What are the best stocks to invest in if I'm just starting out and want to start with a small dollar amount?

Answer 1

I see you are interested in investing in the stock markets and think that you can start successfully by asking questions like this online. Just think, if winning in the stock market is as simple as posting questions like this, why are so many people still poor?

There are quite a number of things you need to learn before you can even start thinking of the stock markets ...

1. You need to understand how the stock market works and what it is exactly about.

2. You need to know what are the different styles of trading in stocks and shares.

3. You need to read about why so many people lose their shirts in the stock markets so that you can avoid their mistakes and also decide if this is a risk you want to take.

For all these issues and more, you can read about them from some of the articles that I wrote at http://www.mastersoequity.com/articles.htm

After you are adequately armed with the basic concepts and ideas, you need to know how to find profitable stocks to trade or invest in. You can do that the easy way by subscribing to stock pick services (example http://www.stockpickmaster.com ) or you can learn to use charting tools and softwares to find stocks with parameters that you can pre-define. (example http://worden.mastersoequity.com/ )

Remember, the slogan "Just Do It", Just won't do for the stock markets. If profiting in the stock markets is as simple as buying a single stock , then why are so many people still poor?

After you have all the above mentioned knowledge, you need to ask the following golden questions before you can decide whether a stock is worth buying or not :

1. Why are you of the opinion that this stock will rise?

2. Is your opinion valid in the first place?

3. When are you expecting it to rise? Can you hold on for that period of time or longer?

4. What is your expected entry price? After what price would your expected profit margin be too thin to enter upon?

5. Where is your expected stop loss point? What is your stop loss point based on? Where will you tell yourself that it is time to take a loss and get out?

6. Where is your expected profit taking point? What is your profit taking point based on?

7. Does the way you are buying the stock allow you to hold on until your expected profit taking point?

8. How much of your money should you dedicate to this one trade?

9. What is the level of primary, secondary and idiosyncratic risk you are undertaking when deciding how much of your fund to use?

10. What is your cashflow need? Does your cashflow needs allow you to hold the full lifetime of the stock?

After you are able to answer all these questions confidently, THEN you are ready to... PAPER TRADE your stock strategy. Yes, even at this point, you are NOT READY to trade for real. You should trade on PAPER for at least 6 months and become consistently successful BEFORE you take your stock strategy into real life.

Then.. you are ready to start... but there is still no guarantee of success as paper trading is very different from real trading. You will need another maybe 1 year or 2 trading very little money and be consistently successful BEFORE you are ready to increase your stakes.


So, as you can see, success in the stock markets is not easy at all the the less knowledge you have, the more risk you undertake. I lost hundreds of thousands in the stock markets before I become successful.

Take heed and good luck.


All in all, investment and trading is a lifelong education and non stop learning. No one is ever done learning and catching up with changes in the markets.

If you care to read about how I went from completely broke to retired millionaire trading stocks and options by 28 years old, you can go to http://www.mastersoequity.com/

Hope these information helps.


http://www.optiontradingpedia.com/

http://www.mastersoequity.com/

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Answer 2

It depends on exactly how much you have.

Your best bet if it's a fairly large small dollar amount (say $1000+) is to buy an exchange traded fund (essentially a mutual fund that trades on the stock market) which you can purchase through a stock broker. This allows you to own a little stock in a large number of companies which reduces the risk of accidentally picking a bad stock. (For example two S&P 500 funds the iShares fund (IVV) and the SPDR fund (SPY) both hold 500 stocks).

You can't really diversify properly when investing in stocks directly with less than a few thousand dollars-- but if you want to invest in stocks directly anyway, you'd probably want to buy large well established companies (for example Coke isn't going to go out of business anytime soon).

If its a really small amount (say 50 or 100) you might look into a divident reinvestment plan (try to find one with low or no fees) or simply save up a bit more money. Very small investments are a bad idea because you have to pay a lot of money on comissions. Or check out Zecco.com.

Answer 3

The best stocks for a beginner are usually "blue chip," stocks of well established companies. It's not a good idea to invest in speculative stocks when you are just beginning. However, the other minus of blue chip stocks is that many of them are highly priced, so you really need to have high capital if you want to seriously invest in them.

If you want to be a serious investor and start a real portfolio, as an investor, I'd recommend you start with a capital of $50,000.

Before you even think about investing, you might want to gain some education on stockmarket lingo, how the stockmarket works, major factors that influence the stockmarket. Learning how to read financial statements is a definate plus as part of learning about fundamental analysis. Technical analysis of stocks is also important to learn.

Afterwards, you must develop your investment goals and strategy before you even begin. All the best.

