Daily update:

Hi again. The stock I am currently invested in (Trevali Mining Co.) has gone up once again. :) Today it closed ↑1.1% Higher than Friday. Zynga, on the other hand, is now down to ↓$9.05. This is interesting because of all they hype it had... Now experts are saying it might drop as low as $6.00... Now I am kind of glad I didn't put any money into it. :)

Anyways, about that bar chart I promised to talk about today. That chart illustrates the volume of traders in the corresponding time frame. Green stands for buyers and red stands for sellers. The colors may vary from chart to chart. If you are checking out stocks and notice a high volume of buyers it's a good indication that the stock is going to go up. However, make sure you aren't too late if you do decide to buy. That's all I've got for today. I am currently learning a lot about candle stick charts. I recommend using a candle stick chart when you are studying a stock. I will let you know why in my next few posts. There is A LOT you can tell about a stock by using these charts.

James

The ADX indicator

Hello! If you remember, or were reading, a couple posts ago I said I would be talking about how to identify if a trend is strong or weak and which way it's going. However, I would first just like to say that the stock I bought yesterday (Trevali Mining Corporation.  TSX: TV) Has gone up $0.03 (3.55%)  Since I purchased it. That's like $20 in my pocket! Also, Zynga. The stock I was talking about the other day. The one that it anticipated to be as strong as google has dropped ↓5% from $10.00 to $9.50. For the people who got in early, this is a bad thing. But for anyone who still hasn't made a purchase, this could be a good thing. 40 million shares of this stock were purchased when the market opened. The stock jumped up 25% and then a lot of people sold bringing it crashing down to $9.50. Since then it has been pretty steady for the rest of the day. I don't think it is going to go much lower than that. I think it's all uphill from here for the next little while. Unfortunately I do not have money to buy shares. At least not that I am willing to spend. If my current stock goes well and I sell soon, I will be putting my money into Zynga if it hasn't gone up too much by then. My guess is though, that tomorrow a lot of people will buy it again and it will jump even higher than $12.50 and it will keep "waving" its way up from there. Never quite dropping as low as it did the time before. ANYWAYS! Enough of that!

How to tell what a trend is doing:  this is not a perfect science. But it sure is helpful. When looking at a chart you want to take note of what way the stock is moving. Is it trending upwards or downwards? Now, look at the ADX indicator. It is a horizontal line on a chart that ranges from 0 -100 (might look like 10-90)depending on the range it passed through during the time line of the chart. Here's an example, outlined in red, from the stock i talked about earlier. (TSX: TV)

If the line goes above 30 this is a really good thing. It means you are looking at a pretty strong trend. If you want to be really safe you would invest in stocks that are trending in an upward manner of 30 or more. The ADX will not tell you if it is moving up or down. Only how much "momentum" it has. It's up to you to decide if it is going up or down. A good way is to try and recognize the "waves" and "stages" I talked about in my earlier posts. If you looked at Zynga right now (as I am typing this) you would see that the ADX is over 60 right now! And this stock is not going down! Sorry, I got excited. Anyways, that's all I have for you today. Hope you learned something. Next time I will tell you about the bar chart above the ADX indicator :)

James

My first purchase. FOR REAL!

Wooo!  I just bought 600 shares of Trevali Mining Corporation THROUGH MY TFSA! It is listed on the TSX as TV. This is a Canadian company that mines copper and zinc. It is currently selling at $0.83 cents per share after a recent drop from around $2.30 earlier this year. Here is the Year To Date Chart.

As you can see it has clearly gone through stage 4 of its last cycle. I believe it is now leveling off and ready to go back up. I didn't decide to buy it solely on the fact that it has leveled off. That was actually the second reason why I bought it. Before I did anything, I looked it up. On December 7th this company staked five additional claims to mine at, adding 1,130 more hectares of land to its already 3764 hectare stake bringing it to a total of 4894 hectares. This is a good sign that they have a pretty good idea that there is more copper and zinc to be found. If that wasn't enough, today they have just received a lease for yet another mine in which they believe is full of zinc, copper, lead, and gold. The lease is good for twenty years and they are able to renew it for twenty more years up to a total of 80 years. This is a good sign that there is plenty to be dug up! Furthermore, They have already told Xstrata Zinc Canada's Brunswick 12 Processing Mill and Concentrate Complex to expect delivery of feed over the upcoming weeks. I am pretty damn excited! :)  I didn't buy a whole lot of shares, but this is my first trade. If I even make $5 I will be happy. Anyways, That's all for now! See you next time!

