Getting into shares

[Ivyk]

Hi guys, I let my thoughts wander off for a bit and though about getting into shares.

I haven't read a lot about how to start with that so I don't know if it is difficult whatsoever.

 - Are there some LTT users who have experience with shares?

 - Is there like a minimum amount of money to start with (to make it worthwhile).

 - Are there things I should absolutely stay away from?

 - Other tips are very much appreciated

 

I don't intend on making 1000000.00 Dollars the first time, I just want to do this as a hobby if possible.

 

[Rorgash]

not sure if one exists in your country, but here there is a pratice site that syncs up with the real one every 10 minutes where you can use fake money to buy stocks and see how it goes, did in for a high school class i earned sooo much money

[ShadowCaptain]

I do this. you get £100000 virtual money and you can invest in the stock market - good benchmark to see how you do

 

me and some people from work are playing, you can will real money if you do well

 

 

http://thebigdeal.hl.co.uk/

 

I dont know of there is one in your country

[Paralectic]

Better off selling drugs to kids.

 

Altough some guy on here said on a topic "Sold a stock for 5.6K and built a gaming PC" lol.

 

@CCap

@MyInnerFred

[Vitalius]

I have. MyInnerFred is a day trader. CCap has experience in it.

Simple things:
What goes up must come down.
History repeats itself.
Volatility should be in proportion to how long you plan on holding the stock. i.e. if you are a day trader, it should be relatively volatile. If you are going long, it should be consistently stable.

[Ivyk]

not sure if one exists in your country, but here there is a pratice site that syncs up with the real one every 10 minutes where you can use fake money to buy stocks and see how it goes, did in for a high school class i earned sooo much money

 

 

I do this. you get £100000 virtual money and you can invest in the stock market - good benchmark to see how you do

 

me and some people from work are playing, you can will real money if you do well

 

 

http://thebigdeal.hl.co.uk/

 

I dont know of there is one in your country

 

Thanks, that is a very good idea.

I will look into that to see if I'm any good.

[Ivyk]

Better off selling drugs to kids.

 

I already tried that. Didn't work out all to well, had to use all the drugs myself

[CCap]

-snip-

Currently I am at school so I don't have enough time to make a full response. When I return I'll help you get started. 

[Fred Castellum]

Hi guys, I let my thoughts wander off for a bit and though about getting into shares.

I haven't read a lot about how to start with that so I don't know if it is difficult whatsoever.

 - Are there some LTT users who have experience with shares?

 - Is there like a minimum amount of money to start with (to make it worthwhile).

 - Are there things I should absolutely stay away from?

 - Other tips are very much appreciated

 

I don't intend on making 1000000.00 Dollars the first time, I just want to do this as a hobby if possible.

Huh, I was never notified to have been mentioned here... strange alright lets see...

 

First off you need to be 18 to open a brokerage account(at least in the US you have to, unless you get your parents to open one for you). Some brokerages require a minimum amount of money to open a account. When you place a buy order or a sell order for buying and selling stocks you have to pay a commission fee, the commission fee price depends on what brokerage you use(I personally use Scottrade).

 

Since your just doing stocks for a hobby a small amount of money, anywhere from $500 - $10000 should be fine, you'll be "Investing" which is long term stuff, you buy into companies that you think will profit via research and gauging company info. Your in the Netherlands and I don't know too much about the Stock Exchanges there... but as of now US solar stocks have been rising pretty darn well. Gold usually goes up in value when the Stock Market does bad, and goes down when the stock market does good. It's a tug of war between assets. 

 

To gauge if a stock is worth buying or not you should do research into the companies technical(charting statistics) and fundamental(company news/industry news). Since your most likely going to be doing long term investing, you don't need to eye your shares 24/7, you can check up on it once a day or twice a week and everything should be fine.

 

Here copied and paste this from another thread:

 

My rules cover Day Trading not long term investing. 

Alright here are some rules you need to set. 

1. Never play with money you can't afford to lose

2. Make a plan and stick to it, don't let emotions get in your way

3. Do extensive research in the companies you invest in(competitors, products, manufacturing, supply, demand, profit margin)

4. Take analyst's news articles with a pinch of salt

5. Keep calm and maintain good mental control in trading sessions(Timing is everything, can't stress this enough)

6. Observe and Analyze market mentality and go with the flow for maximum profit

7. Learn both Technical and Fundamental readings

 

Hmm I can't really think of anything right now its late and I got work tomorrow... got a hefty amount of money in a company I need to watch. Let me know if you have any questions, and what I may have potentially missed.  