Answer 4

Go to www.dripinvestor.com or www.moneypaper.com and learn about Dividend Reinvestment Plans. You can invest in solid, stable companies that pay a dividend and start with small amounts of money. Personally, I like Exxon, and you can buy stock directly from them with no fees, but you need to commit $50 a month for five months through direct withdrawal from your bank. If that's what you mean by a small dollar amount (less than $2 a day), then I'd recommend doing that.

Answer 5

Hi..

The best ones to invest in are the ones that are going up.

And the best time to sell is as they make a move down.

Go here for some good free training:

Answer 6

Only one book to read, it is "How to Make Money in Stocks" by William J. O'Neil.

When you are ready to open an online account, tradeking trade fee is $4.95, and scottrade is $7.

If you or others want a good deal, such as 3 free trades from scottrade or 4 free trades from tradeking, pls email me at [e-mail]

Answer 7

I think you should start with a good, solid and safe company. I suggest General Electric, Citibank, Bank of America or Intel. You cannot go wrong with them.

Answer 8

Hi,

If I were young, I would be investing in small cap growth mutual funds or stocks. Go here for excellent low cost advice (http://www.aaii.com/aaiiportfolios/commentaries/stockportfolio/200701comment.cfm).

Don't be alarmed at the low cost - it has some of the best financial advice on the Web.

You have lots of time before retirement which means the magic of compound interest will just keep building and building. It really works and if you keep investing every year, in 10 or 15 years you will be surprised at how it mounts up. In 30 years you could be a millionaire which probably won't amount to much in 30 year owing the the ravages of inflation.

And that's the primary reason to keep investing in small cap growth stocks - they will flog inflation to death.

When investing in mutual funds, select the no-load funds only. Do not invest in mutual funds with a "load", an up front commission that you have to pay before when they sell you the mutual fund. Some charge as much as 10% which is a rrip-off. Many studies have shown that the no-load funds do as well as the load funds and sometimes a lot better.

Look at the AAI Shadow Stock Portfolio. I would try and emulate that portfolio if you want to invest in stocks. It was up 25% as of November 2006. The Vanguard Index fund is only up 14%.

AAII has some of the best financial advisers and the cost is very low. They have excellent guides and advice.

You may need a broker so go to e-Trade or Scottsdale who have low commission rates.

Do your own due diligence. Your own ideas are the best. Do not depend on someone else to select investments for you. Learn about investing so you don't have to ask what stocks to invest in.

Be self reliant.

Remember what Emerson said: A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do.

Find stocks that have steadily rising net profits (earnings), low debt, and good P/Es, lots of cash, companies buying back their stock..

What interests you? Find stocks that pique your interest and passion.

You need fast growing good stocks with good earnings and in good sectors. You need to learn more about the stock market before you even think about investing in it.

The stocks world is divided into 12 sectors such as energy which chevron belongs to. It is next to last in the sectors list today.

Technology is numero uno, but things can change in a new york minute, but within the sector, the fastest growing are computer services, not Microsoft. Then, Electronic Instruments and controls. Next is computer storage devices.

The next hot sector is Healthcare, but heed the warning below. Go here for sectors: (http://clearstation.etrade.com/cgi-bin/Itechnicals?Event=srp&Section=redge&Refer=/redge.html)

The best software is Vector Vest if you can afford it. It has sector investing.

Here is a free Web site for charting stocks: (http://www.incrediblecharts.com/).

First of all, stay away from "professional brokers" and tips coming to you via e-mail or friends and acquaintances. And tips at Yahoo! Answers. And e-mail tips. Do your own due diligence - don't rely on someone else. Read Emerson's essay "Self Reliance.

Hey! They will say anything to get you to buy their junk. If it's too good to be true, it is.

Remember this, they are just sales people trying to sell you what their firm is pushing. They are not security analysts or financial planners, not even financial advisers. Trust me, I know from experience that they cannot be trusted especially with a million dollars. You risk losing it all. A million dollar account is known as a "whale" and they would love to get their greedy little paws on it and suck it dry. They just want to make commissions on what they buy and sell for the suckers, err...clients..

Risk avoidance is the name of the game.

Remember, the harder I work, the luckier I get.

Penny stocks are highly speculative. I would avoid the ones under a dollar a share. For example, Best Buy started at less than $5. So there are some good companies, but it takes a lot of digging to find the good ones. You are looking for companies with good earnings, little debt, low capitalization, and good P/Es. For stocks under $5, very few will meet these requirements.

Stay away from the pharms unless they have patented drugs - do not invest in generic pharms, no growth there.

