Hey everyone!
I'm right in the beginning to this whole journey and after looking around the forum I still have a few questions stuck in my mind. My questions may be asking for subjective 'answers' but I don't feel I'm learning efficiently at the moment.
Briefly, my current situation is I'm in my early/mid 20's, don't have economics education 'yet' (interested in studying after I finish my accounting course), small capital but want to paper trade currently anyway, I'm interested in a majority of < 1 year holds in my portfolio (as specific I can be with my knowledge) and possibly more importantly I'm not yet familiar with many companies.
I am based in Australia and decided with the overwhelming amount of global stocks that I'd first get comfortable with local ones, which brings me to my questions:
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1. Taking the initial steps to trading how many different sources of news is realistic to look at and to what depth?
Right now I read the business section of Australia's Age paper every day and Financial Review on weekends, but by the end of the week I feel I've barely learnt anything of value. I don't know what I'm really looking for in the news (other than profit results) and I don't know if I should be reading every word of every article, or if I'm reading about nearly enough companies.
2. To begin my paper trading, and being as familiar with companies as an exchange student in a new school looking for friends, what approach would be a relatively decent one?
I understand many things are subjective and personal but I'm at a complete loss of how many companies to choose and how to narrow a selection down. At this point I'm thinking of a top down view, looking at sectors and choosing about 3-5 companies from different sectors to start with until I'm familiar with them.
3. Lastly, after choosing some companies, is it necessary to not only follow each particular company but their competing rivals in depth as well?
This may be a given that you should follow the rivals but as I'm very new I'm not sure how in depth I should look at them and again, what to compare other than net profit.
---------------------------------
After looking through the sticky posts and some other questions in this forum I still don't feel competent with my understanding on how to treat these questions above (perhaps overthinking things).
I apologise if these have in fact been answered and I failed to find them but it would be immensely appreciated for response and/or guidance regarding my concerns.
Sorry for the wall of text.![Thumbs down (n) (n)](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
Thanks for reading!
I'm right in the beginning to this whole journey and after looking around the forum I still have a few questions stuck in my mind. My questions may be asking for subjective 'answers' but I don't feel I'm learning efficiently at the moment.
Briefly, my current situation is I'm in my early/mid 20's, don't have economics education 'yet' (interested in studying after I finish my accounting course), small capital but want to paper trade currently anyway, I'm interested in a majority of < 1 year holds in my portfolio (as specific I can be with my knowledge) and possibly more importantly I'm not yet familiar with many companies.
I am based in Australia and decided with the overwhelming amount of global stocks that I'd first get comfortable with local ones, which brings me to my questions:
---------------------------------
1. Taking the initial steps to trading how many different sources of news is realistic to look at and to what depth?
Right now I read the business section of Australia's Age paper every day and Financial Review on weekends, but by the end of the week I feel I've barely learnt anything of value. I don't know what I'm really looking for in the news (other than profit results) and I don't know if I should be reading every word of every article, or if I'm reading about nearly enough companies.
2. To begin my paper trading, and being as familiar with companies as an exchange student in a new school looking for friends, what approach would be a relatively decent one?
I understand many things are subjective and personal but I'm at a complete loss of how many companies to choose and how to narrow a selection down. At this point I'm thinking of a top down view, looking at sectors and choosing about 3-5 companies from different sectors to start with until I'm familiar with them.
3. Lastly, after choosing some companies, is it necessary to not only follow each particular company but their competing rivals in depth as well?
This may be a given that you should follow the rivals but as I'm very new I'm not sure how in depth I should look at them and again, what to compare other than net profit.
---------------------------------
After looking through the sticky posts and some other questions in this forum I still don't feel competent with my understanding on how to treat these questions above (perhaps overthinking things).
I apologise if these have in fact been answered and I failed to find them but it would be immensely appreciated for response and/or guidance regarding my concerns.
Sorry for the wall of text.
Thanks for reading!