Commitments - Learning the Stock Market

Before you set out to trade the stock market, you should first look at your personal planner. Take a look and make an honest assessment of the demands on your time. If your calendar is booked, chances are pretty good that you won't have the time to learn how to trade the market unless you're willing to move some things around. That weekly book club meeting might have to go. Do you really need to play in two softball leagues? Do you really need to watch another season of that stupid reality TV show? If you're serious about learning to trade the stock market, you'll have to make a serious commitment. Anything less and you won't be able to achieve the desired results.

Here's the sort of time commitment you should make:

• Set aside at least two days to take a comprehensive stock market education course. The Market Essentials course offered by BetterTrades comes through most areas of the country on a quarterly basis and is a great place to begin your education.
• Set aside at least an hour each day to work on technical analysis. This time should be used to practice reading charts, learning to draw support and resistance lines, and seeing how to use the various technical indicators.
• Set aside time each night to look for stock market candidates. It's an easier job if you establish a list of stocks to watch on a daily basis, either by finding candidates in financial publications (like the Wall Street Journal or see on cable television programs) and learning to track them. You can also purchase a scanning or filtering tool that will find candidates that meet specific criteria you set, thus giving you more free time to do things you want.

Like any activity, students who want to learn how to trade the market will make it happen. Just like you can't learn to play a musical instrument or learn to play a new sport without putting in the time, you won't be able to learn to trade the market without a time commitment. Put in the hours at the beginning and you'll still be in the game by the time they blow the final whistle.