Trading Stocks: How Trading Stock Shares Can Make or Break Your (Trading) Day Some people have a sixth sense knowledge of how to pick a stock. They can close their eyes and their magical knowledge will lead them to the stock that is about to blow up sky high. Maybe they are just lucky. Maybe they pay a little more attention to the financial news than others do. No matter why they are successful, they are and in this particular time, that is a rare thing to find indeed. Trading stocks sounds like a fairly easy proposition if you think about it. We all understand the concept of “trading” and we all have an equally fair understanding of what a stock is. But trading stocks is not as simple as it seems and can lead you to quick financial ruin if you do not have some semblance of an idea of what you are doing. You do not walk up to a broker and trade so many stocks for the equal number of a different one, it just does not work that way. When you consider that the financial market system has a capacity for handling literally billions of trades each and every business day, it can really boggle the mind. If you are new to the stock trading market, it is better to seek the advice of a broker and to work with them until you are more confident in your abilities as a trader. Make predictions on paper alone and track the stocks movements to see how much you really do need to learn. Once you are comfortable with this “mock” trading you can spread your wings and start trading stocks on your own. A “trade” is the act of buying or selling stocks- period. Although there are many complicated terms and jargon involved with the stock market, this is one that is straightforward and should be simple to comprehend. It does not matter if you wish to trade ten shares or ten million shares, the term remains “trade” in the end. Trades happen in one of two basic ways, either electronically (online) or on the exchange floor. Many markets are moving their trade activity to computer networks rather than on the exchange floor for a variety of reasons. In fact, experts are debating how much longer there will be an actual “trade floor” that involves real people shouting back and forth. While it is tradition and time honored, it may not be as cost effective or fast enough to remain competitive in a computer based world any longer. Although it will not eliminate the broker from the activity- (the novice and casual traders will not have access to all market aspects) it will potentially speed up the process and lower some of the costs involved.