Stock Investment advice?

[Okjoek]

Okay so I want to make some good long-term investments while I'm making my own money and still being supported by my parent and my risk tolerance is higher, but I don't know where to start. I have a general idea of who I would invest in, basically companies who make the products I actually use and trust day-to day. I feel it would be a bit wrong because I don't want to be just a money person with no relation to what the product is. Ofcourse I do want to invest long-term in companies that provide Cash Dividends too. I might consider a partial reinvestment plan if they're available to continuously invest in the company while making supplemental income.

 

I was thinking an online brokerage account would be the most cost-effective way, but IDK which one and if that's the right choice.

 

Like I've only just started looking into these options, I feel like I should have started long ago, but do you think you can give any advice? Do I even look like I know what I'm talking about?

[thorhammerz]

You could try some ETFs / Index funds (that actually hold equities and not just positions / futures) with relatively low MER and a reasonable rate of returns.

 

Do some A LOT of reading & research into (note: this is not an exhaustive list):

• The concept of "value" (why does a company have "value", and how does that translate into stock pricing & dividends etc.)
• What stocks/options/futures/GIC/margins/ETFs/index-funds/etc. are, how they work (along with any risks associated)
• The industries you plan to invest in (for example, blindly jumping into the commodity market may not necessarily yield the best of returns for your balance sheet).
• The types of assets, income flows, expenses, etc. each company you plan to invest in has.

Most importantly: invest and trade according to cold logic, and never trade based on your emotion-de-jour.

 

At the end of the day, if you don't take care of your money, your money isn't going to take care of you.

[ono]

Start with passive investing. So I agree on ETFs and indexes. Depending on institution, you may need some minimum investment to open an account. Betterment and I think Wealthfront are decent options that don't have a minimum and so are good starting points. Those two are passive and you just pick your desired risk level and they pick a portfolio of stock and bond ETFs to target that risk. These are passive and should just track the market. That's probably where you should start. One you have more funds, you can take a portion of that to and build a portfolio yourself since it seems like you're interested in investing in companies you like, which would be more risky.

[Okjoek]

37 minutes ago, thorhammerz said:

You could try some ETFs / Index funds (that actually hold equities and not just positions / futures) with relatively low MER and a reasonable rate of returns.

I don't know anything about ETFs. If I'm not mistaken you can buy them on a stock exchange, but I know nothing of how to search for them.

37 minutes ago, thorhammerz said:

 

• The concept of "value" (why does a company have "value", and how does that translate into stock pricing & dividends etc.)

How do you determine value? Like raw numbers? share price x shares outstanding?

 

37 minutes ago, thorhammerz said:

 

• What stocks/options/futures/GIC/margins/ETFs/index-funds/etc. are, how they work (along with any risks associated)

I still have a lot to learn so I will try to google and get a grasp on some of these concepts.

37 minutes ago, thorhammerz said:

 

• The industries you plan to invest in (for example, blindly jumping into the commodity market may not necessarily yield the best of returns for your balance sheet).

I must admit I know very little beyond the commodity market. how should I find and research other markets?

44 minutes ago, thorhammerz said:

 

Most importantly: invest and trade according to cold logic, and never trade based on your emotion-de-jour.

 

At the end of the day, if you don't take care of your money, your money isn't going to take care of you.

I treat money like most other tools and treat them with respect.

[CommandMan7]

I'm in the exact same situation as you, and here's what my strategy has been: 

 

Once getting a basic understanding of what all the statistics for a company mean, I look for companies that have proven themselves able to turn profits, but due to external factors, have declined recently and are starting to go up again. While I hold them, I keep up to date on their news feeds. That's it, it's not some super scientific process. Is this the best way to get returns? Of course not, but from an experience / effort invested to returns, it's been ok for me at least. I invested $400 in stocks on August 21st, and since then I've gotten a 4.2% return. 

 

I've been burned on Domino's Pizza and General Mills, and I've been lucky with Biotelemetry, INC and American Eagle.

 

I wouldn't use an online brokerage, since most charge some sort of fee. I HIGHLY, HIGHLY recommend using the smartphone brokerage app Robinhood. It has absolutely zero fees except for high volume trading, which I am not doing. The deposit process takes a few days while you get verified but after that you can do everything instantly. Here's my referral link:

 

http://share.robinhood.com/joshuaa499

 

FULL DISCLAIMER: If you use this link to sign up, then both you and I will be randomly awarded 1 share of a randomly selected company, with a 1 in 80 chance of getting a free share of Facebook, Apple, or Microsoft, and a 1 in 70 chance of getting Ford, Sprint, or AMD stock. I am not paid to say this in any way by Robinhood, I have given my description of Robinhood of my own free will. There's a whole bunch of documentation at the referral link above if you want to learn more about Robinhood or are wary of Robinhood.