 James 

Happy X-mas, NASDAQ!

Today is the day that Zynga FINALLY registered an IPO. Look them up under ZNGA. This is the most anticipated IPO since Google! Google started at $85.00 per share and is now at around $620.00. Zynga started today at only $10.00 per share. I will not be buying any shares because I simply don't have enough money to make a reasonable purchase... Also, by market opening in the morning, Wall street will be packed with investors and there probably won't be any shares left to buy at around 9:05am. This stock is expected to make a lot of millionaires and even billionaires. I personally will be torturing myself watching this one for years to come, wishing that I maxed out my line of credit to get a piece. Just thought I would put that out there. This blog is now a piece of investing history. One of the many posts that was posted the day Zynga entered the public market. That's all for now.

James

Stages of a stock

Today I want to talk about the stages in which a will pass through. The basic rule to follow when trading stocks is: Buy low sell high! Obvious, right? But how can you tell if a stock is low or high? A stock at $200 could be considered low while a stock at 8 cents could be considered high... It all depends on where it came from and where it is expected to go. You should never judge a stock by its chart alone. Always research your stock and see if the company has any new developments or business deals that are very recent or happening in the near future that may financially benefit the company. There are four stages in a stock. Stage 1, stage 2, stage 3, and, you guessed it! Stage 4! Here is a basic line drawing that I pulled off the internet:

I heard somewhere that stocks are not a reflection of of what IS happening. But a reflection of what is going to happen. You can see that stage 1 is when the stock has come from a recent spill and is now leveling off. This is when an experienced trader will be purchasing the stock. Stage 2 is when it is starting to climb again. This is what happens after a bunch of people have purchased a bunch of shares. Simple supply and demand. More people buying, price goes up. Stage 3 is when the stock starts to plateau. This is when all the experienced traders are looking to sell. A lot of inexperienced traders such as myself may have just caught wind of recent developments in the company and can already see the price starting to rapidly increase. We want to buy! Bad mistake. Once all the big players sell off their shares there is now more supply than demand and the stock moves onto stage 4. The downward trend. This is where you lose your money. This is why you do your research. Don't follow every stock tip you hear. Now the stock will eventually move back into stage 1 and repeat. All stocks trade at different speeds. There is no way to tell what will happen and when just by looking at a chart. It just helps to know what you're looking at. If you look at a chart you will also notice that stocks do not climb and fall in such a smooth manner. They go up and down on their way through the different stages. These are called waves. Here is another picture to help you understand.

Stage 1  involves wave 1 and 2. Stage 2 is wave 3, and wave 4. Wave 5, and wave A are stage 3. It is very important to be able to recognize these stages and NOT to let your greed cloud your decision to SELL. If you are good enough you will be able to identify and sell at wave 5. Wave B and wave C are stage 4. You do not want to own shares at this time. That's all for learning today. I suggest that you go look up some of your favorite stocks and see if you can analyze the charts. Next time I will be talking about ways to identify how strong the trend is and how to identify it so you know when to buy or sell :) Here is a 3 year chart of Tempur Pedic International Inc. If you click it you can see that it has just entered stage 4 and either wave B or C. Time to sell!

Happy trading!!

James

Time to learn more!

So, I am still watching AMWI for the fun of it. It's all over the place. Up 50%, down 75%, up 100% more... I can see potential to make money from it if you are very intuitive and buy and sell at the right times... I do need to find new stocks to invest in though. I was thinking to myself... How the hell does anyone find the right stock to invest in? Nobody ever got rich off playing stock tips their whole lives... They had to go out there and do their own research... But where do you start? Well, if you know how to analyze a stock chart properly you would definitely have a head start. There is actually a formula to finding great stocks. :)  So, I will tell you what I learn about these charts as I go. As for now, I have a lot of reading to do! Talk to you soon!

