Sell Covered calls and Secured Cash puts

Here is an excellent way to add some green to your portfolio.

http://seekingalpha.com/article/310015-generating-year-end-income-part-ii-cash-secured-puts

http://seekingalpha.com/article/308612-generating-year-end-income-part-i-covered-calls

Read Stock Charts and improve your winning

There are four components that make stock a winner

• Fundamentals of the company like company management, business model, margins etc
• Sector performance to which the stock belongs to
• Market conditions like investor sentiment, market outlook
• Technical Indicators that we will discuss

Each of the above four components carry 25% weight towards making a particular stock a 'WINNER' or a 'LOSER'

Technical Indicators, in my opinion, are the easiest to read and often result in profitable trades.
While there are hundreds of technical indicators, I will discuss the most basic and the most important. So, let us start and understand more about it.

To generate free Stock Charts for any equities, visit http://stockcharts.com/

In the  above chart, there are few indicators to understand as below
1) Relative Strength Index: It is intended to chart the current and historical strength or weakness of a stock or market based on the closing prices of a recent trading period.The RSI is classified as a momentum oscillator, measuring the velocity and magnitude of directional price movements. Momentum is the rate of the rise or fall in price.The RSI is most typically used on a 14 day time-frame, measured on a scale from 0 to 100, with high and low levels marked at 70 and 30, respectively. Definition taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relative_Strength_Index
The point to note here is that when RSI gets over 70, it is known as OVERBOUGHT condition whereas when the RSI falls below 30, it is known as OVERSOLD.
OVERBOUGHT and OVERSOLD are good signals to EXIT and ENTER the trade respectively as his visible in the chart.

2) MACD: It is used to spot changes in the strength, direction,momentum, and duration of a trend in a stock's price.The MACD is a computation of the difference between two exponential moving averages(EMAs) of closing prices. This difference is charted over time, alongside a moving average of the difference. The divergence between the two is shown as a histogram or bar graph.
Exponential moving averages highlight recent changes in a stock's price. By comparing EMAs of different periods, the MACD line illustrates changes in the trend of a stock. Then by comparing that difference to an average, an analyst can chart subtle shifts in the stock's trend.
Since the MACD is based on moving averages, it is inherently a lagging indicator. As a metric of price trends, the MACD is less useful for stocks that are not trending or are trading erratically.
The point to note here is that when the MACD line crosses the signal line and starts moving up, that is a good time to ENTER the trade and vice-versa when the MACD line cross the signal line on the way down, that is a good to EXIT the trade.

3) Moving Averages: Moving averages act as SUPPORT and RESISTANCE for the price as shown in the chart. As you can see in the char, GOOGLE tried to cross 50-day MA from Mar 2011 to Mid June 2011 and it failed. 50Day Moving Averages acted as a RESISTANCE. But when it finally closed above 50DMA, it literally flew

So as you can see, technical indicators give us a lot of clues as to which direction the stock is headed. You can base your ENTRY and EXIT strategies based on these indicators and end up on the winning side.

Click http://www.stocktradingtogo.com/2007/04/30/stock-charts-understanding-the-basics/  to understand all the fields in the chart.

Have a question? Please leave a comment and I would be glad to answer.
If you find it useful, please feel free to share it with your friends and family.

Want to invest in stocks but don't know where to begin?

About eight years ago, I was asking this myself. I wanted to invest in the stock market but just did not where and how to begin. With all the buzz words around, it is easy to get puzzled. With 24*7 news channel speaking of Armageddon every day, it is easier to get scarred as well. However, stocks by far offer the best returns than any other investment considering the initial investment.

The beauty about investing in the stock market that you can begin with as little as $100. You don't have to be a PhD. in finance to make money in the stock market. Yes, the market will go up and down but if you choose your investments wisely, you should be just fine.

It was just three years ago in Oct-Nov 2008 when it looked like the 'End of World' is near. Dow Jones was down to low 6k and S&P 500 index was down to 660. 

Instead of getting scared of these time, don't you wish you had bought GOOGLE then at $250 or APPLE at $78 or CHIPOTLE at $40. There are so many great names that were trading at unbelievable discount. Don't we go shopping at such huge discounts. 

The fact is that media makes more money putting a grim picture as more people tend to watch the news. But the news channels over blow the issue by talking about it day in day out like debt ceiling and European debt fears. When we hear the same bad stories over and over again, we tend to believe in it.

So, consider stock market an investment option just like fixed deposits, investment property, gold etc.

In order to begin investing in stock market, the first thing you need to do is open a Brokerage Account. There are numerous firms that you can look at like Fidelity, Scottrade, Etrade, Bank of America etc.
Once the account is opened, start funding your brokerage account. You may choose to transfer every week, every month or every quarter or whatever frequency you like but invest only the amount you can afford to loose. In order words, if you were to loose every penny in your brokerage account that should not affect your day-to-day expenses. INVEST not GAMBLE

Options are a wonderful investing tool. You can follow the below link to learn the basics on options.
http://www.cboe.com/LearnCenter/Tutorials.aspx

Some investment strategies for beginners 

• Invest no more than 60% of your funds at any time. For example, if you have $10,000 in your account, invest $6000. Keep the remaining $4000 for times like Oct 2008 or Mar 2009 or May 2011 when the market undergoes deep correction. 
• Have no more than 3-4 equities in your account at any time. It is very difficult to track news on your portfolio if you have more equities.
• Be diversified. For e.g, Technology sector, Materials, Finance etc. You should never have all the equities in your portfolio from the same sector
• Buy the share of the best companies in their field. Even if the big names like google, apple, J P Morgan, Mastercard go down with the market, they recover quicker than others. You are less likely to incur huge losses. 
• Set your targets with every trade. Before placing a trade, you should have a target for entering and exiting both on the up and the down side. 

I hope this will alleviate your fears. So, consider giving it a try

Have a quick comment or a question? Please post it and I would be glad to answer.