ANyone want to give me at least just a nameof a strategy and I'll look it up and figure it out myself. I just need a little push in the right direction. I'll figure out the rest as I go along.

TIA 

1. consider buying stocks with each of the last three years earnings up 25%, return on equity of 17%+ and recent earnings and sales accelerating. this shows that a company is under good management and is able to consistently beat expectations and make a profit. these will be your leading industry group leaders. i cant emphasize this enough, know your industry and the supply and demand for that industry. no one gives a crap if your selling a team with michael jordan in it, if the team sucks michael jordan wont be able to perform at his best.

2. recent quarterly earnings and sales should be up 25% or more

3. avoid cheap stocks. buy stocks selling for $10 or more. cheap stocks stay cheap for a reason. if you want to play that rollercoaster ride and get whipsawed thats your choice. there are VERY few exceptions but you better know what kind of business they are and their intentions. my friend got into pennystocks and has lost 80% of his money if not more and this is with long-term holding.

4. learn how to use charts to see sound bases and exact buy points. confine buys to these points as stocks breakout on big volume increases. patterns are good and all but i cant count the number of times ive seen patterns break and plummet. when i say buy points i dont mean try to catch a falling knife and pray you got the bottom. buy into strength and sell into strength as well. is a stock is down a crap load wait for confirmation that the stock is in fact rallying back to new highs. you can tell by above average volume on the trading day/week. and watch the stock!! watchlists arent meant to be used for a simple reminder, watch the price fluctuations daily and try to get a feel for whats going on in the minds of investors in these stocks; they're just as human as you are and have the exact same emotions, i cant think of a better tool for one to have in this type of market. the market is based on emotions, why do you think it is so unpredictable?

5. cut every loss when its 8% below your buy-in cost. make no exceptions so youll avoid any possible huge, damaging losses. never average down in price. if you get knocked out of a potential stock you believe will breakout just buy back into them when times are better.

6. follow selling rules on when to sell and take profit on the way up.

7. buy when the market indexes are in an uptrend. its just stupid to buy when the market is in a downtrend, once again you're trying to catch a falling knife.

8. read about the overall trend and news of the market as a whole, you may want to include treasuries, foreign exchanges, futures, etc.

9. pick stocks that have manager ownership, what good is it if you buy a stock and management doesnt own any of it? you want to see that these people have a part in their company because if the company does good so do you!

10. select stocks with increasing institutional and mutual fund sponsorship, you can access this through cnbc or any other site you like that has this data

11. check into companies that are buying back 5-10% of their stocks because that means they want less outstanding shares in circulation, thus increasing pps

again, this isnt just personal experience, hunch, or my opinion. these are textbook rules that a lot of us forget about when trading! 

Thanks for the time it took you to write this, I am sure it will help a lot of people just getting into this game. (myself included)

oil stocks

awolnine posted some great comments, I'll certainly look into that. As for me, I just started yesterday. I tried a similar stock game on a different site and did pretty well. But so far I've bought Walmart on the news that their earnings were better than expected. It went down over a dollar in one day : (  So much for that strategy. I always try to get stock in companies that I actually buy from. It's like supporting your own winnings. I know, sounds foolish...

I know sites like Yahoo rate their stocks with powerratings. Is this the same thing? If so, is it best to have a stock with a 1 rating or a ten rating?

Beware of others ratings, this is not a simple easy process.

Awolnine has given you some sound advice, follow it. Develop your own ratings, they will have far more value,

Happy Stock Hunting

depending on the site, each scores stocks differently and it depends on what type of investor you are and what your financial goals are. imo, ibd and s&p may have the most sound ratings, as for yahoo and other online sites, they base their ratings on short-term signals such as fast stochastics, macd, daily candlestick patterns, etc. which in this market are NOT helpful at all. the market is highly volatile and if you follow these ratings will get whipsawed a lot and left with half of your investment at very best.

ibd has composite ratings that rate stocks with ALL the stocks in the market and not just the industry. i find this an obvious way to judge stocks, but unfortunately ibd, to my knowledge, is the only one that does this. for example, an ibd composite rating of 99 means that that specific stock is performing in the top 99% of all the stocks in the market regardless of industry, unfortunately microsoft is not a 99 as everyone may think it to be, nor is aapl, walmart, etc. even though s&p rates them at a 4/5 star. first know how each site rates and if its just not based on technical analysis

Wow AWOLNINE,

The information you're giving sounds like you are doing very well on Wall Street Survivor and in the Real world of trading. Thanks for the information and I will use the information to stay in the game. 

Each stategy is different from person to person. Send a message to players who have been making profit, they are more than happy to reply, if you want you can add me as a buddy and I can introduce you to some of the top players to get an idea of where to start. Use the WallStreetSurvivor video tab to watch the latest Market news, you can find at least one good stock pick on one the channels. Good Luck!

 Thanks awolnine for the trading tips! I will try to implement them in my current trading strategies.

I just resently started, too. I have no idea what I'm doing most of the time. It's hard to predict anything, but I had the same question.

I suggest reading "Investing for Dummies" or something like that.  This book helped to open my eyes a little bit.

From my own experience so far, DIVERSIFY. Don't put all your money in one sector of the market. If your looking long term, don't go with a stock that seems to good to be true. If it's high, it could be one of those bubble companies that could crash big at any moment with big losses. With any stock you buy, set a goal for yourself of when to sell. I have a set percentage that I'll let the stock go to before I sell, either up or down. Don't forget to take into account the fee for any order you put in. It seems to be $10.00 on this site. So make sure you reach a profit above this fee.

CHECK OUT SRS BECAUSE WHEN THE MARKET IS DOWN IT GOES UP.  I HAVE IT AND MY FRIEND RECOMMENDED IT TO ME.  EVERY TIME THE MARKET IS DOWN RIGHT BACK UP IT GOES.  CHECK OUT GOLD STOCKS TOO.  I JUST BOUGHT SOME MYSELF.  I HAVE MY UP DAYS AND MY DOWN DAYS BUT THE GAME IS SURE A LOT OF FUN.  HAVE A GOOD WEEK-END

Some of the advice people give here is just self-explanatory. If you are looking to buy a stock, you would want to look at the ones that have gone up a significant value, not just in the past day but also in the past week and year.

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