Expert: Christopher Stone - 8/27/2005

Question
I have some questions:
- What is the target profit for swing trading as a beginner part-time trader?
- I read in stock news this formula: (num/num percentage) such as (3.1/1 64%) what does that mean?
- What are the symbols for main markets and indeces like (Nasdaq, NYSE,..) to get quotes for them?

Answer
Hello Ahmed,

I'll try to answer your questions in the order you gave them...

1)  The majority of "Beginner" swing-traders do not make a profit.  I figure it takes a newcomer to trading from three to five years to get the hang of it.  Some beginners are lucky and make a good deal of money, but most make the mistake of investing their money before they have invested enough time to learn the ins and outs.  For a beginner, reading and studying will bring more profits than trading for real money.  

2)  I have no idea what your numbers represent in the figure 3.1/1 64%.  You will need to give me more information if you would like me to answer this for you.  What is this a formula for?  

3)  The symbols for market indicies vary from web site to web site.  I'll give you some of the main U.S. indicies for Yahoo! Finance:

The Dow Jones Industrial Average is ^DJI
The Dow Jones Transportation Average is ^DJT
The Dow Jones Utility Average is ^DJU
The NASDAQ Composite Index is ^IXIC
The S&P 500 is ^GSPC
The Russell 2000 is ^RUT

If you need to look up the symbols for other indicies, you can do so on Yahoo! Finance by clicking here:

http://finance.yahoo.com/l

Thanks for your question Ahmed; I hope I was able to be of some help.

Best Regards,

Chris Stone