?

First of all, people who have their money in bonds and securities are now getting less back, because of lowered interest rates. So, they will usually reinvest that money into stock market. Higher demand will usually result in prices going up.

Lower interest rates give businesses more borrowing power. With more money on hand they can finance their future expansion, at lower rates, thus increasing the possible returns for investors. With economy expected to grow, more people are willing to invest their money into stock market. And on top of everything, most investors have expected a quarter points cut. Fed’s have decided to cut down interest rate by half points, which exceeded the expectations of most investors.

To sum it up, low interest rates are usually introduced when economy needs a boost, if unemployment is too high, and inflation low. Therefore lowering interest rates will give the economy a boost, but will usually result in inflation.

When you are ready to invest your money in the stock market, it’s usually a good idea to get advice from a stock broker. Stock brokers know the business and will help you to make the right decisions when it comes to investments. But sometimes it’s hard to know how to select one. This article will take you through the selection process and help you to make the decisions that are right for you.

1. Determine what you are looking for

Before you choose a stock broker, it’s a good idea to figure out what exactly you will need from them and what your goals will be. Do you want a broker who will focus just on investments, or do you want one that will also educate you and help with financial planning?

2. Compare notes on different services

Depending on what you want, you may decide to go with a full service brokerage firm, or a discount broker might be adequate for your needs. Discount brokers work at a lower commission, but if they offer any advice it’s very limited. You will pay more for a full service brokerage firm, but they also offer a wider range of services.

3. Ask friends and family for referrals

It’s always a good idea to ask people you know and trust for referrals and advice when it comes to choosing a stock broker. Once you have some names, choose at least three to speak to before you make your final decision.

4. Meet with the candidates

Next, you will want to meet with the candidates and get a feel for what they are like. This is a good time to find out about their special designations or training they have, what their philosphy is when it comes to investment, and how long they have been in business. This is also a good time to see how comfortable you feel with them. After all, you are entrusting them with your money so you want to feel as if you can trust them.

5. Find out what how they are compensated

Before choosing a stock broker, find out what the fees will be. This way there aren’t any surprises. It’s important to ask about any requirements in regards to minimum purchases, and what the structures for the fees are. It’s also a good idea to find out if they get more commission on certain types of mutual funds.

6. Find out how often you will hear from them

If you are comfortable with talking to someone once a month, don’t choose someone who is going to call you with every little detail of a change in the stock market. Find out how often the stock broker checks in with clients and take that into consideration when choosing a broker.

7. Ask the broker for referrals

It’s always a good practice to ask for referrals to clients who have similar goals to your own. If the broker is unwilling, then go with someone else.

Many people believe that penny stocks are the way to go when they first begin trading stocks, however, if they have not done their homework more than likely they will lose all the money they invested. Now, the question is can you make money with penny stocks?

The answer is yes! You must remember though that penny stocks are high-risk stock. You can purchase quite a bit of stock for hardly any money, but the majority of the time these companies are in financial danger or even on the brink of bankruptcy. Your chances of losing money with penny stocks is a lot more than if you purchase stock with the higher priced stock, but if you know what you are doing you can also make quite a bit more with penny stocks.

The main reason anyone buys penny stocks is that they are hoping for a high return. In most cases, you can buy penny stocks for anywhere from 5 cents and up. Therefore, many people can buy quite a bit of stock. Then if the stock goes up you can sell the stock when it gets to 40 cents per stock and according to how many you purchased you could have a large profit to show for your effort.

What you should look for when it comes to purchasing penny stocks are companies that are showing a steady growth in their sales and have a quality executive team. When Microsoft first started selling stock, it was considered penny stock and the price was only $2.50 per share. If you had only purchased 100 shares, look at the profit you could have made!