subject: Your Stock Picking Guide [print this page] What is your stock picking method? Is it successful? These are questions that you need to be 100% sure of if you are going to make excellent returns. People that do well have and method and they stick to it. People generally don't do well and float from method to method.
A stock picking method that many amateur investors have is relying on recommendations made in the Sunday paper. I think the biggest problem in that is that it isn't their goal to make you money. It is their job to sell newspapers and this gives them an opportunity to 'sensationalise' some of the news which may bias they views.
A stock trading newsletter used to be all the rage. People would wait for them to get posted out each month then trawl through the recommendations. I really like them. I love reading why someone else thinks a stock will do well. If I can see their analysis than that allows me to learn from that. They often give updates on previous recommendations, like an ongoing commentary, unlike many financial papers.
These methods above generally make their recommendations based upon fundamental analysis as a way of stock picking. Something that is increasing popular these days is technical analysis. Technical analysis is more about analysing price movements rather than balance sheets.
Technical analysis, as the name suggests, can be quite tricky. I would suggest a technical analysis course before you started to implement this method. If can learn and apply it correctly though it will improve your trading performance.
You should always be analysing your stock picking successes and failures. If you aren't being as successful as you hoped then you should be doing something about it. Think about changing your system either by introducing a new method to compliment or switching it in its entirety.