[thorhammerz]

12 minutes ago, Okjoek said:

I don't know anything about ETFs. If I'm not mistaken you can buy them on a stock exchange, but I know nothing of how to search for them.

Quick description: http://time.com/money/3938695/index-exchange-traded-funds-mutual-fund-difference/

[Okjoek]

On 9/27/2017 at 3:10 PM, CommandMan7 said:

I'm in the exact same situation as you, and here's what my strategy has been: 

 

Once getting a basic understanding of what all the statistics for a company mean, I look for companies that have proven themselves able to turn profits, but due to external factors, have declined recently and are starting to go up again. While I hold them, I keep up to date on their news feeds. That's it, it's not some super scientific process. Is this the best way to get returns? Of course not, but from an experience / effort invested to returns, it's been ok for me at least. I invested $400 in stocks on August 21st, and since then I've gotten a 4.2% return. 

 

I've been burned on Domino's Pizza and General Mills, and I've been lucky with Biotelemetry, INC and American Eagle.

 

I wouldn't use an online brokerage, since most charge some sort of fee. I HIGHLY, HIGHLY recommend using the smartphone brokerage app Robinhood. It has absolutely zero fees except for high volume trading, which I am not doing. The deposit process takes a few days while you get verified but after that you can do everything instantly. Here's my referral link:

 

http://share.robinhood.com/joshuaa499

 

FULL DISCLAIMER: If you use this link to sign up, then both you and I will be randomly awarded 1 share of a randomly selected company, with a 1 in 80 chance of getting a free share of Facebook, Apple, or Microsoft, and a 1 in 70 chance of getting Ford, Sprint, or AMD stock. I am not paid to say this in any way by Robinhood, I have given my description of Robinhood of my own free will. There's a whole bunch of documentation at the referral link above if you want to learn more about Robinhood or are wary of Robinhood.

Actually that Robinhood app looks like a great place for someone who's not planning to be a day trader like me and rather opting for long term investments without commission. I might sign up with that referral once I get a few financial things completed IRL pretty soon here.

On 9/27/2017 at 3:22 PM, thorhammerz said:

Quick description: http://time.com/money/3938695/index-exchange-traded-funds-mutual-fund-difference/

Okay I'll definitely give them a try.

 

Some companies I was looking at investing in were:

Adidas

Sandisk

E.W. Scripps Co

Ebay

Gigabyte

 

Sorry for the late reply. Been pretty busy.

 

 

[System Error Message]

my advice is, long term not short term.

Reason is short term is like gambling, whereas for long term its much easier to see and you just have a single transaction rather than many which if you do short term stocks like with currency will be charged a small percentage for each transaction.

Do your research, it helps. Look for min 5 year investments, have a few investments ranging at different terms such as 5 years, 10 years, 15 years and so on.

[dalekphalm]

I personally use Wealthsimple (PM me for a referral if interested) - though I don't know if they operate in the US. They manage an ETF, and the fees are extremely low for decent long term gains.

 

There's a mobile app, plus their website, both of which are very easy to use. You can decide your risk factor, and they manage the rest. Any investments that pay dividends are then automatically reinvested.

[CommandMan7]

3 hours ago, Okjoek said:

Actually that Robinhood app looks like a great place for someone who's not planning to be a day trader like me and rather opting for long term investments without commission. I might sign up with that referral once I get a few financial things completed IRL pretty soon here.

Okay I'll definitely give them a try.

 

Some companies I was looking at investing in were:

Adidas

Sandisk

E.W. Scripps Co

Ebay

Gigabyte

 

Sorry for the late reply. Been pretty busy.

 

 

Ok, Thanks! Let me know how it goes.

[dfsdfgfkjsefoiqzemnd]

The only advice I can give is to buy low and sell high.  The best time to invest is in the middle of a huge crisis

 

... or when a company has recently made a huge f***-up that severely impacted their stock prices but is too big to go under.  (looking at you, Equifax)

 

[Clockwork_princess]

Don't spend less that $500 on a stock. That why you make the money back that fee cost when the stock goes up by a tiny percentage, rather then having to need it to go up by like 50% you only need it to go up by 2% to make your money back. (Depending on the fee)

[paps511]

4 minutes ago, Captain Chaos said:

The only advice I can give is to buy low and sell high.  The best time to invest is in the middle of a huge crisis

 

... or when a company has recently made a huge f***-up that severely impacted their stock prices but is too big to go under.  (looking at you, Equifax)

 

F, RACE, GM, BP, XOM etc