Stock Trading is one of the highest paying profession which can be expertise through proper learning, practice and patience. This article as the title suggests is purely a beginner’s guide to stock trading. Here I am going to explain the steps to be followed which can help a beginner to start his journey of stock trading in an easy way.

1. Opening Trading Account

   There are many stock-brokers out there. Open a trading account with a discount broker like Upstox or Zerodha. The charges of discount brokers are minimal when compared to a full-service broker.
   
   Nowadays opening a Demat account can be done in as less as 24 hrs. Check the user reviews before account opening. Compare the web and app interfaces of the trading platform of the brokers and services provided by them.
   

2. Time to Learn

   
   Now you have a trading account. When you open the terminal you will find candlestick charts. As a trader, you should know how to read candlesticks and their patterns. For that, you need to learn technical analysis. You can learn it HERE

3. Money Management

   On the internet, you can find everything about trading but only few will explain in detail about money management. I consider it as a HOLY GRAIL OF TRADING. If you invest in any business the profit should minimum twice your investment. This is the basic rule to become successful in trading also
   
   
   
   Due to the lack of money management, many traders fail to make consistent money in the market and wipes their account. Trading is all about probability you can’t be right all the time.
   
   With proper money management, you can be on the profit on a longer time scale. Trade like a casino. Casino’s make money on a longer time scale because of the statistical edge they have. We need to follow the same here. Make money management as your edge.

4. Virtual Trading
   

   After learning technical analysis and money management, I hope you got some idea about trading. You might be excited to jump into the markets with real money. But wait a bit, there is something you need to do before that.
   Now you need to do paper trading or virtual trading. In a virtual trading account, you will be given virtual money to trade real markets. Now you can test your skills on real mistakes.

5. Maintain Trading Journal

   To become successful in life, one should learn from his mistakes. In a similar way in trading also you should record all your mistakes, profits and losses. At the end of the day try to write the reason for entering a trade. This is very important. Make a habit of it.
   
   “Many traders enter markets because they want to trade but not to make money. That is why trading became a profession where only 10% make money and remaining 90% blows their accounts.”
   
   
   
   Solution for the above problem is to trade when you get a signal from your setup. Enter trade with proper money management. Don’t just jump into each and every trade. Watch your risk to reward ratio.