James

Was AMWI a Pump and dump?

Today I was at work kicking myself for deciding to wait until the new year to get a less restricted investment account set up. The stock I am watching (AMWI) Was up to $1.40 a share from the $0.23 it was at when I tried to buy it initially. That is almost a 700% gain! But then at around 1:00 in the afternoon in plummeted all the way back down to $0.26 a share almost instantly. I still would have made money, but I would have been real pissed if I had have lost my 700% gain. Although, I probably would have gotten scared and sold it at about 100 or 200% Either way, it really sucks for all the people out there that had large quantities of money riding on this stock. This is a classic example of why it is important to do your research. No matter what. Even if you get the stock advice from a friend. I was talking to a man today, who's friend had tipped him off on a company called Bre-X Minerals Ltd. a while back. He bought in at just over $1.00 a share and it sky rocketed to $77.00 before he finally sold it. But it kept going up to about $200 per share and he was regretting selling. But what goes up must come down, right? Turns out the company was reporting false information to the media about their company to raise the value of it and sell all their shares in an attempt to get extremely rich. When they were finally caught the stock dropped right off the chart and millions of hard working people lost their pensions, life savings, college money, everything they had. In case you would like to read more here is a link to Wikipedia about the stock.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bre-X

Remember: Do your due diligence and make sure you feel comfortable with your decision before buying shares of anything.

Until next time,

James

What I'm looking at:

So, given my decision to not play the market until the new year, I don't have a lot to say today. I thought I would just let you know what stocks I am looking at right now and what's going on with them. If you click the ticker symbol you can see what the stock is doing right now and I also have their websites linked so you can learn about the company too. And if that's not enough you can always google them!

AMWI: 
Amwest Imaging Inc
http://www.amwestimaging.com/

This is the first stock I started watching. I started watching it when it was at $0.19 and wanted to buy it at $0.23. If you have been following my blog you would know I couldn't buy it through my TFSA so I missed out. 

Today it was up to $0.50 and closed at $0.38  That is a 165% gain from when I originally tried to buy it.. Sort of pissed about that one! ahah.

CFQ:  
Carbon Friendly Solutions
http://www.carbonfriendly.com/


KOOL:
Thermogenesis Corp.
http://www.thermogenesis.com/


That's all for today.


James

Blue Monday

I tried, once again, to invest in a stock today. And once again, I was told I could not invest in the particular stock through my TFSA. I'm starting to see a pattern. It turns out that many stocks are not able to be purchased through a TFSA. I think it's because in a TFSA you don't have to pay taxes on your money and any money that you don't physically transfer into that account yourself does not count towards the cap on your TFSA. You are allowed to put $5000 per year into your TFSA. Because I have never made a deposit as of yet, mine is currently eligible for $15K and will be at $20K as of January first. If I were to put $15K into my TFSA today and invest it into some crazy stock that exploded 500% I would have $75,000 in my TFSA, but only $15K of that would have been deposited by me and the other $80,000 would be allowed to be kept in the account without being taxed. The government would not be too happy about that! So, I have reason to believe that, that might be the reason why there are so many stocks I cannot invest in through it. So, I have decided to keep studying the market and all the rules that come with it until January first. I will then open up a new account that does not restrict what I can buy. I chose January first so paying taxes would be less complicated for me at the end of this year and next. I'm pretty sure the tax rate on investment earnings is about 25%. So remember to put that aside every time you sell a stock! You may even want to check with your financial representative on the exact tax rate in your area. Also, don't forget, when buying foreign stocks you will have to pay a fee to have your money exchanged into the market that you intend to purchase from on top of your brokerage fees. Hope you are learning from my blog. Have a good one.

James

Fiday... Time to rest my mind and get a little drunk too.

