MommaDoo asked:
We already have some cash in investments but I want to attempt the stock marketplace. Ought to I use a broker or do penny stocks or some thing else? I don’t know much about it.
We have retirement accounts. We are older and have kids entering college in four years. They have about enough to get them through two years. They used to have three times that prior to the ecomony went south. We have 1 who desires to go to medical school. What are our options?
December 4th, 2009 at 12:47 pm
Read and understand how the market works first. If investing long term use a broker. Never trade penny stocks unless you know what you are doing. Once you understand the market you can later move to an on line broker at a greater discount.
Rule to follow never let the broker talk you into a mutual fund. Its money in their pocket not yours. Go with the blue chip stocks. Banks are really cheap right now.
December 7th, 2009 at 4:05 am
The first thing you will want to do is to educate yourself on stocks.
I would then start off with no load mutual and index funds. They offer more diversification than individual stock and have less risk.
Never invest in penny stocks.
December 10th, 2009 at 1:53 pm
The stock market is a lot more risky than many other types of investments are. And you need to understand the risks of loosing your money in the stock market really well before you start investing in it.
For one thing, there is a lot of speculation going on in the stock market. And stock prices quite often don’t correspond well to the real worth of companies. Which means that you can easily overpay for the shares you buy when the stock market is up. And then loose some of your money, when speculators bail out and the stock price goes down.
Believe it or not, many traders in the stock market use the so called ‘technical analysis’ where they look at patterns in stock prices of a company and decide whether to buy or to sell this stock, regardless of how well or how poorly the company and the economy are doing. That’s how Nasdaq managed to go all the way to 5000 during the dot com boom, and then it crashed to 1100 in the recession that followed.
The stock market quite often isn’t much better than a Casino, where people gamble with very large sums of money.
December 13th, 2009 at 10:42 am
do not get in its a rigged casino in the last yr . fed reserve propping everything up.
only thing safe is gold and silver .
i did well on slv using scott trade but cashed in and bought real silver from bullion direct.
December 14th, 2009 at 10:23 am
If you’re a rookie in investing or stocks, go to
.
Open up a portfolio without using real money. You can give yourself as much or as little money to try out the market. The stocks you want to focus on is consumer staples, consumer discretionary, and healthcare. These are DEFENSIVE stocks that will survive through good and bad times. Most of my positions are in these stocks. Some names include 3M, Procter & Gamble, Kimberly Clark, Exxon Mobil, Walmart, Costco. Everybody’s got to eat and wipe their butts regardless of the state of economy. Many of these companies survived through the Great Depression.
That’s the benefits. You can sleep at night knowing your money is doing well. There are NO guarantees that you won’t lose money. It’s just that these stocks are the best. They pay good dividends too.
Then once you’re comfortable and test the waters of the market, you can finally put some real money in. Go to Scottrade.com. They’re excellent for beginners.
If you’re new to stocks, DON’T DAY TRADE. You’ll a rookie in a world of professionals. I tried day-trading with Citigroup and AIG when they were a little bit over $1. I had some luck at first, making about $30 a day but I was way over my head. My luck didn’t last long and I had to rethink my strategy.
Day trading involves A LOT of commissions to the broker. With all the commissions deducted from each trade, you’ll be lucky if you only lose half your money.
I would just day trade using Yahoo! Finance. Open a stimulation account, give yourself $100 worth of fake money and play it in the stimulation format. You’ll see what I mean by losing money every easily.
Good luck.