 

Good luck!

 

Better off selling drugs to kids.

 

Altough some guy on here said on a topic "Sold a stock for 5.6K and built a gaming PC" lol.

That guy was me lol... CSIQ was a good stockkkkk..... 

 

 

Currently I am at school so I don't have enough time to make a full response. When I return I'll help you get started. 

You apparently have a interesting portfolio huh? I'd like to hear what you have to say. Investing or trading? 

 

EDIT: Oh I also forgot to add like @Vitalius said I'm a Day Trader, I sink myself into stocks all the time lol. 

Check out this site you'll learn lots: http://www.investopedia.com/

The site has a virtual trade simulator that uses real world stocks too. 

[nicehat]

Simple things:

What goes up must come down.

History repeats itself.

Volatility should be in proportion to how long you plan on holding the stock. i.e. if you are a day trader, it should be relatively volatile. If you are going long, it should be consistently stable.

 

Im going to disagree with all points. I could point out alot of stocks where they go down, and never go anywhere near their old 52 week highs. I could also name stocks that have shot up, and have never come back down in a meaningful way. Im sure AMD is what you are referring to, but there are numerous examples where this isnt accurate. Point is, those oversimplifications are neither correct nor are they applicable in the grand scheme. 

 

My advice would be to watch a stock for an entire year to really understand how it behaves. Once you recognize momentum, ride it. Insight and general cognizance are the most effective tools you can use to trade. 

[Almercenary]

We have to do it as an assessment in commerce/buisness man.  You get 50 grand.  Run by the ASX.  Might be cool to try and get into to have a taste, sure other countries have it.   Having spent about 4 months studying the sharemarket, looking into stocks in great detail is the key.  

 

If there is a stock, like a mining company (search) that's going to be volatile, because if they find gold, an you invested, your going to make A LOT of money, but if they don't and go under, then your fucked and have just lost money ( it works the other way to, if you invest in a supermarket, even in a GFC people need to eat, so the dividends/price are going to be constant and you probably won't lose).

 

Also, look at when a company pays dividends, just after that 9when dividends are payed) is a great place to buy in. People sell out and the price drops, you buy in and then it goes back up, you gunna get $$$ (probably). Also, CEO resignations ect are key.  You have say someone like Steve Jobs die, then people will sell out...fast as they don't have as much faith anymore.  Price drops, you made a bad investment, bad luck you (you could also buy in after this if you think they will recover).

 

Also, take out all emotions, they can get you into BIG trouble.  Maybe put away some of your money to got towards shares for a few months then just keep putting away extra on the side that you get as extra from work and aren't saving.  Also, you usually have to go through a bank to buy/sell shares, and they will charge you a monthly fee for there 'services'. I could rabbit on for hours, but it probably isn't that interesting.  

 

But remember, research into the company is key to the whole thing.  If they have a guy in charge who used to be CEO of four companies that went bankrupt, are you really going to want to invest?  But if some really good innovators are at the reigns, then it's probably going to go somewhere.  Also, be aware of your market.  Say you invest in...Valve.  Share prices are going to go up as soon as Half Life 3 is announced. It will rocket upwards with the hype train, even though the prices should be level.  Sell out a day before reviews/release comes.  Buy back in when the hype trains settled.  Usually a profit to be had.

[Ivyk]

-snap-

 

The more I look into it the more I think I'm too young (18) and know too little about the subject.

[Paralectic]

The more I look into it the more I think I'm too young (18) and know too little about the subject.

Why is age such an important factor for you?

I mean like, people in their young 20's have made billions of dollars by doing things no one ever expected from them.

 

But what @MyInnerFred said, don't use money you can't afford to lose.

 

According to the average financial situation of an 18 years old student, you won't have a few thousands laying around somewhere to use each month for example so you could save up for several months and give it a go or wait untill your income increases.

[CCap]

You apparently have a interesting portfolio huh? I'd like to hear what you have to say. Investing or trading? 

