I know you want to generate capital gains in the stock market. You need to use a strategy that fits the current market environment and your own personality to do that.

The two main strategies that money making investors make are based on either growth or value tactics. Investors either look for companies that are growing earnings or that have stocks that are priced cheap that they expect will go up in value. Some combine both strategies.

The growth investors buy in stocks that go up and go up more. What makes the stocks keep going up is the fact that the companies they represent have big earnings growth. The companies got new products or are run better than their competitors and build market share, which translates into a rising stock price.

In bull markets it is the growth stocks that go up the most, because everyone likes things that go up and they go up the most. But there are some scary times in the growth stocks. If the earnings growth stops then the stock can fall very hard because everyone thinks everything will grow forever.

The problem with growth companies is that at some point the growth slows down. Usually this happens right as the excitement surrounding the company is at a crescendo. The stock then usually falters and goes nowhere despite the continued good news. What is happening is that company insiders know that the future is not going to be as easy as the climb up to ascendancy and start to sell out ahead of the crowd, thereby putting a lid on any future price advances.

Most growth stocks go up a lot, because people like to bet they keep going up. It is a big momentum play. But when bad news hits then the momentum can switch and go to the downside. So to play growth stocks you have to know what you are doing when it comes to trading and putting in your buy and sell orders. It takes some real stock trading strategies to make money.

The opposite of growth stock investing is value investing. The most famous value investors are Warren Buffet and his mentor Benjamin Graham. Value investors look for companies with low debt, a high book value, a dividend yield, a high sales-to-price ratio, and a low price-to-earnings ratio, among other things.

In a bear market or a big stock market correction you can find bargains and that is when it is time to think about being a Warren Buffett. It happens all of the time. Investors always get scared from time to time and sell stocks at a stupid price. That is when you can buy.

Sometimes a value investor has to wait a long time after buying a stock to see it go up, because the public stays scared and doesn't see the value in the stock. This can even happen in whole markets. Gold and commodities stayed at low prices until only a few years ago for example. Now an attractive place to look is in the BRIC nations in emerging markets.

You need to know that it is the growth stocks that go up the most in bull markets, but they fall the most in bear markets too. It is the value investor who knows when to get in cheap and sell high. You have to figure out which strategy you like the most. I combine them both and talk about both.

For stock picks and current thoughts on the market sign up to our free stock trading newsletter by going here.