First time investing?

this is my first time investing in anything and im not sure how all of it works. please suggest good companies or show me a good site that shows rating of how good they are doing i need help!!!

If you have never invested I would suggest reading 'Investing for dummies" those books are good basic overviews.

Also you need to know what your goals are. If you are just going to buy one stock and play, try an on-line service like Waterhouse. If you are serious and are willing to pay for the service, get full service broker to help you. Ask lots of questions and learn all you can. As you learn and get more confident move to an on-line service.

It is not easy to learn quickly or know who to take advice from. Most would advise you to have 4 to 6 months emergency money in a money market. My recommendation is Vanguard's Prime Money Market. (currently paying 5.12%).

The next step is to determine your tolerance for risk and then how you should allocate you investments to cash, bonds and stocks.

Vanguard, Fidelity Investments and T.Rowe Price all are considered good companies that offer mutual funds. Their web sites offer some ideas on asset allocation that you can try. I am biased toward mutual funds - individual stocks seem to require too much expertise or reliance on others.

Money Magazine has articles that are written so that new investors can understand them. They also have a good web site. They have a recommended list of mutual funds and stocks that seem well thought out.

Morningstar rates mutual funds. If you go to their site and click on funds there is a Vanguard diehard discussion group that gives excellent advice (not from Vanguard) on all aspects of investments - you can just read or even ask for advice. There are a lot of questions like your that are asked and they are very helpful. Yahoo Financial also has good user friendly info.

Finally, assuming you go the mutual fund route there are two types 1. funds that try to beat the market (managed funds) 2. and funds that try to match the market (referred to as index funds). Research has shown that very few funds can beat the market over time. The ones that try charge about 1% more per year than the one's that don't. So my advice is to look at index funds.

It sounds overwhelming. Take your time, read, and start slowly to gain experience with investments and your reaction when the market drops. If your $ 100,000 investment drops to $ 80,000 you will learn just how risk tolerent you are. If you decide you don't have confidence in your own judgement the above fund groups have funds that will allocated your investments for you and some (called target funds) that will gradually become more conservative as you near retirement.

Good Luck - unlike some things you learned in school all of this learning can be useful the rest of your life.

Actually the easiest way to get started is to buy what are called exchange traded funds. These are mutual funds that trade on the stock market like stocks, and allow you to own a little stock in a lot of companies easily.

This essentially saves you the trouble of picking stocks and is safer.

Try IVV or SPY (the ticker symbols for two S&P 500 funds) buy either one and you'll own a little stock in the 500 largest US companies.

Ok first off congratulations on investing, looking for places to put your hard earned capitol to work for you is paramount to building wealth. Now this new found road is not without its perils, and should be treated like any of lifes great journeys.

Preparation, due diligence, and some elbow grease can prepare you to start your journey,

1) Arm yourself with as many tools as you can, Read Read and Read ( did i say read?) Every thing you can in your local libary about investing, fundamental .and technical analysis

A few books to start would be Rich dad Poor dad, Warren buffet and trump's book, and for a understanding of stock technicals and movements read A beginers guide to trading by toni turner.

Ok, maybe after a little reading , now your feeling like you can give this investing idea a shot and now you want to put the principles you learned to work.

2)So what company to invest in, ?
Well first you have to have a plan certain parmeters our goals that ideally you want your investment to provide.

lets say you are looking for a stock that has the potential to go up 100% + and your time frame is 1-3 years. Well from your reading, you remember that generally small - mid caps and growth stocks typically out preform the general market . You also remember that on average the stocks market has given 10% roi. You are shooting for 33% each year over 3 years. So that would be a example of one goal.

You also were watching live earth, and enjoying the music and thinking how you could do your part to help out.
So you were doing some research on alernative energy and green companies on hoovers.com

Maybe another goal, is to invest in a company that not only can make you money, but whos product has the ability to disrupt the market place and is has a socially responisble misison statement or ethos. The point is, your dollar is your vote at the supermarket or in the stock market. Without investors some of the greatest technologic advances of the last century would of never taken place. So just realize your investment is you actively taking part in what the world could be like in the future. ( sorry to ramble, im a better talker then i am writer =], )
As smart guy, you realize that global landscapes are changing and green energy will be the new paradigm of the future and would probably make a good investment.

So you start you research, you get a list of green companies.When you invest, you may be doing it just to make money, but your investment also spurs the world we are born in live in and will die in.

