Bliss@5200

Hey everyone, This is my first time in this part of s2ki, for alittle background i have been very interested in getting into investing in the stockmarket, but more short term, kind of like day trading unless otherwise. However i really dont no anything about the stock market. I understand the concepts and what to do, but are their any suggestions that you more expirienced investors can give me as i begin my venture into this world. What stocks are good to start out with etc... I have been looking into oil stocks heavily and also a business that my friend has been investing long term in is GLW or corning Inc. But yeah like i said i know nothing and if there is any advise out there ill take it. Im also watching the other Huge thread in here as well. Well thanks for anything you guys can fork out for me and ill keep in touch

magician

This one's simple: you're going to lose all your money.

Save yourself the agony of watching your account slowly dwindle down to nothing: just send all your money to me.

Seriously: trading is for people with experience - lots of experience. Without that, it's fool's errand: you're going to lose your money.

Bliss@5200

well obviously im going to start off small, how do u gain expirence with out trying? i know what ur saying its not like im gonna dump my lifes savings into this. I do embelish alittle when saying i dont no anything, im not stupid ive just never tryed this before and would like to. You understanding?

AZDavid

Study finance if you are really interested. Otherwise you won't know what you are looking at and lose all your money like magician explained. You may hit one hot stock at the right time but there is no way you are going to keep your money long term.

Think of it this way, you are competing against the smartest people in the world who hold billions.

AZDavid

You gain experience by reading and using simulations. NOT investing real money!

If you want to use real money put aside $1,000 or a small amount you are willing to lose. Start out small trying to make $20 here and there. If you lose it all write it off as entertainment.

Bliss@5200

thats what i was planning on doing to begin. Ive been learning and paying attention to the stock market alot over the past few years and learning what its all about. Im not going into the market to make insane money right now, just to try, i appreciate your concern with me loosing my money but im not gonna go all out with it, i just am looking for tips in starting off. Btw im am going to school for business and marketing, ive taken finance, economy, etc courses so that has helped alot.

trainwreck

for starters just buy some diversified etfs. then read some books on investing theory.

day trading is hard and you will lose your money.

my advice is just buy big companies for cheap until you learn to read financial statements, understand all relevant ratios, and watch the market for a while.

or u can just take the shortcut and piggy back off my picks. its a good time to buy buy buy *machine gun noises*

some easy picks to get your started off:

DEO, JNJ, KO. ur not gonna lose that much money or make that much on these unless you hold them forever. but like stated above, expect to lose a little money.

Bliss@5200

I understand im prabably gonna lose money, thats the risk of this whole thing but thanks for advise.

Penforhire

+1 read some books. Good luck on that day trading. I know more losers than winners that are day trading.

Whatever technical analysis tools you have will be overpowered by everyone else's automated rapid-fire system. As a day trader you don't have much of the usual advantage of being nimbler than institutions. Heck, they cause the movements you are hoping to take advantage of and can "play" the individual investor, like triggering stop orders with price spikes.

I do like Scottrade for my style of buy-and-hold. I live and work very close to one of their branch offices. But if you are looking to try out some sort of trading system check out TD Ameritrade's "Strategy Desk" tool, one of the few I've found that a beginning trader can use without major fees.

I'd like to step up to Fidelity's Wealth-Lab myself but I'm not active enough to qualify, aside from Fidelity's high per-trade cost. Outside the US you can buy a version direct from Wealth-Lab for about $600 but you'd also want a data source beyond Yahoo Finance for fundamentals history. As far as I can tell, playing with an... um... unofficial version it is the end of the rainbow in terms of programming and backtesting trading strategies.

PearlwhiteS2k

Day trading is very hard to do and most people who try it will lose $$$. A better idea is to buy into a good solid company and hold it, until you think the company isn't worth holding anymore. Also take profits when the stock has gone up a lot and buy back into it when it's lower, that's if you still like the company.

Make sure you have the guts for stocks dropping 2-5% a day. Sometimes it could be gone when you wake up in the morning.

For example BSC was $150 and dropped to $60ish and then drop to $40ish Friday and open at $6XX Monday morning in March.

This is my second year of investing into the stock market and I am investing for the longterm. I did pretty good last year, started in May 07 and was up 36% by Dec 07.


Buy a company for longterm and not short term. Good Luck