How do they find 'em?

[Soontoberich]

(If this is too long, just read the last couple of paragraphs)

I'm pretty new at the the whole sharemarket thing. I've been reading a bit and doing a bit of paper trading before I decide to pile in my own money. My paper trading is not doing brilliantly - I started in November 2009. Its about 6% up which in itself doesn't seem to bad, but against the index, doesn't seem that good.
The problem is that most of the 'money' is coming from only a few stocks. Those stocks I only found out about on the forum, they weren't ones that I found myself. They were mostly small/mid caps, I think, that I hadn't heard of (AQR, GRR).

Given that there are so many companies listed on the ASX, how did they manage to pick out these ones? I can't imagine they look through all the stocks manually so I assume some of them use software to sort out the ones that have had increases in SP or volume.

Once the shares are on my radar, I think I can watch them and do my own analysis (or try to) and decide whether to get them, its just getting them on my radar that I seem to have trouble with.

If software is the way to go, can someone recommend one that is simple to use and inexpensive (hopefully free) for a newbie such as myself?

 

[Wysiwyg]

Greetings.

Some people sift through company news releases, some read newspapers, some read professional analyst reports/newsletters, some watch tv business channels, some use stock screeners and charting software.

These methods are free or paid and I have used all these. It is information, so each lead requires further scrutiny to determine if the stock of interest matches the traders goals. I use Amibroker for stock screening and chart examination but there are free stock screeners via Google search. At the top of this page is a search function. Type in keyword/s, tick "Search Titles Only" and the archives might help some more.

Thankyou.