I've been a member for a very short time and I've found this entire site very educational. With that being said, I'm trying to take my slim savings into a decent nest egg status and am interested in maybe trying some stocks. I have no clue what I'm doing and I'm wondering if there are any newbie tips anyone can share?
Well aware this may be a stupid request, but I figure it's worth it to ask.

As they say .. do not try this at home!

Let me try to help dissuade you.

I'm a pretty average person. I think I'm slightly above average in intelligence and my old standardized testing scores would definitely agree with that. I consider myself good with money in general, or at least being a tightwad and holding onto money. I spent 6-7 months reading about trading every, single, day. If work was slow I'd read about it and when I got home I'd get online and read. I started off with basic information on wikipedia then I would find market specific sites, tutorials, free seminars and online classes (CBOE) market forums and blogs (like here). This in addition to college business courses what good they may be (macro/micro economics, finance, accounting, etc).

Finally I took an amount of my savings that if I burned it all in my fireplace right then it wouldn't be the end of my world and loaded up a TOS account and waited. Started to research companies I simply liked that I thought had a good product/service or things I thought were undervalued. Few months later I finally pulled the trigger and started buying things and doing little stuff with options.

None of my options worked out. Things I thought were an absolute no brainer went against me. Game company releasing a game I know will be ****ing amazing? Sure I'll bet that stock will jump. Stock tanks. Why? I'm sure a more educated and seasoned trader could give me an acceptable answer to that. Then **** like a ****ing Japanese earthquake destroyed one of my stocks. What do you do with that? I've been "trading" for about two years and I've yet to get profits. I've got stocks that are up since I've purchased them but as far as cashing out I've done nothing and so at the moment have nothing to show for it.

If I haven't changed your mind yet I recommended reading A LOT. Read books, watch online seminars, powerpoints, anything free that isn't trying to outright sell something. Then paper trade for a few months or a year or three and see how you do. Finally if you really want to play pic a number $$$ in your head that if you burned it all in front of you wouldn't make you break down and cry or lose your house/car/etc. and start with that.

So far Im invested in a 401k and petty savings. Im tryi.g to create more security for my family. Im not looking for get rich quick but if you have any other tips to help, id sure love the chance to learn.

I would see if you can increase your contributions to your 401k. Let the people that (hopefully) know what they are doing handle it. They already have years of experience doing this sort of thing. I know at my place of employment I am allowed to crank up my contributions pretty damn high. As I've gotten older I've realized a lot of **** falls under "if you want it done right do it yourself" but gambling in the market is one of the places that doesn't apply for most people...for me at least.

Investopedia and CBOE are a couple of places to get started.

Does TOS still have the free, no real money, play account?

I almost tried that and then chickened out and decided I was better off sitting on the sidelines watching the game.

I sent some advice privately, in a bit of detail.
Basically I said ... avoid stocks, select a few distinct ETFs to avoid the all one mkt problem, and for built in diversification. I threw in an inverse or two to see trading as not just being long.
I suggested chart resources.
I suggested several public sources good for weighing situational risks in the mkt.
I recommended a single indicator that on a weekly is both nimble and reliable as a trend directional measure.
I offered money management tips.

Folks -- my experience says to do this right, you have to do it yourself. Learning isn't a one year gig, its lifelong. So start early and stick to it.
What I recommended was for openers, to get on the right track.

This isn't a buy and hold market. And won't be one again for years. If you're determined, here's how you start. If you're going to be at all smart about this, its the only way.

P

Pieter,

You didn't bring some for the whole class?

Sorry Arp. I didn't want to get bogged down here arguing the merits of any particular details. Instead, I mapped out a general DIY strategy. People can weigh in on whether these broad elements are necessary or helpful. And they can weigh in on the details. But I'll stand aside. There are many ways to skin this cat. And smart people still routinely fail. Its a tough gig.

Quote:

Does TOS still have the free, no real money, play account?

my papermoney account login still works

Grimm -
TOS = ThinkorSwim. I know you're always on your phone, so you can install the droid app and play around with it using a paper account there too.

Investing and trading are two different things. Value and price are two different things. When you can explain the differences between those things you will know more than 99% of market participants.

Yes they are Pat. But I sure hope you aren't advising a newbie to proceed into this market with an investing mindset.

Quote:

if there are any newbie tips anyone can share?

I don't gamble. I hate to lose money. I really cannot stand to lose money. I really beat myself up when I make a bad decision about something. Therefore, I don't trade on an active basis. I only bet on sure things, which are very few and far between. I will live modestly with low risk rather than try and live extravagantly which would require more risk taking.

That's just me and how I do things.

I recommend buying physical lead. And then a very nice
lead delivery system. Followed by lead delivery training.

