i am interested in investing in some stock can anyone help?

Question

i don't have any experience with this whatsoever and i would like all the help i can get. can someone help me who has experience with this and give me some tips please? thank you in advance.

Answer 1

Simple advice is buy a stock for less than you eventually end up selling it for. First trade I ever made when I was fourteen (I needed special paper work to open that trading account - still have it) I lost. I observed a stock racing up in value bought three hundred shares for $0.85/share. Three years later the stock was delisted (means had zero paper value).

Since then (1984) have made about 25 trades (17-18 winners). I am up about $14000 in that time. The biggest chunk of earnings ($8000) was an Investment in a mutual fund company called Altimira. I think it was an equity fund and the year I invested (RRSP) it increased 80%. That was luck.

The other basically small investment trades ($600 - $3000) I have faired pretty well.

The exchange I use is the TSE Toronto Stock Exchange. There are about 1000 - 1500 shares listed. First step you have to begin narrowing down the options. Every few years when I feel like trading I follow a system.

I look at the Saturday Toronto Star which lists all the stocks, what value they traded related to the week before, what volume of shares was traded and the past year highs and lows of the stocks.

I compare the last traded value for that week with the previous years low. There is no hard in fast rule regarding how much more than the low the value I am looking for, but basically 10-20% higher is ideal.

I go through as many stocks as I can looking for this initial trait, takes a few days, some occasions find only five, other times 30 or more.

Once I have the initial list, I look at the three year charts to closely observe the stock's recent trading cycle. If the stock is 20% above a low because it is rebounding from a low I short-list. If the stock is in a downspin I dump it. Sometimes for all this investigation 8-10 hours work there is no suitable investment.

In that case I don't invest. This is what I believe seperates succesful investors from those who lose money. Those who lose money force the issue, feel they HAVE to be in the market to win and risk there money on a stock they know nothing about because they HAVE A GOOD FEELING ABOUT IT. Nonsense.

If a stock is on the short-list I then check the volume of shares traded to further distinguish a potential from a poser. Example if you buy a stock for $5 and the value goes to $100 dollars, you do not make $95 dollars/share profit unless you can sell it. There are tons of really goofy shares in the market that over brief periods trade high volumes and then the rest of the year don't trade at all. Remember if you cannot sell your investment any given day because of good trade volumes you realize no gain whatever the paper value.

If the short-listed stock has good regular trading volumes (at least 10 times the number of shares I possess per day) then I do the final research which is looking for news releases regarding the stock that are favourable. It would take too much space to explain what is favourable but I will paste some info regarding my current investment and you can begin familiarizing yourself with the concept of investing.

If investing real money is going too effect your stress levels and sleep with every up and down of the stock DON'T INVEST !!

Sometimes I don't feel like or have the money ( spare money ) to invest. YOU should never invest more than you are willing to lose. If losing the money you would invest would affect your quality of life you should not be investing it. In those instances I paper trade just for fun.

What this means is I select a stock using the system. Imagine realistically what I would invest if I were investing, keep a journal and record the data as if it were a real trade and observe the outcome for fun and to confirm the integrity of the system.

Before you actually even buy a stock you should know what you will sell it for. This helps you calculate if the POTENTIAL profit is worth the ACTUAL risk.

Paper trades are a good way to educate yourself and risk nothing. The only downside is if your paper investment was a good one you sometimes feel crap for not trusting your system and judgement to invest.

My system is only one system and keep in mind I am a small-time investor. Have so much more to say but this gives a small idea I believe about initally investing in the market. Next a message I cut and paste about someone asking for a stock tip and my answer detailing my current investment.

Last week I invested $3500 in Intrinsyc listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange, purchased 6500 shares. If you look up the three year chart somewhere like www.sympatico.ca for example it appears the stock is at the beginning of a new cycle (the third consecutive). So far (first two cycles) it has peaked january/february at $1.20-$1.49 and hit lows in july/august of $0.40 - $0.50. Currently hit all-time low of $0.34 this november. I am betting it will run up to at least $1.05 in the next six months.

also available at sympatico is information that Intrinsyc recently paid back $8 million dollars in debt, set a record revenue of $18 million and hired the former global sales director of Intel for 22 years to head up the companies marketing.


Good luck

Answer 2

Check out Sharebuilder - www.sharebuilder.com
They have very reasonable trades, lots of information for 1st time investors and don't require any sort of minimum to open an account. Buy stocks of the company's that you know, stuff you use in real life - typically known as blue chip stocks - Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), Proctor & Gamble (PG), General Electric (GE), Home Depot (HD), Lowes (LOW) etc. Most of them also pay a cash dividend that you can re-invest.
Investing in stocks is not a gaurantee - you can lose money so be sure the money you invest, is money you can part with.
Good luck

Answer 3

I think the best way to learn about investing is to see what the best investors are buying and selling and why. Check out http://www.top10traders.com - this is a free site that lets you create a portfolio of stocks with $100,000 in "play" money. Each day the site ranks the best performing portfolios, so you can see how your picks perform compared to other investors. You can also read posts on investing from the best traders, as well as share your own investing ideas.

Here are this month's best traders:

http://www.top10traders.com/Top10Standings.aspx

Good luck.

Answer 4

IMO the best place to start is with a broad based index mutual fund. You should start reading before you invest. There are a lot of good books. And Yahoo finance has a lot of good info. Investing is a highly personal thing. Learn what you can and do what's right for you.

Answer 5

The lingo is daunting at times. Kind of like some of the "Greek To Me" lingo in the information technology field. I think you will come to understand the lingo better as you immerse yourself in the study and application to the market. I kind of feel that no true investor should be trapped into being a growth, income, value investor. Kind of a season of things approach. There is no reason to be exclusively a U.S. market investor; but, be careful. I would avoid Russia thought I have been lucky on one stock in that country. Others may feel differently. I think the wisest stock players, pickers and investors will admit that the market can humble you. Try to develop a set of rules that you will follow and do not deviate from those rules. Of course we all do break our rules. Continue to study and I think there would be some answering your question who would agree that we have almost a pure traders market vs. an investors market. That is sad for most of us. Your research should mean something. This crazy market is 80 percent a traders market. I would not get in at this point in time.

Answer 6

I too am somewhat new to this but learned a lot in my research over the web. Here is a good source for learning stocks, bonds, funds, etc: http://www.stockmarket101.org or http://www.msfinancialsavvy.com/stocks101/index.php

TIP: I learned the hard way, be very careful of emails that promote stocks and tell you "Invest Now" for most likley their "Pump and Dump" stocks. That is, stocks for the sole purpose of making fast cash for the main stock holders of the company.

Hope this helps a little, good luck :)

Answer 7

Over 90% of people who invest over the internet lose money.

One of the laws of investing is if you don't know what you're doing...don't do it.

Sounds to me like that law is talking directly to you.

If I were you I'd read a few books on the subject, take a class, and then and only then...start investing.

Answer 8

Go to Scottrade. Every stock/ETF trade is $7-No hidden fees. Do your research. I recommend the Investing Bible( good book)for beginners.