"The most important thing about the market is not what people say about it but the direction in which it is going."

As far as momentum trader Mr Paul Rodriguez is concerned, this is the golden rule of trading.

The London lecturer and former senior analyst and proprietary trader with NatWest says he never reads the newspapers for financial news. Instead he swears by charting, or technical analysis.

Technical analysis is the study of the markets by price and it can be used along with other forms of analysis or in this case, cutting out all other information.

By studying charts, a successful technical analyst should be able to read which way the price is going.

On a cold November night in a Dublin hotel a small gathering of investors, day traders and aspiring day traders listened to Mr Rodriguez talk about his own experience and present his trading philosophy.

What he had to say struck a chord with the audience, many of whom - judging by their "hypothetical" questions - had clearly lost money on the stock market.

According to Mr Rodriguez, amateur traders often begin to trade without a plan or strategy and without an edge of any description.

He described the classic trader error of letting losses get bigger while cutting profits dead. "People want to buy and are slow to admit when they are wrong. So when someone has bought a stock and the price goes down they tend to hold onto it and hope for a turnaround."

The correct thing to do, in Mr Rodriguez's opinion, is to look at the price when you buy, decide on the maximum you are prepared to lose and then stick to it.

If the market rises, you move your stop level up with it; if it falls, you never lose more than your pre-set level.

The purpose of the seminar was to enrol members of the public onto Mr Rodriguez's technical analysis course and there appeared to be some interest on the night.

Places on a weekend course were being offered for a "special introductory price" of £900, knocked down from £1,500.

Mr Rodriguez was in Dublin representing Trading Places, an Irish company that runs training courses for private investors and sells software to private traders.

See www.tradingplaces.ie for further information.