Jotapay, I whole heartedly agree with you. This is why im doing research and pleading for advice before anything. The research is overwhelming and Im left feeling really stupid haha. I thank you all for the healthy input. Its good to know I can ask anything and not be shunned

Nobody other than you can decide how you wish to trade or invest. Risk tolerance, now much you wish to research companies, how long you wish to hold stocks, how much you (your stomach) can withstand moves against you...are all things that only you can decide. Taxability is a big issue; frequency of intervention and how much attention you can or wish to pay is another.

If you are utterly brand new to stocks and/or investing, in just a few sentences, I would recommend picking a basket of half a dozen or ten or twelve stocks that somehow interest you. Again, if you are completely new, you don't even have the habit of "following" a stock or stocks. So my reco would be to see if you like doing such a thing.

Most of the people on this board utilize chartreading to pick stocks or ETFs and time their entries. This is for short term trading, anywhere from several minute s to "swing" trading which is maybe 2-3 days to 30 days, perhaps 45 days. Sign up for a free account at freestockcharts.com. Create a portfolio of stocks and name the portfolio the date you began, eg "Sept_09". Or, you might decide to pick all your stocks in September and have those picks be one port. Add stocks to it, either on that day, or during that month. And check in with them and start reading about those stocks. If you stop being interested in any one or more stocks, you might delete them, but better, IMO, would to begin a new portfolio, with a new name. You can have perhaps ten ports on FSC.

The point is that this is fundamental skill; to follow some number of stocks over time. And some people do not have it or find they do not care for it.

Do you watch Karls' videos? You have a gold star and you're paying for them. While I would wholeheartedly reco against trading the ES as he does for a beginner, you could sort of mimic his trades using SPY, the QQQ, or DIA.

Settling upon a general modus operandi in stocks is a complex thing unless you want to blow a bunch of money trying stuff. Some folks trade only gold stocks, some trade only penny stocks. You might want, as part of this exercise, to trade (or, invest in) only Dow 30 stocks...a pretty limited universe, but for your purposes, probably fine.

I believe most self-directed traders begin by picking this "basket" of stocks that they decide to follow. Freestockcharts is an easy way to do this. Just pretend you just bought 100 shares of whatever...maybe you look around and pick names that are familiar. There's utterly nothing wrong with that. Caterpillar...General Electric...Verizon...AT&T....Ford...Home Depot...Staples...Costco...McDonalds...Federal Express...UPS....there's a port right there, just names you might see in ten minutes walking around or even in your home.

Gamma -- as Grimm knows, that echoes much of what I advised. Small watch list, use FSC.com ... but I advised sticking to ETFs to get built in diversification and avoid single company risks ... earnings are already faltering, and she'd have to watch dates for earnings releases etc ... the DIA will track that blue chip portfolio, and thereby cut down immensely on the research needed to deal with those risks.

I suggested a diverse but limited array of ETFs ... SPY, BNO, UNG, DBA, CEF, SH, SMH etc. So there is a better chance for non correlated movement.

Investing in 'stocks' may feel more tangible and real, but the ETFs 'behave' better, even for swing and position traders that hold for weeks.

While I agree that ETFs are an intelligent way to automatically diversify...perhaps it would be MORE useful to see what happens with single company risk, meaning more violent moves, while at this learning stage? Or she could mix them....have some ETFs and have some indiv issues. Folks who don't follow stocks on a continuous basis IMO don't have a good idea of the violence that some stocks exhibit, or, the abruptness of changes as they go in and out of favor. Or, they think they'll be able to prevent a blowup by "watching carefully". Whatever that means.

If indeed we think that this next earns season could be pivotal, in the sense that more companies are going to disappoint, it might be a good learning experience to see how badly they can get clocked should they disappoint!

There are programs called Dividend Reinvestment Plans (DRIP) for a whole lot of companies. Most of the programs allow investors to make individual cash purchases in small sums in specific stocks.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dividend_re....

Sharebuilder has a large version of DRIP, allowing an investor to buy a small amount of stock every week.

http://www.sharebuilder.com/

Disclosure: I have used DRIPs during my working years to accumulate stocks. (Investing $25 per week for a particular stock adds up over time.... and I didn't miss the money.) I currently use Sharebuilder as a way to accumulate investments in stocks I'm interested in.

-BigCowboy

Grimm...

Just watch this!



or the reload...



No more to say.

Step One: Get educated to the point that you feel absolutely confident that you are ready to risk your hard-earned money in the financial markets.

Step Two:

Step Three: http://www.investopedia.com/articles/fin....

answer my questions..

1) how old are you?
2) what are your expectations?
3) how much risk do you want to take?

if you get me these three things.. i can give you some guidance..

where is that thread someone wrote a LONG time ago on here that was similar to the Come to Jesus thread about trading?

that is what this person needs to read...


— that and the 'THE BEST BOOK EVER' thread of books