How does a small town girl get into the stock market?

My husband and I keep visiting the idea of trying the stock market. We are both educated people, just not in this area. What is the best, and most economical, way to begin? I don't know if we should find a business in our area that handles this sort of thing, or if we should find something online. I don't want to sink a lot of money into fees for our first go at this. We just want to try it out and see if it's for us. Please help!

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

- read the books listed on the front page, talk to the pros and follow their picks for a while to get a feel for how things work.

We have members from all over the world - not just the US - trading US equities.

I used sharebuilder and it was pretty good. You have to be willing to do the research yourself and I think it is a good way to learn.

First of all, I suggest you study the topic before you get into it. There are plenty of good books, but one that I like in particular is called "One up on Wall Street" by Peter Lynch. It will tell you what it is all about in everyday people's terms.

For us, normal people, the only way to "get into" the stock market is through brokers. You just apply for an account at a brokerage firms, in similar fashion as getting a bank account. Some of the nation's biggest ones are Fidelity Investments, Merriyl Lynch, Charles Shwab, etc, etc, etc... You can start the process by calling them or look them up on-line.

Most companies require minimum of 2500 dollars to open an account. Perhaps that's where you should start.

BUT, before you do this, READ the book I mentioned. It will give you a much better prospective. No, you don't need a local firm to handle your finances. I'd suggest sticking with a larger national firm until you know much better about investing.

Whoa! You and your husband need to slow down and take a deep breath, before jumping into the stock market. I'll lay down some ground rules.

1) Get it out of you head if you think you can get RICH in stocks. You are not likely be able to make a lot of money in stock even if you are moderately successful at investing. A professional who manages multi-million dollar mutual funds with a 5-star Morningstar rating (which is the highest mutual fund rating) will give you 20% return annually (20% is a great return). Let's say for example you put $25,000 in the stock market and make 25% annual return that's give you, $6,250 a year. Nice chunk of change but nothing to retire on. It'll take quite a few years to make it to $100,000. Investment is for building on the nest egg.

2) Yes, there are exception to the rule and you can get RICH from investments. However, you have to be RICH already. If you have a $1,000,000 and have an annual 25% return. You're looking at $250,000 a year!! That's a lot of money and why the rich gets richer.

3) Even the best money managers with a crack team of experts and analyst who's full time job is to invest money will lose money all the time. You aren't likely to beat their performance by playing the stock market as a part-time hobby. So, if you're doing analysis part-time you're likely to lose money.

With all that said, should you still proceed? Yes, you can but do so very cautiously. Stocks is gambling... Let's not use any euphemism. It's gambling! When you have chances to win and a chance to lose, it's gambling. You wouldn't go to a casino and gamble with your life saving nor should you do so with the stock market. My first suggestion is only gamble with money that you can AFFORD TO LOSE. Meaning if you lost all the money you invested, you wouldn't jump off a building afterward.

Second, do not over-commit yourself over small successes. Growing you nest egg is measured over your life time. Don't get too happy over a couple of good picks or a few bad picks. Make assessments over annual periods and see how you've performed.

All that said, where should you begin? Start by not using any of your real money. There are simulated stock market games on the internet (www.virtualtrader.co.uk/ ) and (vse.marketwatch.com/ ) These websites are used mostly by students studying investments. It use simulated money, but actual stock market results. Use this as a laboratory for experimenting. Use the simulation for a year and see if your method would've made money. You need a year to gauge your real results anything less would just be flukes.

If you've had some success after a year and haven't been scared off. Now, it's time to put your winning strategy developed under simulation to reality. But, don't put all you eggs in one basket. Look you've developed a winning strategy, but don't put everything you have in one basket. That'll be dumb and you know it. So, you should figure to put at least 40% of the invested money in a mutual fund that's been giving annual returns of over 10%. This mutual fund you chose should have a strategy that is very different and preferably the exact opposite of your own. So, when things head down the gutter, not everything goes down the tube.

Good luck - you'll need it.

One good way to find out if you're interested enough to put the necessary time and effort into it is for each of you to create a "paper portfolio" and manage it for a year. Start with a given amount - maybe $50,000 - and decide how you would invest it (which stocks, how much) using the daily quotations. Spend the next year "managing" your phantom investments - buying and selling when you think the time is right (ignore fees for now). At the end of the year, liquidate your paper portfolios. Determine whether you had a gain or loss, but more importantly, whether you had fun with the process.

Depends on what your objective is - trading often with expendable cash, or investing long term?
If the first, you should have at least $5,000 (or money to buy stock in round blocks of 100, so if you want a stock that trades for $40, it would be $4,000 for 100 shares). Try opening an account with a deep discount broker, like tdameritrade. Trades are only $10.
If the second, invest in a DRiP (div reinvest plan). Most public US companies have one. You can find info about how to invest directly on the company websites. This is cheap, as it's not thru a broker. Long term hold strategy.

your location has nothing to do with it. You obviously have computer access. YOu can be on a boat, up a tree, in a cave, as long as you are wireless or wired you have access to stock trade companies on line;

all you need is some money, sign up for an account, buy stock; and go from there. What makes you think that being a "small town girl" (whatever that is) has anything to do with being intelligent.

if you can't afford to lose the money; stay out of the market.

My advice is dont try to go at it alone, seek some professional advice. Everyone seems to think its horrible to pay someone to give you advice. Financial Avdisors have access to products that the average joe hasnt even heard of such as Unit Investment Trusts, Reverse Convertables, IPO's. I'm a broker and I utilize all these tools for my clients. They would never be able to get their hands on great products like this if it weren't for me. Yes I charge them for my advice but its reasonable and if i cant make someone more than 3-5% a year I shouldn't be in the business. Talk to a pro and see what he/she says.. Just interveiw a few, I believe you'll be glad you did.

Ask at your local bank.

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