Hello! A few of basic questions

Hi all,
I have just started trading. I am using Technical Analysis for spreadbetting with the hope that I will be able to trade CFDs in the future sometime. Currently I am using IgIndex and I am just practicing everything I have learnt as far and not actually using any money. During this time I have come up with a few questions. Any help would be great thanks!

1) First up, I have problems deciding which share/stock/currency to even look at first. I watch the news to see if I should be looking at a certain company or currency but I find I am looking at the same stocks in my watch list all the time. I know this is a basic question but how do I know where to start when looking for a trade?

2) I am not sure which chart to use when making a decision about a chart. I use long term charts (daily/weekly) to find the long term trend. But I am unsure which chart to use afterwards. I am planning to be in a trade for between 1 and 10 days. The 15mins chart gives different indicators to the 30mins chart. This is the thing I am having most problems with.

3) Another problem is where to place the stop loss. Using IgIndex I can not seem to work out the volatility of the stock nor the ATR. I think it is because I do not understand the process of placing stop losses. I have the same problem with trailing stops. Any help on this would be great.

4) I try to use 2:1 Reward:Risk but I am having a few problems. Obviously from my third question I am not very good a placing stop losses so that messes up the ratio but also I am unsure when to exit a trade. I can look for the obvious things like exit at a previous resistance level or a 100% with certain patterns but after that I am not sure. I guess working out good trailing stops help with this but I am very unclear with this.

5) Finally, in spreadbetting how does it work when you rollover a trade? This may be specific to IgIndex so I will try and find out.

Thanks in advance for any help. Sorry for such a long email!

It seems to me your questions are predominantly due to your level of technical analysis. TA when done properly will show you where, in conjunction with your equity management, to place your stop loss. Your risk/reward, I use 1:1.5, will determine your ideal exit from the trade. Your support/resistance, trend lines, fibonacci's and perhaps ema's will determine direction and probable volume. Only my humble but somewhat biased opinion.