10 Tips to Getting Started With Technical Analysis

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Taking the Guesswork Out of Investing

I don't have any secrets or special insight into what the markets, stocks or options are going to do. Quite simply, I'm just a math geek at heart. Patterns and probabilities are my comfort zone, as analyzing charts opens up my trading account to endless possibilities.

The more you know about the securities you're trading, the better your returns will be. Understanding how they've traded in the past, what their trigger points are, what the classic chart formations mean and the time they take to play out, and which signals mean a stock is going to stumble or soar, means that there's no reason to guess where a stock's heading next.

And when you're anticipating a significant stock move in a short period of time, well, what better way to play it than by buying options? In this time of market uncertainty -- where it used to take certain stocks a year to move 20% and now it might only take a week or even a day to cover the same amount of territory -- there's no reason why you shouldn't be trading (in particular, trading options) to take advantage of those quick swings that can lead to even quicker profits.

Next: The Basics