Stockmarket?

[KPWSerpiente]

Anyone have experience in buy and selling individual stocks?

-T

[D_Eclipse9916]

yeah, stay out of it if your looking for quick money.

[Dave]

what do you want to know?

[.paul]

yeah, stay out of it if your looking for quick money.

if you do your research and know what you are doing, you can benefit. it may not be instant, but after some trial and error it could be quick.

what do you want to know?

:thumbup:

[D_Eclipse9916]

im making good enough money being conservative, where you get into the problem is short term. Unless you have the time to be calling up companies, going through financial reports, and researching the helll out of them, your liable to lose money MORE than you are to make money. I Am one of those conservative investors, because ive seen people that I know try that bullshit plenty of times (Very smart people too) and lose lots of money, the first batch of money they blame on trial and error, then they "think" theyve got it figured out and they invest some more and lose it because of some "stupid error" and then theyve got "sure things". BE careful man, only invest veryl ittle money at first if your trying the "quick rich" scheme. Which is exactly what it is, a scheme. If you think its moderately hard.....then dont you think every reasonably smart person would be doing it to make money? Yeah, cuase it doesnt work most of the time, ther are some people that get lucky.

[WRXtranceformed]

I too have blue chip stock investments set up to make money for the long term. You can definitely make money day trading, but you've got to stay on top of it 24/7 and most importantly, you have to be okay with losing absolutely everything that you put in.

Day trading is basically like gambling, which it sounds like you're pretty good at, so just do a TON of research before you dive in and again, be prepared and totally fine with the possibility of losing everything you put in.

[mrbaggio]

What sort of information are you looking for? Just starting out?

[JackoliciousLegs]

If you can sit in front of a computer watching for news reports about companies and you're willing to make a huge gamble, you can make some money. I watched Apple very closely and made some money around one of their events, but because of trading fees and such, I've had better luck just investing in (0/0) MFs. Sign up with a company that has a good track record and a good interface. I chose Schwab and I've had a great experience with them. Their stock trade commissions aren't as cheap as the others, but they're really knowledgeable and they've got great research info all over their site. They've got TONS of no load, no commission MFs. You can do basically every type of investment account, and they're super friendsly.

My advice is to open up a Schwab (or other investment firm) account, then just start putting money in. If you want, buy some stock, but depending on your goals, set up a diversified portfolio and let your money do the work rather than pulling your hair out over when to buy and when to sell individual stocks.

[Maengelito]

i'm very interested in more info as well. jack has a good suggestion to look into these investment firms to see what they can offer. i'm not sure if travis originally inquired about making money day trading, but i've been looking into investing long term as well. what firms do other people use? etrade? schwab? prudential?

[mrbaggio]

Check out scottrade for cheap trade commissions. I stick to mutual funds and ETFÔÇÖs. They offer instant diversity, or you can choose specialized funds depending on what you are looking for. ETFÔÇÖs are nice if you want flexibility. You are able trade those like individual stocks while still offering some of the benefits of a mutual fund.

With the right strategy investing in the stock market is not gambling. Not even close. There are tools you can use to guard against ÔÇ£losing everythingÔÇØ (limit orders, stop orders)

-Justin

[Apoc]

Mutual Fund - Vanguard
Stocks - Scottrade

Your investment vehicle depends on your liquidity requirements. If you're truly talking long term you're probably better off with a mutual fund because it diversifies into numerous stocks for you. The fund you pick can be geared towards energy, techonology or whatever else you think is going to grow long term.

My mutual fund is all Large Cap stock with a "blend" investment style. I've had it with Vanguard since the beginning of time and haven't had any problems. Exxon-Mobil is the top holding in the fund so needless to say it's been doing well the past few years.

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://finance.google.com/finance?q=VQNPX">http://finance.google.com/finance?q=VQNPX</a><!-- m -->

Remember, for the most part risk = reward.

[KPWSerpiente]

I abandoned my long write in favor of this short one.

