Roger Kinsky - Online Investing on the Australian Sharemarket: How to Research, Trade and Invest in Shares and Securities Online

Share trading and investing are ideally suited to the online world. Share trading can be defined simply as buying or selling shares, whereas share investing is about longer-term share ownership and management. Naturally, in order to become a share investor you must first be a share trader by purchasing shares, but from that point on share trading and investing are essentially different activities. Share traders aim to make profits from short-term trading by selling shares at a better price than they paid for them, whereas share investors aim to grow their wealth over the longer term in order to create a nest egg for the future.

Traditionally, share investing and trading were carried out by offline brokers and advisers who arranged the trades and provided the information their customers needed. Nowadays this information is readily obtained on the web, and share trading can be carried out quickly, conveniently and cheaply online. Some investors still prefer to use a broker, and it is not my purpose to denigrate the offline method, but many investors and traders have moved online entirely. The reasons for this aren't hard to discover. Online trading and investing is cheap and fast, and a huge amount of information and resources is readily available, much of it at no cost. I am constantly amazed at the amount of free information and facilities that are only a keystroke or two away. For example, there are some excellent charting sites offering a wide variety of resources that you can access free of charge. In fact, in many cases the free facilities available on the internet are superior to those you might otherwise pay for.

This leads to what I call the Kinsky Principle': Never pay for any share information or facilities unless you are certain you can't access them online for free.

That said, if you decide to invest online you are basically on your own and need to make your own decisions without guidance from your broker. To do this effectively you need a certain level of knowledge and expertise, which is where this book comes in. It provides all the information you need to make sound investing and trading decisions. Reading and absorbing the information in its entirety will help you to develop and increase your expertise in share trading and investing. If you follow the many tips and suggestions contained in the book you should avoid disasters and tip the balance of probabilities in your favour.

This is the fifth edition of this book, which has been thoroughly updated to keep abreast of changes and developments since the last edition. As the title suggests, the book's primary focus is on investing, rather than trading in order to make a fast dollar in a short time period. Also, I concentrate on Australian shares and don't delve in any great depth into overseas investing or trading in some of the more exotic instruments such as currency (forex), options, futures or CFDs.

I've aimed to make the book completely up to date and error free, and my publisher has done a fine job of assisting me in this endeavour. In the real world, however, perfection is very difficult to achieve, so if you spot any apparent discrepancies, if you have suggestions for improvement or if you'd simply like to offer feedback, please email me at . I'll be very happy to hear from you and promise to respond promptly.

Finally, I wish you every success as an online investor and trust that this book will prove valuable in helping you to achieve your investment goals.

Roger Kinsky
Woollamia NSW
November 2020