Looking to get into stock market

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fionntan

Banned
I know some of you here know a bit about trading stocks. I am finally in a position where I can invest some money and I would like some advice on how to get started. I am curious how everyone invests. Do you use online services, or an actual broker. Where do you feel is the best place to get information? In your opinion what would be the best type of initial investment? Should I try to invest internationally?

I know most of this will be opinions, but I trust some of you to have good advice.
 
you probably don't have enough money to warrant a broker. lol They take a cut and probably won't deal with you unless you have 25 or 50k with them anyway.

right now, i'd stay out. The market is super inflated right now and a pull back is basically eminent. I'm in because its still going up, but i watch it every 5 min with my finger on the trigger.

instead of dumping in, i'd consider taking this time (the next month or two) to research some companies. See what their financials look like. what new products are coming down the road. etc etc

You can trade a couple ways. one, in a regular cash account. any gains will be taxed at prevailing capital gains tax rates (30%). put in 1k, now its worth 2k, pull out, you have 1700 after taxes.
The other, which is the way i do it, is with retirement accounts.
fund a roth ira or even traditional ira with a place like fidelity.com and you can use their cash account that pays penuts or put funds into stocks, mutual funds, etf's, etc...
anything you earn on a stock is not taxed to you at the time you sell it. instead, it simply goes back in to the 'cash' holding of the account. You will only be taxed per the ira format when you disburse from it at retirement.

the 'best' investment is one that makes money. That changes hourly, if not minuetly. Diverisifcation is key.
put a little in a lot of places.... within reason.

There are sectors (ie, finance, tech, industry....)
There are caps (mid cap, large cap) which relates to how much a companies total stock is worth and denotes company size/value
There are domestic and international of all 3.
 
I certainly don't have a lot of money to start, but I want to do something soon. I can't make any money if I don't invest any. I am also not much of a gambler, so thanks for the opinions on possibly staying away from stock investments. Maybe it would be a better idea to find a more secure investment and let it build for a couple of years. Then iI could use some of the extra money to invest in higher risk options.
 
secure investments aren't worth shit. they pay less than inflation. you're better off spending it on something, honestly, than putting it somewhere where it earns less than 3%. every year you save it, it's worth less. makes no point. our banking systems are a sham. it's why every year things get worse.

Im not saying avoid stocks.

i'm saying buying high is never good. and right now, things are the highest they have EVERY been in history.
it hasn't slowed down.
it may not.
but it doesn't take a genious to look at past peaks and see the crash after it.

Gordon T Long : Global Macro Economic Research
 
Invest in firearms. Do research, look around, and pay as little as possible for quality pieces. Sell at your leisure, keep a ledger of what you paid for everything.
 
right now, i'd stay out. The market is super inflated right now and a pull back is basically eminent. I'm in because its still going up, but i watch it every 5 min with my finger on the trigger.
Came here to say this.
 
I'd do a lot of research. Learn what you want to hold long term, what the bench marks are, and what the industry ratios are and start researching from there. Also learn about different types of investments and the game itself. ETF's, Mutual's, investment options. Also the common day trader words like Shorts, margins, etc.



I'm kicking myself for not buying tesla when I was told at the beginning of the year to by a buddy. I didn't believe the economy could support a premium market electric car. Well I'm an idiot.
 
There's always those surprises. Frankly, over the past 4 years, it's a bad hold. It's only been decent in the recent week. Factor that out over the long haul, and if sat, you could have done better elsewhere.
 
With all that being said would you all invest again if you had it to do over? I am not planning on dumping my life savings into the stock market. I just want to do something more than save. I bought a house and that has been a really good move, for now, but there has to be more ways to invest when you are not already loaded. I have started to do a little reading, but there is a lot to learn. I don't plan on investing anything until I have a good grasp on how things work.
 
The market is great, when it's great.... and a complete whore when its not.

At 34, if you don't have money in 401ks and other ira retirement assets, you're way behind already if you want to retire without being a walmart greeter before you're 80...

The common benchmark is 1x salary by age 35. 3x by 45 5x by 55 8x at 65.
so if you make 50k a year, you should have 50k in retirement by age 35.

getting in the market is the easiest way to increase your money, but you have to know what you're doing. else, you'll make mediocre returns.
I'm up 45% this year so far. It's crazy. I made a couple good picks (FSLR). and the market has rallied.
and it's ready to all fall apart. Every day i think it's going to, and then, BAM, another 5 points. lol

I play with about 15% of my money. The rest i have in more solid funds,high (15-20% dividend payers, and even a few mutual funds that are pretty reliable.
most of my money earned in the market comes from that 15% played with.
and i'm ready to move them all to cash at the moments notice of things starting to get the shake down.

so that said, if i were out, i would NOT be coming in right now, as advised.
summer is generally a lull in the market anyway.

get some research in of companies you like. industries you know. companies that are making a good product that has a profitable future. some that may be a cutting edge product that has a higher risk (like tesla was). that was my first solar. but green mountain coffee came out of no where last week too. Who would've thunk a gas station coffee roaster would soar 40% in one day?! netflix tripple baged. as did sirus. hell, most things have since 2008. THAT was the time to buy.
 
Missed work friday so I didn't really watch the market. Big breakout for my company. :)
 
Yeah I can't believe it still is going up. I wish I had some money. UGH.



And I spent the weekend with a guy that has an S ton of bit coin. He was telling us about how he's mining other currencies and the meeting on friday in San Diego on it. Very cool stuff.
 
It's forex. it's not an investment platform. It doesn't exist. It's a collection of cpu cycles. No more real that this post.

If you take this post as currency, i'm rich! lol
 
That's what's so interesting. It's worth nothing more than the market commands. Is there a true market or is it a bubble that will burst? We saw it crash, then climb again...
 
I have been reading up on IRA's. I know I am behind schedule, but better late than never. I am having as hard time deciding which is the best. It seems that the traditional is better early on (tax breaks when filing), but roth would be better down the road. Traditional also has the benefit of being converted to roth later, which seems like a good backdoor for saving money in the end.Is there greater earning potential with a traditional account, or do they both get invested in pretty much the same way? I am still reading up on the subject, but I absorb information better after asking questions.
 
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