Find several solid companies, and learn their business inside out. Follow their price trends daily. When you see significant dips for no honest reason.

When you have a decent profit pull the trigger. I once made 2K on Ruger stock over my lunch break, and if I had stuck to my guns I could have made it 4K. I held when I should have sold, and it started back up in an hour. Got my ass in a bit of jam buying and selling in that short time frame since the buy hadn't closed before I sold. kek

If you want to be legal to make those short term gains get a margin account.

I don’t trade stocks. I buy solid companies…do that instead, buy to hold long term.

Discipline... have a plan and a stop loss ... never risk more than you can afford to lose. Also trade in a style the fits your life. I swing trade most of the time because it is low pressure and volatility. On Thursdays and Fridays if I can find a good option trade I maybe take it if it fits my parameters. .... Diamond hands and HODL are not trading plans .. ( full disclosure i do own GME ) but you must still have a plan. ... Remember Warren Buffets quote " the stock market is a mechanism for moving money from the impatient to the patient" .. or something like that. Plan ,study and don't jump into anything that you haven't looked at throughly. There will always be another trade , but money lost is hard to get back.

I can totally relate. Making nice profits when the market is stable, losing a week's worth of profits in a couple of bad days like earlier this week.

Educating yourself is super important. Stay away from YouTube channels promising easy profits.

Decide how active you want to be, day trading, swing trading or longer term investing and find books with tons of good reviews.

Over the last 3 years I've tried a little of everything, day trading and swing trading stocks, buying call and put options, futures, you name it.

My best advice:

1. In real estate they talk about location, location, location. In trading it is money management, money management, money management. To give yourself the best chance to be around for the long haul, keep your risk on each trade small.
2. Your highest odds are in selling options. You limit your upside on each trade, but you have better odds. If it goes wrong though, it can be catastrophic, so you have to be super disciplined respecting your stop losses.
3. Look into the wheel strategy. The account where I do that almost exclusively, is by far my most stable account.

Wait it out. Never plan to sell. Warren Buffet says that fwiw.

William J. O'Neil : " How to make money in the stock market" is a great book on how to read charts, look for the best of the best companies, when to buy, when to sale, and how to take profits. It's on ebay for around six bucks with five bucks for shipping. Ten dollars for an out of print book will save you immense amounts of money and frustration. Yes, I have a few stocks which I'm currently holding and I believe they will be profitable in the future. I'm doing exactly what O'Neil preaches not to do, but if I add up my potential losses they will only be a couple of grand. The upside will be anywhere from 200k to a million. It is very hard to buy into someone's time tested stock trading system, but O'Neil brings the receipts and he's the only one I like.

All the guys on the wall street bets page say they eat crayons. It must help, because, I mean... They ALL do it.

It's not called the casino for nothing...

Don't trade, invest long term.

Find companies with strong fundamentals that are underpriced. What to look for:

Earnings growth (EPS): At least 15% expected growth for the current and next year.

Price-to-earnings ratio (P/E): Must be lower than the earnings growth rate, showing the stock is not overpriced.

Dividends + Growth: I add dividend yield to EPS growth and compare against P/E to judge value.

Debt levels: Favor companies with debt-to-capitalization below 40%.

Stock charts: Prefer stocks showing upward momentum, not stagnation or sharp declines.

Don't trade on 'whims' unless you are using money you don't mind throwing away.

Try playing with fake money first!

This takes a lot of time and research - trade in a simulator for awhile https://www.investopedia.com/simulator/

edit also, I do a full analysis of my portfolio on the 1st of every month, looking at it every day will drive you crazy - I'm trading long term, I'm making about $20k/yr in dividends and interest and supplementing my fathers Social Security income.

If you want real education this is the best by far. https://pinnacleinstitute.com/

Simple - Don't be a "trader", become an "investor". Buy solid, buy for a 5 year or greater window. Hold. Profit. Only sell if you see the company has lost its way.