People want success in life but a lot of the time they aren't prepared to work for it. In fact they will put a lot of work into looking for something that requires no work to do! Stock trading is no different to that and that is why many people are unsuccessful at it.

So what can you do? The good news is that there are lots of things that you can do to improve your stock picking skills. You can read books or a stock trading newsletter, go on courses or get a mentor. Or even good old fashioned practicing.

If we look first of all at reading... I love reading books on stock trading. I have many on my bookshelf and I would recommend that you do the same. Please be warned that if you start buying lots of books then make sure you have time to put what you learn into action.

A stock trading newsletter is the next progression after you have read the books. The books give you a solid grounding of the theories and how the systems should work in practice. The difference with the newsletter is that it will use these theories to give tips about stocks today. It is always wise to see their track record before you act on any recommendation.

For many this is all they do. I don't know why they don't take it a step further. Why not try technical analysis? It is so easy to find a technical analysis course these days and you should be able to learn quite quickly. Just think of the results you can get if you combined your technical and fundamental analysis together.

The best way to learn anything in my opinion is to combine your own experience with that of someone who has been successful. That is where mentors come into their own. If you like the research in your stock trading newsletter then you can think about approaching them. You never know the response that you will get.