I have been dabbling and looking over charts for years and after losing 75% of my capital in the last bull market (yes the bull not bear market), '05 to '07, have only just started getting the hang of it in the last 6 months; a nice time to buy here in Australia since its quite stable here and there is a massive resources market.. China baby
You need to spend years learning all the ins and outs and getting comfortable with it all.
Riding and recognising bubbles I think is the important thing, I remember when anything with the word Uranium in it back in '06 and '07 was easy trading, except I wasnt aware enough at the time to take advantage. Gold is the current bubble, resources are slowly coming back in, until China stops needing resources, which will probably be never its a good market.
Start learning chart basics. I use simple rules, only trade stocks with consistent volume, only stocks trending above long term averages and only stocks with good price volatility, a stock that doesnt move around much is probably never going to move around much.
I buy and sell on a weekly/bi weekly basis, buy in troughs and take short term profits.
•Short-term techniques
–Day trading
–Buying stock on margin (borrowing money)
–Selling short (borrowing stock)
–Trading in options (predetermined price)
You want to lose money do any of these things, especially the first and second ones...