i need someone that knows alot about buying stocks.............help me out here.....?

Question

i dont know that much about the stock market or buying stocks,thats why i need your help. i wanna learn how to buy stocks and trade and how much i need to spend on buying a stock and what not. i heard you need about 6 months in order to learn that kind of stuff and know what ure doin. could someone provide me with more info on this kind of stuff?.or tell me which sites i can get them from? -thank you

Answer 1

Basically you can buy stocks through a few ways.

A discount broker, who will just take an order for a stock and get it done for you. About 10 bucks a trade. Just let them know the stock you want and the price you're willing to pay and they'll execute the order.

A full service broker, who will give you advice on stocks and maybe get you in on IPOs and stock offerings if you're a good client. THey'll charge a lot more.

Buy a seat at the exchange and do your own sales over the network. Don't even consider this one.


If your question is really about learning on what stocks to buy and how much they're worth, and whether you can expect the price on them to go up and such, you're going to either need to read a helluva lot of books, or go to school and get an education in finance and investment valuation.

Answer 2

Books on investing are good. Some investment seminars are ok. Classroom study is better. A good advisor (that means someone who actually cares that you learn what you are doing) is the absolute best. Working with a counselor/advisor is the same as on-the-job training. You would need a minimum of six months to get a clue of what the stock market is about.

Contact your nearest community college and see what courses they offer. Ask if the instructor is from the investment industry or has been teaching for a few years. If you are fortunate in finding a good advisor, you should for the person's credentials before wasting time and money. A good advisor will communicate well and give you information that makes sense to you. The right person will teach you about the kinds of stocks, and mutual funds that are in the market. For instance, you should be able to tell the difference between an overpriced stock from a "value" stock. You should also learn how to read and interpret financial statements from companies. Investing is no more difficult than what you make it. (One of my best clients was a 16-year-old who put his heart into investing in the market.)

Learning to buy stocks is not as difficult as many people think. Start slowly and don't invest until you understand what the consequences can be. My advice is to buy a "round lot" (100 shares) of a single stock for your initial investment. Pick a company that doesn't cost more than $30 per share. Once you do purchase your first stock, you will become part owner of that company. You should start out in an industry that you understand. I feel like offering a tip before I close. You should do pretty well if you owned shares in Southwest Airlines (NYSE: LUV). The company operates in one of the fastest growing regions of the United States, and the price is very attractive at a little over $15. Tell your advisor/instructor I said so.
Good luck!

Hawk

Answer 3

Well, from the experience of trading on the stock market for years, I know that it takes a long time to understand market movements and changes in share prices. It is advised that a minimum of $3000 is invested at any one time (in a single transaction) because of trading costs and commission making any smaller amount hugely expensive.

The best way to start out is by choosing at least 10 different stocks from differing sectors. This is basic stuff, and comes under the "Modern Portfolio Theory of Risk Management" technique. Stick to a big spread of companies and, if the market rises, then so will your shares.

There are lots of books that provide useful information for the private/amateur investor; I would suggest reading a few before you start.

Answer 4

Investing takes a whole lot of education, experience and mindset transformation. If you are really serious about it, the first thing you must do is clarify your notions about finances, money, wealth and determine your risk aversion.

Next, you then have to learn the basics of how to read financials e.g statements of financial performance and statements of financial positions. Then, train yourself about stocks, the stockmarket.

Go to investment seminars, take courses about trading stocks, network with other experience stockmarket folks, i.e folks that have actually made real, annual profits from trading stocks.

Determine your risk limit or set your risk management system, i.e your stop loss, profit targets, upper limits on your trading bank.
Decide if you want to be a fundamental stocktrader, a technical trader or a combo of both.

With that in mind, papertrade for at least 6 weeks using realtime stockmarket data, i.e trading on paper without using any real money. After you get a feel for it and are comfortable, shop for stockbrokers, set up an account, and get to trading.

One hot tip: never be emotionally attached to a stock and never trade when you are very emotional.

Answer 5

Check out the free courses at morningstar.com [morningstar university.]

Do not invest money until you have tried out some trial portfolios with imaginary money.

Avoid pinkslip and penny stocks. Avoid Canadian and other small company mining stocks. Do not buy stocks that appear in spam.

It involves quite a bit of time and effort, but there are few things more rewarding if you really know what you are doing.

Much less than half of all investors have a clue.

Answer 6

You might want to 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. 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

Good luck.

Answer 7

That is very tuff, you will get 100 different opinions. The first thing you need to decide is what your goals are. If you are looking to make a ton a money very fast you are going to have to take on a lot of risk (not recommended). If you are a long term investor you have more flexibilty and a better chance of success.

Answer 8

you don't need six months but I would strongly recommend starting off with a broker like Edward Jones, AG Edwards etc instead of somethign like sharebuilder or scottrade because the latter two you are pretty much on your own. Sure you are paying for their advice but they offer the BEST advice and they know their stuff.

Answer 9

Buy the book, The Investing Bible. It will tell you all that you need. If you are still puzzled, then I would put your money into a mutual fund-where they do the investing for you.

Answer 10

Scottrade.