Trading: Which Classes

So you've made the decision to learn how the trade the stock market and now you're making a list of the topics you need to cover in order to obtain the education necessary to make money. There are so many areas that need to be discussed that an individual could be overwhelmed with little trouble. Here are topics that should be required for anyone who is interested in whipping up on Wall Street:

• Options basics: Buying an option gives you the right, but not the obligation, to buy or sell a specific stock at a set price on or before a set date. Being able to trade options gives a trader a chance to control more shares of a stock at a lower per-share price. Being able to buy and sell options opens up many strategies that aren't possible for those who only deal in stock.
• Reading price charts: The primary skill needed for anyone is the ability to look at a stock's price chart and perform adequate technical analysis. Many experts believe that they'd make money if left only with a stock's price chart. That's why the ability to read a chart is so important.
• Candlesticks: Line charts offer limited information and bar charts provide the data in a form that's difficult to read, but candlesticks seem to jump off the page. Reading the candlesticks can be done at a glance and sometimes provide emphatic clues about what to expect from the market.
• Support and resistance: By being able to determine the price points at which a stock trades, an individual can determine whether to expect a stock's price to rise or fall. Breaking through either of these price points can be an important sign.
• Moving averages: These show the average place where the stock has traded and can often be used as support or resistance lines.
• Bollinger Bands: This indicator shows the impact of market volatility and can foreshadow which direction, and with the impact, that a stock moves.
• Trading strategies: Start with the basics of buying call options and put options, and then move on to the more complicated strategies, such as covered calls, naked puts, strangles, straddles and credit spreads.

The main thing is to improve your stock market education by attending class and sharpening your trading acumen. Once the knowledge is in place from the classes you take, it's possible to practice what was taught and eventually incorporate it into actual trades.