Becoming a successful share trader will require lots of reading. You'll not only need to learn how to make money when the market rises, but also how to make money when the market falls. For added safety it's a good idea to learn about trading options.
Learn the basics of the fundamentals, learn how to read the charts, learn about candlesticks. Learn how to spot a company that is about to rise, and how to hedge your trade in case it goes against you. How to buy to go up, but trade an option to go down, so you're covered either way.
Understand how volume changes price. Volume that is four times larger than normal, that shows up at a new high or low, can indicate a change of direction, especially if it's in conjunction with other indicators.
Learn about those other indicators, the Bollinger bands, MACD lines, moving averages, momentum, RSI, stocastics and market depth. Learn put and call options. Watch how the news can affect share prices.
Paper trading is a way to practice without using real money. Some companies offer virtual accounts where you can trade with an account, but not use actual money. A little like playing monopoly, only with shares. Keep a journal, so you have a record of what you've done right, or wrong.
Once you're familiar with the terminology, work out a plan and paper trade it. If your plan doesn't give you regular success, change the plan. Work on it until you have a 70% to 80% success rate. Then you're ready to go live.
Going live brings other elements into play. Those elements being emotions - fear and greed. Once you go live your heart rate increases. You wonder whether you've made the right choice, you start to second guess all the work you've done to bring you to this point. If the trade doesn't do exactly what you thought it would, fear takes hold and you sell.
You sell too early and the market changes direction and now you wish you'd hung on a little longer. This is why you have a written plan. You have a plan for buying and for selling. If you don't follow a plan and the market moves up, greed starts to set in.
You hang on past your profit taking point, when you know you should sell. You think that this is great, your making a nice profit. You hang on, even though your criteria tells you to sell. You wait another day.
The market turns and you start to loose the profit you've made. You think this is just a slight fall and you decide to hang on for another day. The trade is now going against you and you are looking at a loss. You tell yourself you don't want to sell now, not when your loosing.
The price never recovers and when the pain gets too bad, you sell. Follow your written plan. If a trade turns against you, you'll either have an option in place to pick up the difference, or you'll get out before you loose too much money. Alternatively you can pocket your profit. You can always buy in again after you've locked in a profit.
A lot of the time trading is about managing your money. Trade only what you can afford to loose. Take your losses when they are only small. This way you get to trade another day. Expect to make mistakes and loose money, particularly when you first start.
How much should you start trading with? You can trade shares with as little as $2,500. The only problem with this is that it wont give you much room for diversifying. $10,000 is a nice amount to start with. Or you can trade only options. This allows you to start with much smaller amounts, even as low as $200 or $300.
The costs of trading can be quite high. Brokerage, or the cost of buying and selling your shares, can eat into your profits, particularly if you start out small. You need to include these costs as expenses, otherwise you'll end up with a rapidly eroding account.
For beginners I suggest you trade only blue chip companies. Companies come and go all the time on the share market. While your only new at trading, stick with companies that you know will continue for the long term. Look for companies that move up and down in nice waves. You don't want to sit for long periods in a company that travels sideways for long lengths of time. You want to be making money with movement.
With the advent of computers, trading has become an easy way to earn money from the comfort of your home. However, until you're making consistent profits, don't give up your day job. It takes some time to consistently get it right and perseverance is the key to winning in the long run.