When it comes to the "How to's" of investing, there are many ways to go about investing with no real right or wrong answer. Some people want smaller, safer returns and other people are willing to take on a bit more risk for a higher potential reward. There is no one size fits all in the world of investing.

With that said, one of the most traded types of securities out there are stocks. There are three things that impact the success of all investors:

1. Strategy - The plan created to achieve the investor's goal.

There are an infinite number of strategies that can be utilized to achieve a goal. It is important to align the strategy with the objectives of the goal.

If the goal is to make a small and safe return, invest in something like Certificate's of Deposit (CD's) which earn an average of 2-3%.

If the goal is to beat the stock markets average annual return of 8-10%, invest in more volatile stocks.

The purpose of a strategy is to reach the desired goals of an investor.

2. Execution - How the strategy is actually carried out.

An investor's execution is heavily impacted by their mindset and emotions. When you’re making thousands of dollars off of the simple click of a button, it feel like an extreme high. Alternatively, when you’re losing thousands of dollars in mere seconds, the lows can be low. How you deal with these changes in the value of your investment is reflective of your mindset, which will determine the execution of your plan.

When it comes to investing in stocks, for example, where your goal is to make capital gains, the only two points in time that matter are when you bought the stock and when you sold the stock. Everything in between these two moments don’t matter. If you are up 10% before you sell, it is considered a paper gain and when you are down 10% before you sell, it is considered a paper loss because it is only true in the current moment. The outcome of your investment will only be set in stone when you sell the stock.

Having the proper emotional control is important when dealing with the highs and lows. 

If you cannot control your greed when your investment reaches your desired percentage return outlined in your strategy, then you may choose not to sell the stock at the previously desired amount. Then the stock could potentially take a turn and drop in value for an extended period of time. 

Takeaway: Nobody ever went broke from taking a profit. 

3. Investment Pick - How the investment actually performs

There are many factors outside of the control of investors that impact how an investment actually performs. For this reason, most advisors say that investing should be played like a long term game. Most of the things that can impact an investments profitability in the short term are not going to have as much impact in the long term.

The best way to be successful as an investor is to only invest with money you won't need in the near future. Be patient, do your research and get experience on an investment simulator before investing with your hard earned cash. This will help you avoid making costly mistakes.

As an investor, it is important to stay on top of any news related to your investments. This enables you to make the best financial decisions to meet your needs. 

Benzinga Pro makes filtering different news sources for relevant information a breeze. If you have your hard earned money invested, it is definitely beneficial to stay in-the-know of anything that can impact the value of your investment.

Benzinga Pro has many different resources that allow you to customize and filter all the noise on Wall Street so that you only get things of relevance to you and your strategy. This can save you a lot of time and money.

We highly recommend giving Benzinga Pro's two week free trial a chance. Benzinga Pro has many different resources you can access during this free trial period including a free 1 hour course that can help you understand all of the capabilities of the software and how you can customize the experience to meet your needs.

The very first thing you should do is invest a little bit of time to create a budget. When creating your budget, set aside some money to invest in your education and some money that you will be able to invest later on when you have experience and the proper education. As you will learn very quickly, the more money you have to invest with, the higher the potential return you can make.

Example: Earning 10%  profit on an initial balance of $100 only creates $10 in profit. However, earning 10% profit on an initial balance of $100,000 creates $10,000 in profit.

Takeaway - The more money you have to invest, the more money you have the potential to make.

Rather than immediately investing your life's savings, instead you should play around in an investment simulator. Stocktrak is an amazing investment simulator that allows users to trade real time with fake money. You get all of the experience with none of the risk! The best part is that the simulator is super cheap and easy to use!

Users can trade simple securities like stocks and bonds to more advanced securities like stock options and cryptocurrencies. Investment simulators are the best way to learn about investing. You're able try new investment strategies risk free. No matter the outcome, you always learn. 

If you were able to use a new strategy multiples times to make a profit, then you might be onto a good strategy. On the other hand, if you consistently are taking losses, that's also good as it just means you need to do the opposite of your current strategy. 

Remember this key strategy: buy low and sell high!

Once you have been able to consistently pull profits with some investment strategies, this is the time to test it in the real market. Before you go making any significant plays in the market with a lot of real money, take your time to practice a few real plays with smaller amounts that you can afford to lose. Investing can be emotionally difficult, so it is best to stay in your comfort zone.

When it comes to the "How to's" of investing, there are many ways to go about investing with no real right or wrong answer. Some people want smaller, safer returns and other people are willing to take on a bit more risk for a higher potential reward. There is no one size fits all in the world of investing.

With that said, one of the most traded types of securities out there are stocks. There are three things that impact the success of all investors:

1. Strategy - The plan created to achieve the investor's goal.

There are an infinite number of strategies that can be utilized to achieve a goal. It is important to align the strategy with the objectives of the goal.

If the goal is to make a small and safe return, invest in something like Certificate's of Deposit (CD's) which earn an average of 2-3%.

If the goal is to beat the stock markets average annual return of 8-10%, invest in more volatile stocks.

The purpose of a strategy is to reach the desired goals of an investor.

2. Execution - How the strategy is actually carried out.

An investor's execution is heavily impacted by their mindset and emotions. When you’re making thousands of dollars off of the simple click of a button, it feel like an extreme high. Alternatively, when you’re losing thousands of dollars in mere seconds, the lows can be low. How you deal with these changes in the value of your investment is reflective of your mindset, which will determine the execution of your plan.

When it comes to investing in stocks, for example, where your goal is to make capital gains, the only two points in time that matter are when you bought the stock and when you sold the stock. Everything in between these two moments don’t matter. If you are up 10% before you sell, it is considered a paper gain and when you are down 10% before you sell, it is considered a paper loss because it is only true in the current moment. The outcome of your investment will only be set in stone when you sell the stock.

Having the proper emotional control is important when dealing with the highs and lows. 

If you cannot control your greed when your investment reaches your desired percentage return outlined in your strategy, then you may choose not to sell the stock at the previously desired amount. Then the stock could potentially take a turn and drop in value for an extended period of time. 

Takeaway: Nobody ever went broke from taking a profit. 

3. Investment Pick - How the investment actually performs

There are many factors outside of the control of investors that impact how an investment actually performs. For this reason, most advisors say that investing should be played like a long term game. Most of the things that can impact an investments profitability in the short term are not going to have as much impact in the long term.

The best way to be successful as an investor is to only invest with money you won't need in the near future. Be patient, do your research and get experience on an investment simulator before investing with your hard earned cash. This will help you avoid making costly mistakes.

As an investor, it is important to stay on top of any news related to your investments. This enables you to make the best financial decisions to meet your needs. 

Benzinga Pro makes filtering different news sources for relevant information a breeze. If you have your hard earned money invested, it is definitely beneficial to stay in-the-know of anything that can impact the value of your investment.

Benzinga Pro has many different resources that allow you to customize and filter all the noise on Wall Street so that you only get things of relevance to you and your strategy. This can save you a lot of time and money.

We highly recommend giving Benzinga Pro's two week free trial a chance. Benzinga Pro has many different resources you can access during this free trial period including a free 1 hour course that can help you understand all of the capabilities of the software and how you can customize the experience to meet your needs.