Why the stock market is the easiest market to trade

I think this discussion of what's easier to trade is pointless because it depends on your strategy.

What's easy to trade for a person could be impossible to profitable trade for another, for me forex is the easiest market to trade and it's not even close, for fundamental traders it may be impossible for them to profit in forex but they can easily profit in stocks and of course they will find stocks way superior.

One practical disadvantage of stock trading for small account traders, is that you need at least 25k USD in your account to avoid the Pattern Day Trader Rule.

There's no such rule for forex accounts.

even brain surgery becomes easy once you know how to do it

so yes FX is easy.

You can hold stocks for long term in your trading account without any charge. Even its very easy to trade in stocks rather than commodity becuase in commodity market you have to carry on all of your trades for next day which has some charges. So stock market is the easiest option to trade.

Transaction cost in the forex is obscenely high.
You get what you pay for...
I am stuck with forex for now ... soon I will "graduate" from forex and move to futures.
Forex is a sandbox where the kids play, futures is the real world.
Ok to learn with forex but it's a joke, really, eventhough there has never been a transaction cost low enough to save me from a bad trade...

True, but what prevents you to play with futures right now? What do you like most from it?
By definition, isn't forex a kind of future contract?

I cant agree any more.
Not only that trading stocks is way much easier, but also anybody with some experience in trading stocks can find stocks with great volatility, great potential for explosive moves based on simple transparent indicators and read out of price action with certain volume . Oh VOLUME what is that? Something you wont be able to ever see in Forex markets, the key most valuable ingredient to figure when, and how much the stock can possible move. Oh currencies have no gaps right right ..but SO WHAT??
if you are good trader and understand the risk management, if you understand the size of your trading account, the allocation of the capital amount to each trade, the ATR of the stock, then the gaps should be the least of your problems. so much to talk about this but my time is limited,,salud and happy trading

If you mean "Easier to trade" in terms of "easier to make money; then it's not.

In the stock market it just takes longer to lose all your money.

Why would you say that when you can sit on the bid and ask, and as long as you are sufficiently capitalized your gaining of the spread and overcoming basic transaction costs should on a long enough timeline provide a basic edge and profits.

No market is inherently easier or harder than any other market. Forex, stocks, options, commodities, futures - it's all the same. Price goes up, price goes down. Traders go long, traders go short. Some traders are smart and quick, some are slow and stupid. You think stocks are easier because you can see growth potential in a company? Guess what, so can every other speculator with the same information as you. The smart and the quick will always get in first, leaving the slow and stupid to get in at the worst price.

What matters is that you put in more effort than most people participating in your chosen market, you become the smart money feeding off the dumb money. Which market you choose doesn't really matter, the principle is the same - if anything this means in theory forex is easier, since the intelligence and competence of the average forex trader is much lower than that of the average stock trader.

I don't know...., have you ever read the yahoo finance message boards particularly AAPL's.... ..... for entertainment purposes that is.

There are some good advantages and some disadvantages. you have to create the some more techniques for that forex is easier way for it

This guy hits the nail on the head.
All instruments have their idiosyncrasies, and to some extent they also of course have similarities.
As somebody else said, the upwards drift of stock markets is one thing, but that's very long term investing, and investing isn't trading.
Furthermore, one's success trading even the same thing can vary depending on the method: floor/pit traders reportedly find it extremely difficult to "cross over" into the world of computer-based electronic trading, as I imagine most electronic traders would find it extremely difficult to land in the pit and have to earn their crust there.

Whatever you trade, you've got to accept one thing: you don't know what's going to happen, unless you have inside information. And sadly, this is something that most of us do not have.

I am not taking side of any instrument, but i want to add that Forex market is giving you more opportunity then stock market. Similarly Going with a 24/7 market needs you to be more updated about economic conditions and certainly forex bring more life to trade.

Basics for Forex would be to understand technical side of pair + economic update always going in search of right opportunity. Where in stocks go for right stock in portfolio with lot of number checking, fundamentals if short term then Technical bla bla..

There are some good arguments brought forward by all contributors : here are some of my ideas and experiences in a nutshell.

1. Forex was a few years ago the sudden possibility for the smaller guy ( retail ) to start out with trading, even if he/she didn`t have the 25K/30K in order to daytrade stocks. Plus the leverage made it attractive. Price action was fairly predictable, even simple intraday pivot strategies worked quite well. If you had the discipline and focus, you could make quite a nice sum by accumulating small gains.

2. The FX game has changed, we saw one of the lowest levels of volume in FX last year, and it is not going to change, on the contrary ( confirmed by bank traders I personally know ). Many big banks have drastically reduced their investment banking units, and there is MUCH less proprietary, in-house trading ( also due to ever tightening regulations ). This is reflected in day to day activity. Just look at EURUSD during the day, there are often many hours where price will only hover around a 10 pip range, held by algodriven computers. Big market maker activity, eg luring retail in the wrong direction for 50 pips, then reverse ? Not happening, too much risk for the market maker.