For my age I would consider my portfolio to be very interesting, especially since I don't have to pay taxes on the income yielded from it (take that mom & dad (I happen to be 14, just incase you weren't aware already)). 

 

Furthermore, the stock that I yielded most of my money from was ITC Holdings a while back. (In short, they supply more reliable sources of energy, go trees, and all that noise) I had taken the $9000 that I had yielded from a few short-term investments in AGIN (I'll explain it later, don't worry) and put ~$7000 into it (ITC Holdings, that is). It sounded like a dumb move at the time, but two weeks later, you'd disagree. Two short weeks after investing that $7000 the stock split 3-1. I had taken my newly acquired stocks and sold them shortly thereafter; I'm not really into the whole 'invest into a company for more than a month or two' phase yet. I'm 14, some people have owned their shares of stock for longer than that(exempli gratia my father) so really planning for the future in stocks doesn't make a ton of sense to me (thus far, at least). 

 

This is where my endeavors get even more exciting (I didn't think it was possible either). Once I had the ≈$20000 in my possession once again, I honestly got a little bored. I didn't really know where to go/what else to do with it, so I traded some of my money for Sterling (why not, right?). That turned out horribly for me and ended up just costing me a few hundred dollars in fees as well as uncountable amounts of headaches and annoyances. (That's what I get for using a sketchy trader I guess) 

 

Anyhow, from there I had invested into some penny stocks as well as AGIN once again (when in doubt, goto AGIN). The penny stock I had invested into increased by ≈60% in one week, yielding me with ≈2.1k in net profit from that stock alone. AGIN had done what it usually does and regained its 10% or so, leaving me there with ≈$1k in net profits. 

 

From here things got pretty sketchy and it is quite a complicated situation really, but I made off (after some trading, pestering, and investments in companies I had never heard of before) with about $110k in stock. For kicks and giggles we'll say that I made a "business investment" and that will be what is reflected on the W2's, so that is all that matters. 

 

As I had aforementioned, AGIN is a good relief stock if you don't know where to go/ you want to increase the money you have now by about 5%-10% in a week or two. (It is also going to be good in the longrun if graphene takes off like it is projected to).

 

Anyways, there is my story. Right now I have about 80% of that money in gold and other precious metals due to some family issues and my parents have full access to my bank accounts, but not my stocks. I'm going to tuck a lot of those away for college in CDs and Bonds just so I don't lose the money and I can ensure that it will be there by the time I'm in college and need it the most. 

 

I am going to go ahead and get this out of the way right now- most of my investments were luck. I had done only half an hours research on each company I invested in, and what I got out of their stock was what I got. There are still a lot of things I need to learn on the matter as far as vocabulary and overall awareness goes, but I do know what to do with the money at least. (Probably because I'm italian :lol:)

[nicehat]

 

 

Use Paragraphs man, paragraphs. 

[Vitalius]

Im going to disagree with all points. I could point out alot of stocks where they go down, and never go anywhere near their old 52 week highs. I could also name stocks that have shot up, and have never come back down in a meaningful way. Im sure AMD is what you are referring to, but there are numerous examples where this isnt accurate. Point is, those oversimplifications are neither correct nor are they applicable in the grand scheme. 

 

My advice would be to watch a stock for an entire year to really understand how it behaves. Once you recognize momentum, ride it. Insight and general cognizance are the most effective tools you can use to trade. 

 

And that makes perfect sense. I was talking Day Trading. It's all I know. 

I know nothing about long term. I should've clarified, but when people ask these questions, I naturally assume they mean that and not long term. Fail on my part. 

[Fred Castellum]

The more I look into it the more I think I'm too young (18) and know too little about the subject.

Age? that's blasphemy! As long as your mentally mature enough for the task you'll be able to do just fine. I started looking into it when I was 19 because I had somewhat of a interest in the stock market when I was back in high school. Decided to quit my job and take the dive into Trading because at the time I was spending tons of time making money in a game(GW2) and I thought to myself why waste time making virtual currency when I could take this time I spend doing this and apply it into real world stocks? After watching Spice and Wolf a anime my interest peaked and I took the dive into the economical world. 

