Hi!

I'm Boris. I trade stocks since July 1st 2016. In this post I would like to describe lessons that I learned while trading and would like to share my experience. Hope it will save you from making several mistakes.

1. How to act if the stock price is spiking very fast?
   
   If the stock price goes up VERY fast (like 100% in 30 seconds), place a limit or market order. Don't use stop order, because you can miss and loose time. Stock price can go beyond stop price before your place your order and it will never be executed. If you place a limit order at a price that is lower than current price or is the same, then your order will be executed. If you place a market order, it will be executed at the same price as limit order, but faster, because it takes less time to place a market order than a limit order. One more bad thing about placing stop order while a stock is spiking is that after your order is executed a stock price can reverse and start to go down and you'll start loosing money. So don't hope that the stock price will go up a lot and then you'll buy with a stop order. Buy low with a limit order and sell high with a limit order.
   
   
2. What order types to use?
   If you want to buy a stock at a bigger price use "stop buy" order.
   If you want to buy a stock at current price, use "limit buy" at a lower or current price or "market buy" order.
   If you want to buy a stock at a smaller price than it is now, use "stop buy" order at that lower price.
   If you want to sell a stock at a bigger price, use "stop sell" order.
   If you want to sell a stock at current price, use "limit sell" order at current price.
   If you want to sell a stock at a lower price, use "stop sell" order at the price you want to sell or at a slightly bigger price.
   
   Anyway stop orders got executed when stock price crosses the price mentioned in the stop order.
   Limit orders limit the buying price at the bottom and selling price at the top.
   Market orders are executed at current market price (if you're buying, it will be "ask price", selling - "bid price").
   
   
3. Before buying a stock be sure you understand where it will go. If you don't know the direction, make a research. Most stocks change their direction after you "understand" where it will go by just looking at the chart. Make a research about the company and its area of business in general.
   
   
4. Before buying/selling a stock, calculate how much % price should change in order to at least cover you comission to broker. After that double this amount so that you can get at least a small profit. For example, if you use E*Trade and have $500 in your account to buy and later sell a stock, than your comission will be $9.95*2 (approx. $20). So you need to earn at least $520 to cover comission. It means that the stock price should go up 520/500 - 100% = 4%. And if you want to get at least $20 profit, stock price should go up twice as that = 8%. Does your stock has a potential to go up 8% today or in a couple of days? If yes, you can buy it. If not, you'll waste your time and money. 
   
   
5. Don't chase random stocks, look for supernovas.
   
   This quote is from one of the Tim Sykes' videos, but I highly recommend to use it also. Don't trade stocks that grow 2%, 3% or 5%. Look and wait for supernovas that bring you 30%, 40%, 50%, 100% profit! Don't waste your day trades for small gains, if you are under PDT rule (like me).
   
   
6. Learn from the traders whose experience you can repeat, not from people who use hundreds of millions of dollars for 1 trade.
   
   It's always better to find something useful for your current situation, than for a "possible future you". You need to know what to do and how to trade now, not after 10 years. Also learning doesn't mean watching videos or reading books. Only if something clicked in your head and your way of trading became better means that you've learned something. 
   
   
7. If you failed, don't just recognize why you failed. You need to know what is the correct way, not the incorrect. Incorrect you can't use. Correct one you can use.

This post was inspired by Tim Sykes' post about millionare traders' habits. I just showed what I learned from my experience and wanted to make your trading better. Sorry for my English, I'm not a native English speaker.

I would like to appreciate profit.ly community for openness and sharing thoughts, trading ideas and alerts!

Thank you very much for reading!