Best way to invest in stocks????

I need to know the best way to invest in stocks. I'm really interested and I don't have a TON of money to start, but I would really like advice on maybe what some good stocks are to invest in, and how long i should keep it in, and how MUCH I should invest right off the bat....

Investing in "individual" stocks takes a lot of knowledge and practice; so I would not suggest doing this until you understand completely how the stock markets work.

Instead visit Vanguard.com and learn about mutual funds, index funds, and exchange-traded-funds (ETFs). Trading funds is less risky than trying to trade "individual" stocks.

Unless you plan on spending everyday of your life looking at stock charts trying to determine the best time to get in and out of "individual" stocks, I would look into some sort of fund.

Also be very careful about asking for stock tips online. Most are probably worthless or contain unethical motives. Do not fall for any Pump-and-Dump scams.

As far as books go, I actually started out with the Investing for Dummies books, and they definitely pushed me in the right direction. To many other books have their own agendas in my opinion.

The websites below all contain plenty of FREE information to get you started in the right direction.

I see you are interested in investing in the stock markets. Start trading stocks is as simple as opening a trading account with no minimum investment amount and then picking a stock for as low as $100 and then buy. You need to buy through a broker, there are no way around this. However, that simplicity is truly the wolf beneath the sheep's skin.

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/

In conclusion, what I am saying here is that trading stocks and investing for profit is a professional game that takes years and a lot of money to learn, so it is not something that someone in need of college fees should do ... now.... but you should certainly start to learn about it right now.

Hope these information helps.

http://www.optiontradingpedia.com/

http://www.mastersoequity.com/

.

http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/TradingZoom/

Review the books listed on the front page, talk to the traders, and follow their picks on paper for a while.

I'd recommend buying what are called exchange traded funds. These are basically mutual funds that trade on the stock market like stocks, and allow you to buy a large number of companies easily and at low cost, which is safer than investing in individual stocks.

For example IVV and SPY hold stock in the 500 main US corporations. Either one would make a great core holding. If you're a bit more adventurous you could stick some cash in IBB which invests in biotech.

Just buy them and hold them until you need the money.

Try http://goldenbullpicks.com
all your questions will be answered.

Good thing you are learning how to invest! Congratulations.
1. Learn more about the market.
2. Open a brokerage account.
3. Invest in a good diversified mutual fund.
4. Continually add to the mutual fund, and in fact, try to automatically add money.

Even if people recommend lots of stocks, be cautious. Do not invest in any stock unless you know how to study them.

So investing in mutual fund is better. Minimums can be low, and because of the diversification, you don't really have to follow it from day to day. You can check on it one or twice a year.

Recommended Brokerage: E*Trade: http://www.etrade.com
Mutual Fund to choose:
1 Look through E*Trade's funds:
https://us.etrade.com/e/t/investingandtrading/mutualfundsandetfs?fundfamily=0&fund_fee_code=0

2. Choose only no-load, no transaction fee funds.

3. Choose mutual funds that www.morningstar.com rates 4 or 5 stars.

4. If you don't have that much money to start with, start with a good fund that has a low minimum such as UMBIX, Excelsior value and restructuring:

http://quicktake.morningstar.com/FundNet/Snapshot.aspx?Country=USA&pgid=hetopquote&Symbol=umbix

5. Once you get enough money, you can diversify into three mutual funds:
a. Diversified US Large Cap mutual fund
b. Diversified US Small cap mutual fund
c. Diversified International mutual fund.

6. But to start with, start with one fund, and when you have enough, get another fund, and so forth until you have three.

The best way to start in stocks is to invest in a mutual fund. This is a conglomeration of many stocks and managed by a large investing firm such as Fidelity or Vanguard. Professional money managers buy and trade hundreds of stocks so you don't have to. This also greatly reduces the risk that you will lose your money!

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