Every genuine stock trader I have encountered so far in my almost ten years of stocks trading and analyzing stocks all have one common denominator; they all believe that everything is possible in the capital market.

The mindset of a stock trader is a comprehensive description of the psychology, thought pattern, believes, heart beat, and approach to stock trading. The traditional stock's investor is averse to taking risk, plays safe, takes his time, is not knowledgeable of the undercurrents of equity investments, he is grossly ignorant of the dos and don'ts of stocks investment, he is a passive player in the very active terrain of the capital market. No wonder they make just 10% of the over 12 trillion naira that exchange hands daily in the Nigerian capital market and they constitute about 90% of investors that lay claim to owning shares of companies.

WHO IS A STOCK TRADER?
The 21st century definition of a stocks' trader is very interesting. The term trading which simply means "to buy and sell" will give the impression that stocks' trading connotes having the knowledge of buying a ware from the trader or wholesaler next shop and looking for a customer to sell to. In theory it makes sense, but it is not a practical reality.

A stock trader is one who buys and sells shares of companies at the Nigerian Stock Exchange with the active assistance of a registered stockbroker since an individual cannot do business direct with Nigerian Stock Exchange.

A second definition of a stock trader can be understood from the services rendered by accredited stockbrokers at the floor of The Nigerian Stock Exchange. Every day from Monday to Friday 9.30am to 12.30pm. They do their business via computers wired to the extensions of the Central Security Clearing System Ltd.

1. HE TRADES FOR CAPITAL APPRECIATION
Every stock trader I know is profit conscious, which is his primary motivation for investing. So he seeks stocks that have high capital appreciation potential (the difference between purchased price and sold price) to buy and waits for the right time to sell.

2. HE IS INTERESTED IN BUYING AND SELLING STOCKS REGULARLY AND NOT TO KEEP THEM
The average and active stock trader is interested in buying and selling stocks and not to keep them. Unlike a long term trader that can afford to keep purchased shares for a pretty long time. The stock trader gets his thrills from trading stocks frequently, He thinks turnover.

3. HE POSITIONS HIMSELF EITHER FOR DIVIDEND OR BONUS IN THE SAME SENSE AS IN CAPITAL APPRECIATION
A long term investor places high premium on dividends and bonus scrip over a long period because it increases the size of his portfolio, he buys into a company, receives either dividends and bonus or both and keeps it. But the stock trader on the other hand loves bonus and dividend because on the short run will increase his portfolio, when a stock trader picks out a company that will give dividends and/or bonus he buys into it, after closure of registrar and subsequently, after payment dates sells such a stock and looks for other opportunity else where.

4. HE IS READY TO TAKE CALCULATED RISK
One of the major reason many investors miss out on extraordinary opportunities that readily makes themselves available every now and then is because of the fear of taking risk. The vast majority of investors in the capital market are averse to risk taking because of what I call investment ignorance.

The seasoned stock trader understands, that in the capital market the higher the risk the higher the returns, therefore he spends time to invest in himself by attending seminars , reading stocks investment books, investing in audio and video CDs, visits the internet frequently to be abreast with current trends; the stocks trader understand that through knowledge risk can reduced to the barest minimum.

Every stock trader knows that stocks' trading is serious business, one needs to be abreast with the undercurrents skills of stock trading, he does not hinge his trading on assumption or feeble speculation; he is constantly researching the behavioral business pattern, history, events, news that makes the round, all of these is to ensure that he stays current with developments in the stocks market. (This is The first Part Of This Report).