Shares

Everyone can find out the price of shares by looking at the live ticker on your stock trading charts. But the price of shares aren’t set in stone. Stock prices are always in a state of flux, moving up and down at the mercy of the constant pull and push of supply and demand between buyers and sellers. How about the valuation of shares? The value of shares depends on who is looking at the stock. It’s all about perspective: where there is a buyer, there is always a seller and a trade is made when an agreement in price is completed.

Whether you phone through your orders or do it online, being part of the sharemarket and buying and selling shares has never been easier. So you want to invest in the sharemarket and take a slice of what you hope will be some serious profits? Firstly, consider why you’re investing and take a look at your long-term financial goals. Are you investing for capital growth, income or a combination of both? What are your spending commitments? What can you afford to spend initially and then on an ongoing basis? What is your investment time frame – 5, 10, 20 years?

Shares are yet another vehicle by which you can invest your money. Like any investment, shares are not so much about making money for money’s sake as they are about helping you to realize your dreams, achieve your aspirations and secure your future. They could help you pay off your mortgage, enable you to take that long-awaited family holiday, ease the burden of retirement or help the kids secure their first home. Once shares start working for you the choice is yours.

There are many fools trading in the worldwide markets. Trading stocks, forex or commodities anyone can make these dumb trading mistakes. But to be a highly successful trader you must admit to your mistakes and act to fix your previous follies.

Trade Without a Plan

Want to take a break from share trading? Or want to extend your trading profits into a safer diversified sharemarket investment? Well here's how. The process to investing in shares is similar to trading but remember the end goals and the day to day actions are totally opposite to trading. Investing is for the long term. And in the long term the investor would be riding out the peaks and troughs: the volatility of daily, weekly and monthly market fluctuations. Being an investor means that you’ve got to step back and look at the bigger picture.

Bank stocks trend lower due to an anticipation of an interest rise in US: The sharemarket receded further at noon as base metal prices weighed on the resources sector and anticipation of a rise in interest rates in the United States sent bank stocks south.

But petrol and oil companies were rosier, lifted by a surge in the oil price.

At noon, S&P/ASX200 was down 21.7 points to 4590.2, while the All Ordinaries had slipped 20 points to 4542.2.

ABN Amro Morgans Ipswich manager Tony Russell said it was a quiet day on the market, and the bourse was waiting for further leads from New York.