Shares to Buy or Sell in the Stock Market

Stock Market in it's simplicity

In a nutshell the best shares to buy are the ones that will make you money. Which market you invest in will depend upon how quick you want a return and how large you want it to be.

Consider the following advice of old:

‘Don’t gamble; take all your savings and buy some good stock and hold it until it goes up, then sell it. If it don’t go up don’t buy it.’

This is humorous but not practical despite the ring of truth about it. You must consider the options available and the best place to gather the information you need is via the New York Stock Exchange or NYSE for short. It is worthwhile to spend some time studying the NYSE and becoming familiar with its workings.

New York Stock Exchange share tips

By simply consulting this website you can look at the stocks that are the most active today and the information is refreshed every 10 minutes. This is very useful information for a small investor, or someone just starting trading, because you can see the volume of trading by the big hitters, You can view 30 of the most active shares trading that day.

NYSE Top 30

NYSE thirty of the best advancers

The volume and activity section above may not give you the information you want on what stocks to buy but this section showing share growth is not to be missed. Quite often you will discover new stocks and shares you had not considered or even heard of before. You will have, at your fingertips, the name of the company, the % changes in its price and the monetary value of that change.

Basic trade example

You have $1000 to invest and you buy shares at $10 each. For the sake of clarity and understanding we will omit the charges connected with managing and setting up a portfolio to trade shares etc. In time the shares increase in value to $11 each so your investment is now worth $1100 so you have made a 10% profit of $100. This is all on paper (or in electronic format) so you cannot spend your additional $100. To do so you must sell the shares. This is the dilemma for many people because you begin to think that perhaps the shares will go to $12 and then realise a profit for you of $200 for you. So, you wait, and if you are astute or lucky the shares might reach the figure you want. You must sell them now!

Stock Market game

It is not like playing Monopoly, this is for real so take your profit and don’t look back. So what, if the shares go to $15 each within weeks or months of you selling them at $12. Have the attitude that you no longer own shares in this company and that you made enough money to satisfy yourself relative to the risk you took with your money.

Selling shares and tax implications

When you sell shares you will be liable for tax on the profits you make. You can also offset any losses against your tax liability. And remember, the shares to buy are the ones to suit you, not your broker.

NYSE thirty in decline

Although these shares are declining they may be worthwhile as an investment on the basis that they will rise again, This section too is worthy of study before you commit you hard earned money to investing in shares. All the movement is recorded at 10 minute intervals as in the above sections.

More features of NYSE

Another features offered by the NYSE is the ‘ticker’ look-up symbol feature allowing you to find the symbols you need. For instance Bank of America Corporation is BAC and Motorola Inc. is MOT with the Ford symbol being just F. Other useful features allow you to look at company information relative to its data, news, profile and SEC filings. A single SEC filing is a formal document (usually a company financial statement) which has been submitted to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The SEC filings could have several of these documents catalogued, dated and listed under this tab on the NYSE website.

Learn from the Dow Jones

Study the best information available. A good point to begin would be the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA or Dow) which will give you a high level view of the world's economy. Put in the hours of study required to fully understand the vagaries of investing money and where to place your investments.

Judgement Call

Rely on your own judgement and don’t trust stock market software (which is available) to make your decisions for you. I strongly advise that you research and read as much as possible about where and when to invest your money before you start trading shares.