Stock Market Advice.... First time investor help?

For Xmas this year I asked my parents to put a few hundred dollars into the stock market in my name. What would be a good place to start learning about the market in general, and where would be a good place to place my initial investment. I'm not trying to double my money wuickly or anything. Mostly using this as a way to learn. Thanks in advance
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Thanks for the advice. Any suggestions for which stocks/ mutual funds look good right now?

A "few hundred dollars" for the stock market today is a lot more than a few hundred dollars in the stock market a year or more ago.

There are some things that you can do to get started. Here are my recommendations:

1. Open an online account. With around $200+ dollars to invest you will want to look at online brokers that do not charge a lot for commissions. I am currently using Zecco trading (www.zeccotrading.com) due to their inexpensive stock commissions. They charge $4.50 for stock trades which is fairly inexpensive as other places can charge $12.95 up to 1000 shares and then more based on the number of shares you are buying.

2. Get some education. Zecco trading has a very good education program which is free. They seem to cater to the newer investor like yourself and therefore provide a lot of basic education regarding the stock market as well as options market (though I would only stick with the stocks right now due to your small amount of investment funds) in hopes that you will open an account with them.

3. Get a trading/investing plan and strategy. You will find that a plan is necessary to help you know what to do. However, it would seem that a simple and basic plan for you to do now would be a "buy and hold" plan, where you would look at stock that has a hope of rising in value, buying it as it is low in value and holding it for a while including a couple of years, then selling when it's value has increased. This strategy is also better for you when it comes time to pay taxes on your profits (should they occur) as taxation is different (less) for long held stocks (over a year).

4. Diversify you portfolio (Your chosen assortment of stocks). A lot of companies have been hammered by the past year or so in the market and as such many companies are selling their stocks at their all time lows- some will make it and some will not. You will want to have a number of hopeful winners rather than just one. I would suggest 5 to 10 (yes, even though you only have $200+).

5. Buy penny stocks. Penny stocks are stocks that generally sell for less than a dollar and as such they aren't allowed on the larger markets. They are considered OTC (over the counter) stocks and are listed with OTC exchanges. You can find more information about them from www.pinksheets.com. For example, at one time Lehman brothers stock was selling for over $150 a share. They went bankrupt which sent our financial markets into a tail spin (and there was no bailout for them. Whatâ€™s up with that?); however, it was a chapter 11 bankruptcy and not a chapter 7 which means they can still do business and possibly get back on their feet. They had been around for roughly 150 years and fell but they may get back up again. Their stock is trading at around $.032 a share. You can buy 1000 shares for about $30. You may lose the $30 bucks but then again in three years they may be selling at $8 a share (or higher). Wouldn't that one trade decision put you on top of the world?

6. Follow the markets. Use yahoo finance for stock info as well as Google finance. Use their news sources to get information of the stocks. Use their charts etc.

7. Get some charts. You can get a free stock chart program from marketbrowser.com. I enjoy their charts and though a have spent thousands getting higher profile education and training I have found their charts to be very useful to me even now.

8. Use a virtual trader. Don't feel like you have to actually spent money to learn the stocks (or options). You can access a free virtual trader at www.cboe.com after you register by inputting your email. This is the same virtual trader that is powered by OptionsXpress, which is my other online broker. I have been very satisfied with the virtual trader and highly recommend it!!!

9. Realize that there is a difference between virtual trading and real. You can practice with a virtual trader but it is not the same as the real thing. You sense that the markets are at their all time lows (recent all time that is) and so you feel that you want to get in on some of the action - well listen to that feeling, but prepare yourself also.

There! Those are my recommendations. I have actually purchased 1001 shares of LEHMQ (Lehman brothers) and as doing as I have recommended to you. I will be eye balling additional penny stocks and using Zecco trading to purchase them (they are cheaper than OptionsXpress); however, I am still using OptionsXpress for options trades and when I need to feel more secure in my online broker I will use OptionsXpress.

I hope this has been helpful to you.

By the way, there are myriad trading philosophies and strategies. Good luck on wading through them as you learn them. Over time you will develop a unique strategy and philosophy that fits your personality.

Good luck and good investing.

P.S.: A good penny stock that seems to be moving right now is KDSC - at about a $.01 a share.

take a couple of months to learn about investing before making a move. also, try to get a sense of your risk tolerance level.

you have plenty of time so don't feel rushed to invest immediately. the markets are facing a lot of headwinds right now so don't worry that ur going to miss out on a "v" shaped recovery. ur young and you will have many unique investing opportunities over your life time. learn about the investment world and about your investment temperament before making your first move. ull enjoy it more that way and face fewer regrets because when you make your moves you will act with a specific purpose and objective in mind.

Sharebuilder.com

Do some research on things that do well in down economies. Try auto parts, food stuffs, undervalued commodity companies.

With a few hundred dollars I would purchase a good growth stock mutual fund. Try to add to it on a monthly basis if you can. Mutual funds offer instant diversification and are a great way to get your feet wet in the market. The public library has many great books on mutual funds and would be a great place to start your education. If you start young and invest on a monthly basis even a very little amount you can be a very wealthy person and retire early if you choose to. I wish my parents had done this for me. Trust me, invest as little as $50 per month in a good stock mutual fund and in a very short time, (10-15 years) you will have a small fortune. Don't get caught up in the next get rich quick scheme. Also, don't panic when the market goes down, because it will. Just keep dollar cost averaging (investing the same amount each month, buying shares, some times the prices will be up, sometimes down.) If you do this you will be very wealthy.

In addition, set up six months of your monthly expenses in a savings account or money market fund so you don't have to sell your mutual fund holdings if you need money. Keep adding to your savings and mutual funds each month and avoid the temptation to withdrawal money and I guarantee you will be wealthy beyond your belief.

Hope that helps.

There are plenty of good sites.

Try The Motley Fool at http://www.fool.com/

Or try this link on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/s/qid=1230514025/ref=sr_kk_2?ie=UTF8&search-alias=stripbooks&field-keywords=stock%20market%20for%20beginners

And look into divident reinvestment programs ("DRIPs"). The Motley Fool has some good information about them. And here's another site: http://www.dripcentral.com/

Hope that helps.

There are numerous books and websites that are very informative. Some include thestreet.com, finance.yahoo.com, marketwatch.com, smartmoney.com.

The best way to learn about investing is to just do it. If you don't want to risk losing money right away, set up a portfolio ( at any of the above websites ) of stocks you might want to buy. You

I would talk to a financial advisor they will be able to help you choose the best option for you and also explain everything you need to know. They can also tell you about the trends that are happening in the market now and suggest different products from low , medium or high risk depending upon what you want to do. There are usually ones at your bank and also independent ones who work for companies like Manulife Financial and such. Hope this helps:)

A good site to check out is Wall Street Survivor.Com. It gives you all the information and tutorials of buying and selling stocks plus you can take part in the game with$100,000 of imaginary money.You will quickly get the feel for it just like using real money buying online without the risk. In this economic prices all we know for sure is that people need to keep eating and keep buying their everyday supplies, With only $600.00 my guess would be Walmart.and hold. And continue playing the game on this website to build your knowledge and experience. Check out other sites as well.

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