1. OPPORTUNITY. There are dozens of these every day, unfortunately you can't buy them all, so only pick the top 10 and then narrow them down to 2 to 3.



This is done by using your buying criteria which is part of your trading plan which you already have written down. (Hopefully you have one?)

2. BUYING and SELLING. I have a pre planned strategy which I have developed by trial and error; this was achieved by learning by my trading mistakes and the mistakes of others.

3. PATIENCE.This is definitely a virtue worth developing. Sometimes the market is going up in the right direction, but is not going as fast upwards as you would like.

Be patient and use a ?stop loss? to lock in those profits. However small they may be.

Also don't always be in a hurry to ?buy that next share? just because you have that money burning a hole in your pocket.

Do your homework and then you have chosen the right share for the right reasons and not just because it looked good.

4. STRESS.If it is hurting! Don't do it, cut your losses or be content with a small profit and get out. I recently got out of MPO as I did not feel 100% comfortable and bought AUZ and made a profit of 12.5% for one days trading.

5. THINK and PLAN AHEAD. After I have bought a stock and once it has been cleared. I immediately put a sell order in at the price/ percentage that I had previously worked out using my trading plan.

This trading plan is not set in concrete as it is revised usually on a monthly basis. And always be prepared to improve on it where necessary.

Depending on the volume and the stock's volatility I occasionally vary my profit margin upwards. If I do this, I always keep a watchful eye on its movement and put in a stop loss to lock in those precious profits.

6.HOPE.This has no place in a trader's plan, as Hope leads to procrastination (putting thing off).And this will lead to losses which you can ill afford.

7. WORRYING. The same thing applies as above; if you are worrying about a stock then it is time to sell it.

8. FUN. You should enjoy trading for if isn't fun then it's time to put your money into managed funds and quit trading.

9. RESPONSIBILITY. Take responsibility for your trading mistakes and learn from them.

No one else made you buy that stock.

10. CONFIDENCE.Have faith in your abilities. At all times be a ?Student? for you never know it all. And the minute you become complacent, something nasty comes along to bring you back to earth with a thump.

I hope these tips will give you some assistance in finding you profitable shares and improves your trading skills.