Check out which business sectors are the most popular and invest in the companies in those sectors. The number one, two and three are: technology, health care, and cyclicals (retail). These change periodically so keep current.

Go here for a list of growth stocks: http://www.thestreet.com/_googlen/newsanalysis/ratings/10345212.html?cm_ven=GOOGLEN&cm_cat=FREE&cm_ite=NA

There are these lists all over the Web - you pays your money and takes your chances.

Watch CNBC, but don't pay too much attention to the talking heads, except for Jim Cramer, the wild man - but he tries to teach you how to invest and has some great advice.

Get Jim Cramer's Real Money: Sane Investing in an Insane World by James J. Cramer

Listen to Jim Cramer on CNBC.com

Go to Clearstation for quotes and tutorials on investing at (http://clearstation.etrade.com/). Sign up is free. Look up a few stocks. Do their tutorials. Check out the sectors.

Get this book: Value Investing: From Graham to Buffett and Beyond (Wiley Finance) by Bruce C. N. Greenwald, Judd Kahn, Paul D. Sonkin, and Michael van Biema.

Another good book: The Motley Fool Investment Guide for Teens: 8 Steps to Having More Money Than Your Parents Ever Dreamed Of (Motley Fool) by David Gardner, Tom Gardner, and Selena Maranjian

Jim Cramer's Mad Money: Watch TV, Get Rich by James J. Cramer and Cliff Mason

I Want to Make Money in the Stock Market: Learn to Begin Investing Without Losing Your Life Savings! by Chris M. Hart\

Sensible Stock Investing: How to Pick, Value, and Manage Stocks by David P. Van Knapp

Stock Investing For Dummies (For Dummies (Business & Personal Finance)) by Paul Mladjenovic

All About Stock Market Strategies : The Easy Way To Get Started by David Brown and Kassandra Bentley

The Motley Fool Investment Guide and their Web site (http://www.fool.com/).

The Little Black Book of Microcap Investing: Beat the Market with NASDAQ/AMEX Microcap Stocks, OTCBB Penny Stocks, and Pink Sheet Stocks by Dan Holtzclaw

How To Make Money In Stocks: A Winning System in Good Times or Bad, 3rd Edition by William J. O'Neil

Trading for a Living: Psychology, Trading Tactics, Money Management by Alexander Elder

Big Trends in Trading: Strategies to Master Major Market Moves (A Marketplace Book) by Price Headley

Extraordinary Popular Delusions & the Madness of Crowds (Paperback)
by Charles Mackay (Author), Andrew Tobias (Foreword) This book talks about the Tulip craze in Holland where people would mortgage their homes to buy Tulip bulbs. Same thing happened in 2001 - 2002 with the Internet bubble that brought the stock market to its knees. The dot com companies were the Tulip bulbs.

Buy Investors Business Daily. It has lots of tutorials and I like it better than the stodgy Wall St Journal.

Money Game by Adam Smith

Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits and Other Writings (Wiley Investment Classics) (Hardcover)
by Philip A. Fisher. Recommended by Warren Buffet who took $100,000 and grew it to $34 billion!

Value Investing with the Masters by Kirk Kazanjian

Valuegrowth Investing by Glen Arnold

The 5 Keys to Value Investing by J. Dennis Jean-Jacques

The Intelligent Investor Rev Ed. (Collins Business Essentials) by Benjamin Graham. Warren Buffet was his student at Columbia.

The Money Masters by John Train

The Bogleheads' Guide to Investing by Taylor Larimore

Common Sense on Mutual Funds: New Imperatives for the Intelligent Investor by John C. Bogle

Why Smart People Make Big Money Mistakes And How To Correct Them: Lessons From The New Science Of Behavioral Economics by Gary Belsky

Rule #1: The Simple Strategy for Successful Investing in Only 15 Minutes a Week! by Phil Town . See his Web site at (http://www.ruleoneinvestor.com/). Free sign-up. I got the book at the library.

Listen. You don't have to spend a lot of money on these books - most can be found at your library and those that your library doesn't have they can usually get from other libraries in your state.

Most of these books talk about stock and mutual fund investing, but for a good introduction to other forms of investing Gerald Appel has a great book called Opportunity Investing - How to Profit When Stock Advance, Stocks decline, Inflation Run Rampant, Prices fall, Oil Prices Hit the Roof and Every Time In Between.

First, Break All the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman Not a book on investing, but it's a nice segue into the next book.