3. Therefore, as FX IS indeed a trending market over time, in my opinion ( at least this is what I will be doing in 2014 ) the focus lies in waiting for the 2-3 big macro themes that occur in a year. Examples for macro trades : Draghis committment " we will do everything we can to support the EURO ", - see the rise in EURUSD after that. Similar macro trades : the AUD drop, the Yen weakness ( "Abenomics" ). In other words : I wait for monthly, weekly and daily charts to line up, PLUS the fundamentals justifying a trade.

4. I would additionally like to point out something that almost NO retail trader seems to understand, especially the intraday crowd : big banks think in terms of individual currencies and their strength or weaknesses. They have heatmaps or visual graphic representations of the strongest and weakest ( single ) currency and match this. There are only a few intraday traders that understand this. They also understand that a " pair " is actually a derivative of a derivative, it is a singular or arbitrary combination. Thus technical analysis is much less applicable than lets say a stock like Ford, where you only have 1 financial product ( the stock itself ), price in 1 currency ( USD ). We will leave the sector strength issue away for now.

5. Since 3 years I mainly trade stocks, equity and index options ( 90% ), the rest is waiting for some unique and obvious trend behaviour in FX.

6. I personally have learned to LOVE stocks. It is such a positive feeling to trade on real exchanges, with a real trading platform like IB or Schwab for US, others for Europe stocks. I LOVE having the volume, as I use Wyckoff phases, point & figure, median lines and cycle studies. And it works without constantly having to think : oh wait, was this just a trick by big money etc etc. I mean you can get quite paranoid and exhausted by this FX game. Even Indices like the E-minis are much easier than FX. The other aspect with stocks : I love to invest and trade in tech stocks, energy and resources, biotech etc. It keeps my mind open for new advances in technology and society, much more gratifying than FX. I remember quite often that even after a 200 pip move in FX I felt quite empty. OK, I made some money out of money, nice game. So what ?

7. It all depends on how much capital you have and if you trade just on your own or not. If you have an account less than 50K, I suppose it is human to try and use leverage in FX. Above 100K I would switch to currency futures and E-minis. Above 500K : welcome to the Cigar Lounge and Grandpa`s armchair ! Stocks and options, diversify internationally, have your focus on hidden value stocks - gone are the day where you NEED to become rich. You now enjoy life and love, plus build wealth for your grandchildren - without taking all of this Wallstr. game too serious.

I wish all of you a healthy & prosperous 2014 !

M.

Stock is easier because you bet on positive direction. Forex is very unpredictable gamble but a controllable business. In-fact , Your intelligence plays a huge role in forex.

Don't use the word gamble when it comes to FX. Everything in life is a gamble there is never a 100% thing.

Does anyone know if NYSE and Nasdaq have a limit up and limit down?
If yes, what is the maximum gap the next day could have at open compared to the previous day's close? What % is the limit up and limit down?

Intelligent well written post

Your signature "Be like water" is it a Bruce Lee quote?

The stock market is easiest to trade for one very simple reason, any Joe can go into an outlet with a wad of cash and buy stocks. You don't need anything else, maybe you might have to satisfy some clerk that you are not money laundering.....

But that is actually not trading, it is investing, so for trading why would you pick one market over any other?
It has to be related to the time-frame used to measure a 'trade'.

There is a fundamental fact about stocks that makes it easier to understand the market - they are only worth what somebody else is prepared to pay for them. If you cannot find a buyer then stocks are worthless. Maybe you never thought of it in that way. You might think that is true of currencies, perhaps to an extent, but for the majors they are never going to crash to zero value in an instant nor in a few months. With individual stocks there is a long list of culprits that have gone to zero in days.

Armed with that understanding it is easy to see why there are so many plausible arguments presented to support the price of any stock. Comparisons with other stocks (PE ratios), attractiveness to predators (Net Asset Values), likely revenue streams (earnings growth and the payment of dividends), operating in solid market arena such as food, energy or 'must have' toys. All bait for the necessary fish who would buy. There is also the significant aspect that the companies whose stocks 'we own' provide all the consumables used by our society - so they will always be around in some form.

Returning to choice of market. What are you prepared to spend your time learning?
Therein lies the answer. Whatever you choose it will take a lot longer than you think, and that journey can only be shortened by a mentor.
It will still be a long journey, this member has exactly identified your goal.
BTW I consider that I do not trade stocks.
I have made one or two buy-then-sell transactions of short duration, the shortest being about 3 hours.
At times, as now, I have made a lot of money by buying a few selected targets and holding them for months.
That in itself is a high risk approach, but there is no alternative than to accept risk if you strive for higher returns.
Good trading to everyone.