Another tool that can help you find good short-term trading opportunities are patterns in stock charts. Patterns can develop over several days, months, or years. While no two patterns are the same, they can be used to predict price movements.

It's essential to start checking the exchanges to get up to date quotes and to follow international news that can affect the markets. Even getting financial reports on publically listed companies is an important thing to do. The internet is a rich source of facts, statistics, and figures that can help immensely.