Now, Discover Your Strengths by Marcus Buckingham and Donald O. Clifton

Go Put Your Strengths to Work: 6 Powerful Steps to Achieve Outstanding Performance by Marcus Buckingham

Finding your strengths is important when investing. These books teach you to build on your strengths, what you a good at. Everyone is good or passionate about something. Why not get better at what you are good at?

Another good book is: Opportunity Investing: How To Profit When Stocks Advance, Stocks Decline, Inflation Runs Rampant, Prices Fall, Oil Prices Hit the Roof, ... and Every Time in Between (Hardcover)
by Gerald Appel

Most mutual funds do not even keep up the the return on the S&P. That's like 99% of them.

Vanguard Index funds are a no brainer.

A CD is better than a savings account. They range from six months to several years. You cannot touch your money tho until the time limit is up.

Check out this Web site on Direct Investment Plans where you can buy shares directly from companies: (http://www.fool.com/School/DRIPs.htm). Usually no fees and you can buy one share at a time.

Bonds are probably the safest. But they are not for the young. You might try a bond fund. They might return 5 or 6 percent. At 5% a million would return $50,000 a year - not a bad income. Remember, you have to pay taxes on the $50,000.

There are also municipal bonds and the income from them is taxfree especially if you buy them in a state that offers them, but they only pay about 3%, but it's mostly taxfree.

Look into Fidelity sector funds. Buy the top three, then in six months look how they are doing and if not so hot, select the next three that are best. Do this for a few years and you will make lots of money.

Kindest Personal Regards,

Walt Brown
Site Build It Certified Webmaster
[e-mail]

P.S. This is a life-long learning process. Reading these books and applying the rules to analyzing stocks that may be good It takes time. Be patient and keep reading and listening. Don't be a sucker and follow someone elses advice. Be your own man or woman. Depend on no one except yourself. You can only get smarter and stronger that way.

P.P.S. Internet has lots of good stuff, for example (http://stockcharts.com/school/doku.php?id=chart_school:technical_indicators:moving_average_conve
Stockcharts.com is very good and their discussion of MACD is one of the best, barring its originator, Gerald Apple, but now we are getting into Technical Analysis and that is not for beginners. But it is an important factor in finding good stocks that are going up and growing. Remember, tiny acorns grow into mighty oaks.

P.P.P.S. There is a way to invest in stocks without a broker and if you keep reading I will tell you how.

The method is called DRIPs.

A DRIP is a Dividend Reinvestment Plan. It offers indidual investors, even a15 year old, a cost-effective way to build equity in a stock.

The DRIP is run by a corporation and it allows people to make cash purchases of stock or to reinvest dividends (if any). I have a DRIP program with Goodyear Tire and Rubber, but it ran into problems a few years ago and stopped paying dividends.

You only need one share of stock to become eligible. In some cases it can be purchased directly from the company, but normally needs to be purchased through a broker. You could have your parents open up an brokerage account and purchase the share in your name.

There are no fees or commissions when you reinvest your dividends.

There are lots of companies that do this - over 1000. The company likes them because it's a low cost way to get capital or cash for their business. Because of that companies welcome new investors into their DRIP plans.

What makes DRIP popular is that most of the plans require very small cash outlays even as low as $10, some as low as $5.

Some of the world's largest companies like IBM, AT&T, and McDonald's have DRIPs.

Very wealthy investor like DRIPs because it allows them to bypass the broker's commisssion which lowers the investors cost of investing

Another benefit is known as dollar-cost averaging where a fixed amount is invested on a regular basis. The stock rises and falls with the market, but by investing periodically, the average cost of the shares tends to average out and not be affected by the market swings.

Liquidating or selling your shares can be a problem because brokers want to get a commission for selling and buying stock for investors, but the company will buy them back in some cases.

Dividends are considered income and used to be taxed by the IRS, but a change in the law makes them non-taxable. But if you sell your shares and make a profit you have to pay tax on the profit. There are two types of taxes for profits or capital gains: one is short term and costs more than the other kind of capital gain which is called a long-term capital gain and that occurs when you hold a stock for more than six months.

Goodyear Tire and Rubber's stock symbol is GT, but don't invest in this one because it doesn't pay a dividend yet..

YUM is the symbol for Yum! Brands, Inc and they own Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and Kentucky Fried Chicken on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE)

This Web site has a list of DRIPs: http://www.directinvesting.com/

To find DRIPs that pay good dividends, look in Investors Business Daily, Barrons, or the Wall Street Journal. There is a column that has dividends and return %. Most don't pay as much as a Treasury Note or a CD, but they have earnings growth to offset that income disadvantage. Than look them up in the URL above.

Google this keyword "DRIP lists" for more Web site. Be careful. Some of them charge a fee to sign up.