You stumble across a stock called Raser Technologies Inc., because you think hybrid demand will increase and there will be a shift from oil, and efforts to reduce energy consumption accross the board. Since Raser is a relatively new company, that holds many patents, and is just turning the corner from a R&d company into commercialization of its technologies. You think this could be a great company in its infancy and could fit you investment goals.

So now you check various places to find info on the company
you check the website (www.rasertech.com) , the sec filings, and maybe yahoo or msn.com for ratings if applicable and recent news etc......Then you check the stocks technicals, you see that the stock has a strong uptrrend developing and see that historically stock is undervalued and oversold relative to its previous high of 50. You examine its fundamentals, share structure , any revenues cash in the bank.

keep in mind when we invest in potential growth stocks, we are not looking at what has happned in the past but more concerned to what the future holds. Since the the company which was founded in 2002 and up until now has been a research and development company, dont expect it to see many revenues now. Since the company is about to carry out the commericilization of its techs and go online with its geo thermal projects,you are investing for the bright future.

3) finding a broker so you can invest

Now you must choose a broker, i would think a online retail broker would be perfect for you when begining.

etrade.com schwab.com scottrade.com
or a few adequate choices.

4) Now if you think you need more experience, and you dont want to risk your hard earned money yet. You can choose a site like www.clearstation,com and paper trade your investment ideas. This way if you are wrong about your analysis, you can learn without losing real money.

paper trading will allow you to monitor your success, the bad part is if you are right then you dont make any real money paper trading=[

5) Ok here ya go, you are ready to palce your first order
few tips always use limit order , market orders put you at the mercy of the market makers and is not reccomended ever!

Another tip always sell on the ask never the bid!

Before you hit that trade button,you have developed your investment plan, contigency plan, and done all your research.

Plan your trade and Allways trade your plan, use the tools you have learned and always try not to invest on emotions>>>>>>

Use research technicals to make investing decisions not emotions.

I hope this is the best answer and you have a long prosperous road as a future investor, its late now so please excuse me for the grammar and spelling errors. If my opinions can be of anymore help feel free to contact me.

goodluck

Read up on investing before puttting a dime even into an account. The "Market" is set up to take the money of people who do not know what they are doing.

Good Luck to you.

You might want to create a "practice" portfolio at http://www.top10traders.com - it's free - each month, the site ranks the best performing investors.

You will need to get a basic education on investing before you try your hand at it. Any of the following will help get you started:

1) Mutual Funds for Dummies, by Eric Tyson
2) http://www.invest-for-retirement.com has a free downloadable book
3) The Boglehead's Guide to Investing
4) The Five Rules for Successful Stock Investing, by Pat Dorsey
5) http://www.investopedia.com has some free tutorials

Congratulations on wanting to get involved in the stock market and investing!

All investors need to start somewhere, and books are a good way. I would recommend starting with "Investing for Dummies" by Eric Tyson and "Personal Finance for Dummies" by Eric Tyson.

Once you learn the basics of investing and the stock market, you can continue reading more books including the recommended books in this link.

In addition, you can start watching former Hedge Fund Manager Jim Cramer, on his CNBC show "Mad Money." While his antics may seem crazy to some, he has a lot of substance and has a good message. He had a very impressive record as a hedge fund manager. He even has a loyal following among Generation Y.

Continue to read magazines and newspapers such as "The Wall Street Journal", "Money", "Smart Money", and even "Barron's" or "Investors Business Daily".

Once you are ready, you can start choosing a brokerage account. Two popular ones are:

E*Trade
TD Ameritrade

They offer many kinds of accounts, and you buy and sell stocks, and mutual funds. The minimum to open each account is $1000.

The rest of the article is continued here including whether you should invest in individual stocks, ETFs, or mutual funds:
http://techfarm.blogspot.com/2007/07/how-do-i-start-investing.html

Simulation games are usually played on the internet, where people can experience the thrill of investing in the stock market without any risks, costs or any fear of losing money when and if they make a poor investment decision.

Many teachers and professors of banking and finance are now using stock market simulation games to teach their students about the rudiments of investing in stocks. Most stock market simulation games come with a fee to get started, but there are some that are free of any charge.One need not ve prior knowledge about the stock market to join.

This is how stock market simulation games usually work:

First, players must register. After registration, players are given an initial sum of "virtual" money to invest in companies of their choice. Players build a portfolio of stocks by buying and selling shares in companies. Most stock market simulation games use real-time market data.
objective of most stock market simulation games is

tips to invest
http://www.freewebs.com/investyourmoney

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