I wasn't asking about daytrading but I am interested in swing trading. I am more than aware of the risks in general but I am more worried about the cost of learning. No one starts out playing winnings cards and similarly I expect to lose playing around in the market at first and maybe I always will. Doesn't bother me.

Of course in an attempt to lessen any of those initial losses I'm doing as much research and asking as many people for their advice, experience and opinion as possible.

Justin has already pointed out the modern tools available with a service like etrade which I signed up with. You can automatically lock in profits and limit losses. I'm not into gambling but I do from time to time push only the smallest of edges.

-T

[mrbaggio]

Check out <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.investopedia.com/">http://www.investopedia.com/</a><!-- m -->
I used it when I was first starting out and still use it now.

You may also want to check out <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.dogsofthedow.com">http://www.dogsofthedow.com</a><!-- m -->
I have not used the technique myself, but it has a proven track record. Take a look and let me know what you guys think.

-Justin

[Dave]

a couple rules for you to know going in.
1) Increased risk = increased return. When building a portfolio, vary the stuff that you're looking at. Grab some companies with low returns but great stability and minimal risk. While you're young, you can afford to take a lot more risk than with you're 50 and retirement is near.
I have heard wonderful things about Vanguard and ING, and will be researching them soon to determine who's going to start getting a cut of my paycheck.
2) You can watch CNN, YahooFinance, and all the others all day long, but you're still getting second hand info in many cases compared to what people in the businesses have access to. You have to recognize that by watching your investments every hour, you might be beating Joe Blow who checks his once a month, but you're also going to be stressed out and losing money on commissions. The best way to invest is get an account with a mutual fund and let it do its own thing.
3) If you are looking for something to hold long term, REALLY look into REITs (Real Estate Investment Trust). They pool the money from investors and buy into real estate and properties, as well as getting a lot of income from rental of space. The best part is, they give out great dividend percentages compared to other stocks, as well as normal benefits to investors from increasing stock prices.

As I get deeper into my new job, I'll try to find out what kinds of things are sought after most by investors to determine if they are good choices. Investopedia is an incredible tool for somebody trying to learn the ropes as well.

[WRXtranceformed]

Mutual Fund - Vanguard
Stocks - Scottrade

Your investment vehicle depends on your liquidity requirements. If you're truly talking long term you're probably better off with a mutual fund because it diversifies into numerous stocks for you. The fund you pick can be geared towards energy, techonology or whatever else you think is going to grow long term.

My mutual fund is all Large Cap stock with a "blend" investment style. I've had it with Vanguard since the beginning of time and haven't had any problems. Exxon-Mobil is the top holding in the fund so needless to say it's been doing well the past few years.

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://finance.google.com/finance?q=VQNPX">http://finance.google.com/finance?q=VQNPX</a><!-- m -->

Remember, for the most part risk = reward.

+1 on oil company stock heh. I've had Texaco for years and it's done very well for me.

[D_Eclipse9916]

If you just want money for retirement, invest all you can, every year into a Roth IRA. After that I just do multiple Mutual Funds. And for liquid funds I do CDs, my savings accounts are for what I need on a day-to-dya basis.

[WRXtranceformed]

Also a big +1 on Roth IRAs. I've been meaning to set one up. I just got the ING going so that's the next step ^_^

[KPWSerpiente]

Well etrade makes you wait a week before trading from the date that you transfer money to them and this is making me sad because the one stock that I know I want to get into is already up 25%. I have a little knowledge of the industry it is in and my prediction is that this particular stock will climb to 6x what it was last week within the next year and a half.


And though this stock could just as easily nosedive back over, I really wanted to get in on at what I would consider the ground floor.

-T

[JackoliciousLegs]

Also a big +1 on Roth IRAs. I've been meaning to set one up. I just got the ING going so that's the next step ^_^

ING has a set list of funds. If you can choose your own, I think that'd be huge. I'd really highly recommend schwab for your roth. They let you pick anything and they've got 0 trading commissions for TONS of options.

[Feersty]

I have a 401(k) and a Roth IRA with Vanguard and a Money Market fund coordinated with the S&P 500.