It's Friday night. I have not gotten far with my bank as of yet. I am still waiting for my TFSA to be linked to my brokerage account so I can use it online. In the meantime I have been all over the internet researching as many stocks as I could from the minute I get home from work until the wee hours of the morning. My brain is tired. I am so glad it's the weekend. I have been reading a lot into "penny stocks." Although there is no exact price that makes a penny stock a penny stock, it basically means any stock that you can buy for cheap. Not like Microsoft or Google and stuff like that. These stocks are like $0.01 to $5.00. Some people even consider $10.00 stocks to be penny stocks. Must be nice! There are good and bad things about penny stocks. The thing I like about penny stocks is you can make a lot of money on them. For example.. Lets say you bought 1000 shares of a stock that was trading at $0.05. Then the stock goes up to $0.10 in the course of a couple weeks or a month or whatever. You just doubled your money! Now, if you bought a share of Google at like $600.00, or whatever astronomical price it's trading at right now, and it went up to $600.05 you probably wouldn't even make enough money to cover your brokerage fees. It's all about percentages! Now.. The bad part about penny stocks: You can just as easily lose all your money too. Not only that, but there are also assholes out there that will flood the internet with newsletters, and posts, and what have you, about how awesome a stock is and how it's expected to soar in the coming days. ALWAYS DO YOUR RESEARCH! The people that push these stories have invested in this stock when it was selling at half a cent and are now trying to "pump" it. A shitload of people then catch wind of this and start "pumping" their money into it hoping to become rich over night. The stock jumps to $0.30 and the person responsible for all the hype dumps his or her shares and everyone else loses out. This is called "pumping and dumping." I bet you only thought you could do that to women! So you should always keep an eye out for a pump and dump stock. They are very common. Some people, however, have made a living chasing the pump and dumps. They catch wind of the hype early on and invest heavily into the stock and dump it before the pumper themselves decides to dump it. It's a good way to play off someone else's greed. But always very risky. You should probably wait till you have a lot of experience before trying to land that trick. Anyways, I'm going to go get drunk. Have a good one! Hope you learned something!

James

Trading day. Pt. II

From the cell phone:
I went to the bank before work and transferred some money into my TFSA (Tax Free Savings Account). Now I'm ready to buy stocks! So I call my broker and tell him what I want to buy and how much. He puts me on hold. I'm nervous now. My very first trade! :)  The man comes back on the line and tells me the stock I am interested in is not available for purchase through a TFSA... FUCK! What else can go wrong!? So now I have to go back to my bank and open yet another bank account. I guess I will use it as a secondary trading account in case this happens again... The upside though, I get to visit the extremely good looking financial representative again :) Maaaaybe she will feel sorry for me and I will get a pity phone number...
Thanks again for reading and I hope you are learning as much as I am about becoming a stock trader.
James

Trading day....

Well, I am sitting on my couch on hold with the bank... They can't access my account...

Piece of advise: Create an account with your financial institution well in advance of any trading you wish to do. Not the day before.

So far, I have been transferred to 3 different agents. 2 of them twice...  I now know my chequing account and TFSA account numbers off by heart and I can answer their security questions before they even ask them. The market is now trading and I still do not have any stocks... Although, my stock has just dropped 1 cent. I guess it's on sale! Being the lucky person I am, what will probably happen is all this will be sorted out just in time to buy the stock at a record low, just in time for it to skyrocket and make me fucking RICH! I'll keep you posted. Please hold***

♪♫ Doooo da beeeee ba do, do, do, beeeee do. Tsss tss, tss, tssss, beee do ♫♪

Thank you for holding :)

"We're fucking idiots and can't help you. Please go visit your local branch. Is there any onther way I can waste any more of your time today, sir? It has only been an hour!"

and THIS is why I created this blog. Please take note and don't make the same mistakes as I did. I hope I don't miss my chance to make some money. I will report back later. Right now I have to go to work and make up some lame excuse as to why I am late.

Until next time,

Sincerely yours,

Blah, blah, blah,

James.