I am a 19 year old with some money to invest. How could i start investing in the stock market?

Start by heading to the library to check out a few books on investing. Start with "Investing for Dummies" a good beginning book. Do not do anything until you have brushed up on your knowledge.

Then you have a couple of choices. Invest directly in one or more companies that you fancy or invest in a mutual fund or two.
Which you choose to do depends a lot on the risks you are willing to take. Buying stocks in particual companies is considerably more risky than buying stock in a mutual fund but the potential rewards are greater. Also the potential losses.

You can buy mutual funds directly from the mutual fund companies. No commission on no load funds, but higher initial investment requirements. Among front end load funds American Funds is a good one. Among no load funds, Royce Funds and Fidelity and Vanguard among others.

Without further discussion and not knowing the amount you are talking about and assuming that you don't have any experience I would suggest that you start with mutual funds that spread the risk among amny stocks. I would also suggest that you contact Vanguard. This company has many good funds, that do not charge an arm and a leg to invest and they can give you advice.

First off, as a 26-year old who wishes he started at 19-years of age, you are off to a great start by simply suggesting this. Bravo, youngster! Not sure if you have a large sum to invest or if you can consistently buy funds on a plan or if you have some money here and there you could send in, so I hopefully will try and give you some tips.

Personally, I think getting into some major companies that you research and hopefully use would be the best bet. Major companies like Coca~Cola, Proctor and Gamble, General Electric, The Gap etc. etc. etc. would be a nice way to get into the market.

In addition to maybe a couple well-selected stocks, I would recommend buying sector ETF funds and follow the markets and read books to build up a base. Do NOT get trapped into buying and selling 100-times a month. Buy and hold quality investments and let time and compounding do its work.

If I was 19-years old again, I would start off investing in my Roth IRA, IF you have earned income and file a tax-return. If you make $500 a year, you can't send in $1000 to your Roth IRA. I would also open up a taxable account as well as Vanguard is a great place to start or if you have Bank of America, they offer a great investing program. Sharebuilder is excellent as well, just dont get trapped into buying stocks every week with $50 because the $4/sales charge will eat into your profits. You should try to keep the intial sales charge when purchasing stocks to like 2%.

So with that said, send in $50 to a sharebuilder account, but only but shares when you reach $200. but DONT wait until you have $200 in your checking account, because you will spend it. Send in the amounts you can afford to get it outside of a checking account or some concert you might want to go to.

With that said, I would send in as much money to whatever brokerage firm you decide on. $10 a week would be awesome or anything you can, but just do it! Even if its only $5/week. Send it in, it will add up!

Vanguard's Total market index ETF called 'VTI' would be a great way to start.

So, start sending in money into the account NOW, today, dont even wait until tonight. Open up a taxable account with Sharebuilder.com using promo code 'SHAREBUILD50' and get $50 after your first stock purchase in 4-6 weeks.

Fund the account and after a month or two, buy an ETF fund like 'VTI' for $200. Then rinse and repeat with 1-2 other stocks or even simply just do the 'VTI' fund for now. Keep funding the account and buying the same fund. Keep doing this and learning along the way and you will be able to make some other decisions...

investopedia.com
try the simulator
recommended reading
a random walk down wallstreet

It depends on what you want to do with the money. For a retirement fund, open up a Roth IRA and even if you can only chip in 2,000 a year, at 9% compound gains in 45 years, you will have put in $90,000 but gain over $1 million tax free (why you would chose a Roth). A Roth might be better for you than a 401K, because you will have to pay more taxes later if you gained money. With a Roth, you will have paid the taxes immediate, but the amount would be less. You would pay less taxes on $90,000 than $1 million.
Go to www.investopedia.com to see how things work. Then shop for an online broker.

Open an account with either E*Trade or Ameritrade. You can go to their website and fill in your application and mail them the deposit.

Ddod,
Go to a real solid stock brokerage company, like Edward Jones, A.J.Edwards, etc. Tell them what you want to do and ask them to help you with your purchases. I've had excellent results over the years and truely believe you cannot start investing to soon. Good luck, you won't be sorry.
TDCWH

I have an investment in alteon and fell they will be very profitable for me I bought at .15 right now its bouncing around between .12-.18 and feel in november when tax selling is over that it will bounce back up big to .40-1.00 within 8 weeks of starting its move. this is my opinion only symbol= alt

Depending on how much money you have. Some of it needs to go here. www.freedominforex.com

Open an account with a trading company
select your investments
buy the stock
sell when you think the time is right!

No books. No full-service broker. No systems. Get an acct with schwab.com or 1 of the others and get started now. Can buy an s&p index mutual fund without knowing anything. Start growing now. Good luck,

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