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the crowd takes when there is danger or exciting news to be announced.

A clear example of raw herd mentality behavior is the fire alarm going off in a crowed venue, everyone rushes for the exits hoping to get out first. Or if a lot of people want something that is in short supply and high demand, for instance bargains in the January post Christmas sales. In this case people charge to get in the doors hoping to snap up bargains before they sell out. Day Traders basically bet on the exits that the crowd rushes to and who is going to get in or out hoping that they get a bargain themselves.

The company chart is the main tool of the Day Trader. These can be found on the internet in a number of places such as company websites, the stock exchange, internet brokers or at an array of different research sites, who usually require you to subscribe before you can access all their information.

Charts are fairly simple to read they are just line graphs like the ones you may have had to draw when you were at school.

Professional Day Traders usually have their own "charting software" that they install on their computer to download prices from the internet. This gives them easy accessible "real time" prices at a touch of a button so they can follow "price trends" easily. They also keep an eye on the stock exchange for any interesting announcements that might affect prices.

To get your own charting software or to find out about internet brokers and research companies buy local investment magazines. These magazines frequently advertise all different types of software for share trading and research sources, including websites and newsletters. Evaluate each organization and compare them to make sure you choose a software package to suit your needs.

The next step is to get a "broking account" using either your bank if they offer this service or an internet broker and link it to a bank account that you are going to use to buy stocks. Alternatively if you don't mind paying extra for brokerage and would like a voice to help you with advice go for a full service broker.

Personally I recommend doing your own research and using an internet broker or a bank, that way if a trade doesn't work out you have no one to blame but yourself. Even professional stockbrokers have been known make wrong predictions, especially during market turmoil.

Once you have got yourself set up with your software and broking account all you can do is make a start and buy some stocks. You probably won't do too well at

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