im17 and i wanted to know any thing that would help me get into tradeing and buying stocks to make a profit?

Answer 1

This is my standard advise for anyone starting out...

being a good investor is a lifelong education. Unfortunately, most of us learn by our mistakes, so start out slowly, and learn the baisics

Step 1.
First decide what kind of brokerage you want to work with. You can open a brokerage account in your bank, with a large full service brokerage or an internet brokerage. I find when I get help, most people want to sell me things that are better for them…. So I use http://www.scottrade.com because it’s cheap and easy with low frills. I like their streaming quotes and I do my own research and make my own investments. But any low cost internet brokerage service is fine.

Step 2. get a subscription to Barrons or Investors Business Daily… Do this for 6 months or a year. At first, It seems a bit mysterious, but pretty soon you start to understand the terms and things that investors are looking for and what they are afraid of

Step 3. If you have some money to invest, put it in 3 month CD’s right now. First the market is unstable and second you have some homework in Step 4 to do before you do any investing.

Step 4. Go out to the internet and search on the following subjects. Become very familiar with the concepts.
Asset allocation
Long term investing
inflation
Roth ira vs ira
Large med small cap
Value vs growth
Indexed mutual funds
No load mutual funds
ETF
Sector funds
Bonds CD preferred stock
dividends
International funds
Market cycles
volatility
Fundamental analysis
Technical analysis
In most cases, I think it is wise to use indexed mutual funds and ETF to build the base of your portfolio.

Step 5 go to http://clearstation.etrade.com/ and sign up for a free account. Play around there by looking at graphs and fundamentals. If you click on the graph names, you will get clear information about what the graph is based on and how to interpret it. I think it’s also a good idea to pretend you have $10,000 and start buying and selling on paper. Keep track of where you are each day for a month… It’s a lot easier to lose play money then real money….
WARNING: don’t rely on technical analysis alone. These graphs are good at telling you WHEN to buy and sell, but now WHAT to buy.

Step 6. It’s always a good Idea to see a CFP (certified financial planner). Their job is to work for your benefit, not to sell you investments. They can cover subjects like employee benefits, insurance, budgeting, living trusts, 401k, taxes and real estate as well as investment types and investment types to keep away from.

Always strive to do your own research… you’ll find everyone sounds like an expert so take everything people tell you with a grain of salt. It’s not easy in the beginning but soon you will be the expert.

Don’t get involved with futures, currency, options (unless you get stock options at work), commodities, annuities or other derivative type investments at this time.


Good Luck

Answer 2

stocks are a mean for long term investing, dont expect to get rich, a reasonable annual return could be between 8% to maybe 16%, which would be pretty good. always diversify and think long term, go with companies that u understand what their business model is and that u think will keep growing i the future. never make desicions based on past experience i.e. dont buy because a company has gone up so much during the last few months....do your research first... good luck

Answer 3

I started buying stocks when I was 15, and what I did was picked out some major companies I liked (Pepsi, PhilipMorris, etc...) Those that were more likely than not still be around in fifty years, and I went to an Edward Jones rep, gave him my money and he bought the stocks for me. Its that easy.

Answer 4

A great place to start is by first educating yourself on the subject of investing. Then learn to understand why you would select one investment over another. A good book to start with is "The Intelligent Investor" Author - Benjamin Graham.

Answer 5

If you have a lot of your own money, you can start opening a brokerage account and practice buying and selling, while reading books to learn;

If you don't have a lot of money, then go to college and get into a top school, then head into one of Wall Street firm to learn trading using other people's money.

Answer 6

Read books about Warren Buffett. He's a good guide to follow in making business/stock decisions.

Answer 7

Subscribe to Money magazine. Great advice on stocks. You'll have to wait until you're 18 to do anything, though.

Answer 8

i dont think you're old enough to buy stocks yet. Invest in mutual funds and then withdraw that money when you have enough in there and invest with a professional

Answer 9

Get free rates

Answer 10

first you need 50k
then you need to decide if your a bear or a bull
then create a solid portfolio based on your bear or bull choice.

personally i'm more of a bullish bear.