How do I begin investing in the stock market?

Question

Iam a beginner, and I want to invest in the stock market, who do I need to contact?

Answer 1

Scottrade is a great discount broker. Stock trades are all $7 regardless of the number of shares (there are a few exceptions such as penny stocks). If you don't know much about investing start with an exchange traded fund (ETF). There are funds that track the entire market such as VTI, there are funds that track the S&P 500 such as SPY, and there are funds that track the nasdaq such as QQQQ. Without much investment knowledge or sufficent funds to hire a professional and/or diversify your portfolio, ETFs can offer an inexpensive way to diversify yourself. The older you are the less risky you'll want to be with your investment choices. Also try to limit commissions to 1% or less of each investment. I.E. if you go with scottrade and have to pay a $7 commission, don't invest less than $700 at a time. Also if you want to educate yourself on investments go to investopedia.com, it's great. Also morningstar.com and finance.yahoo.com have a lot of good information

Answer 2

I would suggest a couple of things. First read "The Little Book that Beats the Market" - this will help you learn the fundamentals of finding good investments. Then you want to see what the best investors are buying and selling. You can find this information at 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. There is also a charting feature , so you can see how your portfolio performs compared to the S&P 500.

Here are this month's best traders:

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

When you are ready to start trading "real" money, then open an online account at Scottrade. They offer $7 online trades.

Good luck.

Answer 3

So..
I've been trading the market for just a few months. My cousin actually told me about this website ( http://pennystocks.toptips.org ) and I signed up immediately after. This is my honest review about their method. I'm not someone who has a lot of time to be researching for ideas because I work many hours. they made it incredibly easy for me to make money in the market. Their reports are easy to read and follow. I've tracked most of the stock ideas that I've received in my e-mail from them and MANY have seen some nice gains after their announcements. I've made a nice profit (55% return on my investment on one, and 112% on the other!) on a couple of suggestions he's given and plan to start trading his ideas a lot more.

For more info: http://pennystocks.toptips.org
Cheers ;)

Answer 4

There is a neat tutorial at Zacks.com. I discovered it when signing up for their new stock market simulation game (if I win, I get a $100k contract for a year to write about stocks). The tutorial covers the specifics of making and managing trades. The game, and piles of others like it, give you practice before you risk real money. You can try things and take your lumps for mistakes that won't cost you the farm (which you shouldn't have wagered anyway). Give it a look, its free.

Answer 5

You can make good money like me with this binary option signal software ( http://forexsignal.kyma.info ) Binary options trading has always been popular, however, this investment fad globally exploded around 2008. Originally known as digital options, binary or the name "two values" was added to give a simpler explanation for trading options. Binary is defined as two values or up and down movements. Binaries rely on underlying assets or derivatives. You can trade in commodities, the forex (foreign exchange market), commodities as well as stock indices.

Answer 6

First of all, I would recommend talking to your parents and see if they know anyone that can help you get started. I do not know your financial situation, nor your age. But I will assume you are in your 20's and make less thnan 110k a year. This being said I would consider a roth IRA.
They are also known as Individual Retirement Accounts. Its is a savings plan available to anyone who has a taxable income, but it is subject to certain eligibility laws. An individual can make contributions only from compensation income, which can include wages, salaries, fees, tips, bonuses, commissions, taxable alimony, and separate maintenance payments. It does not include incomes from pension or investments.

Although a Roth IRA is funded with after tax money and there is no tax deduction, it grows and earnings are withdrawn tax free in retirement. They are a popular way to save on tax. Also, there is no age limit to make a contribution to these accounts. This means that, unlike the Traditional IRA, with a Roth IRA, people over the age of seventy and a half years can continue to contribute funds to the IRA account. Also, it is not mandatory to make any minimum required distribution. Moreover, the contributions made to a Roth IRA are never tax-deductible, but they may or may not be tax-deductible in case of the Traditional IRA, depending on factors such as the individual's tax filing status or adjustable gross income.
The amount contributed is nondeductible and so Roth IRAs, are the ideal way to enable your earnings to grow tax-free. In fact, the Roth IRA provides earnings that are tax-deferred and possibly tax-free. The contributions themselves are subject to tax deductions, but the distribution or withdrawals are not.
The maximum amount that you can contribute to this account in one year cannot exceed $4,000 or 100% of your gross adjustable income, whichever is less. To contribute to the Roth IRA, you need to have taxable income, and also the adjusted gross income should be less than $110,000 individually, $160,000 if you are married and file a joint return, and $100,000 if you are married but file separate returns.

Hope this helps...

Answer 7

You can invest as little, or as much, when ever you want, at ShareBuilder.com! But, YOU have to do the research on company's yourself, there are no brokers to help you, but there is tons of info on the site to help you research, though Yahoo Finance is even better, and of course, free :)

It costs about $16 or so per live trade at ShareBuilder.com, OR you can set up a weekly transaction for $4 a trade (there are a couple of ways to set up investments, please see the website for full details).

No matter what you do, please do yourself a favor, and see their website, you owe it to yourself to be fully informed of good investment tools, and ShareBuilder.com is an excellent one!

Visit: http://www.sharebuilder.com and start investing your way, on your terms! :)

Answer 8

Have you considered trading in FOREX (international currency exchange) instead of stocks?

With Stock trading with $500 to start with, you can trade on one stock out of 10,000 possible choices and if it goes up by pennies you make a little money but you pay trade commissions.

In forex, the same $500.00 lets you trade $50,000 worth of currency and only 5 major currency pairs to choose from and no trading commissions.

I am making about 20% per month trading forex. There is even software available that does it all for you

For more information go to www.huttoinvestmentgroup.com and check it out.

Answer 9

As you can see by the "answers" ...there are many ways to get started, and many places!! If you go to :http://moneycentral.msn.com/beginnerguide.asp?page=introduction They cover many of the " ways and places" and they have links to investigate funds and stocks, so if you do get started you have some idea as to where you want your investments to be.

Answer 10

Contact a broker found in your local yellow pages of your phone book.