 

Know too little? You have tons of time to learn! Plus you'll be playing with fake money first, using a simulator. You can start playing with just $500 if you really wanted too, and that's a really small amount of money compared to what people like me play with(at least $40k minimum). The more you educate yourself the smarter you are, even if you don't believe you'll play with stocks in the future knowing about how everything works in it could prove beneficial in the future. Never pass up a opportunity to learn something new, Trust me!

 

The market has no feelings, it doesn't care if your holding $500 in shares or $100,000. It moves by trader/investor mentality, if you can take advantage of that you'll profit.

 

Your going to be doing investing which is far less stressful compared to Day Trading, you don't have to do as much work as someone like me. Do a little bit of research into companies that you think will grow bigger in the future. Figure out who their competitors are and how much profit they make each quarter, then make the decision to buy. Since your not a Day Trader you don't need to deal with having headaches and insomnia about not knowing how well a stock of yours is going to do, you can let your shares sit for years!

 

You don't need to buy straight up stocks either, you can buy ETFs, Bonds(I don't recommend this), mutual funds basically that lower your risk of loss and provide daily profit. 

 

Here follow these rules for Long Term Investing:

1. Never play with more money than you can afford to lose.

2. Play smart, do extensive research in the companies your interested in before buying into them.(gauge their profit margin and growth) Use both Technical and Fundamental(Fundamentals are always king) readings. 

3. Market Valuations(except at extremes) are poor market timing devices.

4. Investing is about discipline and patience. If you lack either you could potentially destroy you portfolio.

5. Take analyst news with a pinch of salt(both TV and online).

6. No strategy works all the time, learn to evolve and adapt when necessary.

7. Don't let your emotions get in the way, make a plan and stick with it. 

8. Investing is not a competition, you don't win any awards by doing good but you can lose lots of money if you do bad. 

 

More good info: http://www.investopedia.com/articles/00/082100.asp

 

If you have any questions you've got me and @CCap (though he's in school obviously) to talk to. 

 

Now if you'll excuse me I need to get back to watching this $56k stock... 

Good luck and happy investing!

 

-snip-

That is quite impressive for your age... How much are you playing with in total now? Rarely do people that young play stocks haha, though I have seen young people make hundreds of thousands because of good luck. 

I gauge all my buys by a profit/loss margin of how much I may gain or lose. 

 

 

-snip-

Haha most people are talking long term in the end either that or swing trading. Day Trading is snappy and one second you could be $100k in profits and the next second you could be down -$100k. It's all about that timing!

 

And I'll leave you guys with a song at the end of my post. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVHb86TcmXE&list=UUM6fCiq_TPvLi56lizm8HAA

[CCap]

That is quite impressive for your age... How much are you playing with in total now? Rarely do people that young play stocks haha, though I have seen young people make hundreds of thousands because of good luck. 

I'm playing with about 30k. Everything else I've left in Gold, Bonds, and CDs for college/ post high-school. 

[Fred Castellum]

I'm playing with about 30k. Everything else I've left in Gold, Bonds, and CDs for college/ post high-school. 

I see I see, nice going! What do you plan on doing as a major in the future?

[CCap]

I see I see, nice going! What do you plan on doing as a major in the future?

I'm going to try to do something as an engineer as my first plan since I'm going to be taking Calculus one as a Sophomore, but if that doesn't work I am going to try to pursue a Business Administration degree (eventually get a MBA-- I know its useless, but it is nice to have). I presume that you are in/ have attended college, what major did you pursue (or are currently pursuing)?

[Fred Castellum]

I'm going to try to do something as an engineer as my first plan since I'm going to be taking Calculus one as a Sophomore, but if that doesn't work I am going to try to pursue a Business Administration degree (eventually get a MBA-- I know its useless, but it is nice to have). I presume that you are in/ have attended college, what major did you pursue (or are currently pursuing)?

Interesting

 

I graduated high school around the same time I finished working on web design for a realtor. I went on to do IT support work fixing and build and whatnot. Never went to college or uni because of credential problems and having to pay a international student fee even though I've been in the US forever. I eventually quit the IT job because I was basically running the guys business and he wasn't paying me enough. Started working retail and did a really good job, outsold the other employees working there before I came along. I was actually about to get a early raise when I decided I was going to quit retail and start trading. A couple of interesting events happened and led me to pick up Day Trading as my job, and now I absolutely love it.