Stocks

[jiuchan]

Anyone here know how stocks work?
I plan on buying some later on in the future when I have enough money to buy some!
But I need to know about stocks first.
So, does anyone know how stocks work? LOL!
Do you have tips and tricks?

[cashrose]

Anyone here know how stocks work?
I plan on buying some later on in the future when I have enough money to buy some!
But I need to know about stocks first.
So, does anyone know how stocks work? LOL!
Do you have tips and tricks?

I think that you have to call up the company,set up account under the company and buy share from them?
Or you might need and accountant and get more info!!!!

[jmccaskill]

I know more than I care to know about the financial markets, stocks, bonds, commodities, options, precious metals, all that good stuff...

What specifically do you want to know? The basic steps would be: 1) open a brokerage account, there are quite a few firms that offer different levels of service ranging from full blown to 'do it yourself'. A total novice would probably want to go with a full service firm even though the costs of doing business will be higher. 2) buy and sell stocks through your brokerage account. Pretty simple and straight forward, and I cannot recommend anyone taking this course of action without doing about a years worth of study and having $50,000 of RISK capital. Sure it is done by a lot of folks with far less money, but if they are honest they probably are not making money. It takes considerable funds to diversify an account properly.

A better course for MOST people is to buy shares in mutual funds. These are companies that pool money from a lot of investors and buy and sell securities on behalf of all the share holders.

[lray3152]

Love buying stocks - value is based on future earnings and value of a company.  I am a dividend investor and love the portfolio income it brings!

[sfreeman8]

You do have to be careful when buying stocks. They can go up or down depending on the economy, the jobs reports (unemployment), the companies quarterly earnings, etc. If you're young, stocks might be a good way to get an IRA going and you can go for the riskier stocks. If you're older, I think bonds are safer.

As of yesterday, the Dow Jones lost every day this week. I believe it was around 15,500 in the beginning of the week and is now down to 15,100 thereabouts.

I had an IRA that had stock in "healthcare" and it was doing great, started at $23 a share and had gone up to $122 a share...then the "crash" came. Lost a bunch of money.

As another poster said, you have to study the stock market for quite a while before jumping in...getting to know how it works, the company earnings and expense ratios,  etc. So much to learn. There are some really good sites online where you can familiarize yourself before jumping in. One site even had a game where you bought and sold stocks and you could win a million dollars by choosing the correct stocks. It was a good challenge. 

[linderlizzie]

I'm a very small potatoes investor, trader. An example of my trading prowess is getting rid of my Apple Stock a few months ago. Now it's skyrocketing again. So much for savvy investing. 

Anyway, I highly recommend Scottrade online investing. They only charge $7.00 per trade and are always ready to give advice on investing over the phone. 

They also have online information that is very helpful. I guess it's okay to tout an investment firm. That's not a conflict of interest with Fusion Cash in any way, is it? 

[msmoneybags48]

I know that stocks go up and down in price.  It is something to consider.

[hawkeye3210]

Most would be better served to just put money into mutual funds and be done with it.

[AJsGma]

I'm a very small potatoes investor, trader. An example of my trading prowess is getting rid of my Apple Stock a few months ago. Now it's skyrocketing again. So much for savvy investing. 

Anyway, I highly recommend Scottrade online investing. They only charge $7.00 per trade and are always ready to give advice on investing over the phone. 

They also have online information that is very helpful. I guess it's okay to tout an investment firm. That's not a conflict of interest with Fusion Cash in any way, is it? 

Thanks for the advice.     I've thought about using Scottrade.  Also maybe E-Trade.  Do you know anything about them?

[southernhorizons]

I've dabbled in penny stocks, but I haven't really made any money. I use TradeKing; their transaction fee is only 4.95, and they have a wealth of information, practically a whole training program, for free.

[linderlizzie]

I'm a very small potatoes investor, trader. An example of my trading prowess is getting rid of my Apple Stock a few months ago. Now it's skyrocketing again. So much for savvy investing. 

Anyway, I highly recommend Scottrade online investing. They only charge $7.00 per trade and are always ready to give advice on investing over the phone. 

They also have online information that is very helpful. I guess it's okay to tout an investment firm. That's not a conflict of interest with Fusion Cash in any way, is it? 

Thanks for the advice.     I've thought about using Scottrade.  Also maybe E-Trade.  Do you know anything about them?

Sorry. I don't know anything about etrade.  I do have an account with Capital One (formerly ING) for investing as well. They only charge $4.00 per trade, but I can't recommend it just because I haven't used it yet.

[smithjcsdfw]

Dabbling in the stock market is a lot like going to a casino and gambling.  This is because you want to buy your stocks low and sell them high.  Lot of risk involved so if this is what your doing do not invest more than your willing to lose.  Another strategy is investing for the long haul.  If this is what your doing than you want to look for good stable companies that pay a pretty steady dividend.  You also want to check and see if the company your investing in has a DRIP (Dividend Reinvestment Program) that will let you buy their stocks at a substantialy discounted rate from the dividends they pay.  This is a good cheap way to buy company stocks without having to pay brokerage fees.  The trick of course is you buy one stock through your brokerage firm and the rest through the drip program.  Naturaly your broker is not gonna like that idea since they lose all their comissions.

[sdenimandlace1]

Thank you for the great information on stocks and mutual fund will try to check them out this week

[diala84]

The most basic idea about stocks is to buy at a low price (undervalued) and sell at an inflated price (at or above it's actual value). Dividend investing is more about putting money in a stock that is stable or growing and gaining value mostly through dividend payouts. I wouldn't suggest gimmicks like penny stocks since you really have to know what you are doing and more than likely it will be like putting your money in a slot machine and watching it all disappear. Any stock you invest in has the potential to become worthless and the money is not insured by the FDIC.

Although it might seem simple to calculate what stocks should be the most valuable to buy at any given time it is the human element that will make this even more difficult to determine. It is the perception of how a stock is doing. Many stocks are bought at extraordinarily high prices without much merit and other do poorly even though they have a lot of value mostly based on what the majority of stock holders believe. Investing takes an understanding of group think as well as understanding of how current and planned events can influence the value of stock. (quarterly reports, lawsuits, announcements, etc..)

I invest with Capitalone360. It is $12 a month to invest in up to 12 stock investments per month (can be set up as an automatic investment). Rather than limiting yourself to buying 1-2 stocks a month for a similar price at other brokerages you can better diversify when you can pick up to 12 investment a month and invest as much as you want in each stock. I have been investing since I was 18yrs old (now I am 29) in an IRA and regular account with this same brokerage although it has changed companies over the years. 

There are also some sites that offer simulations to test out your ability to research and invest in stocks. Just do a quick search for stock market simulator and there will be many options. Part of the reason I started investing is that I took a finance class in high school and we did a stock simulation during the class. One of the students earned a few thousand dollars over the course of a month. Although I lost a bunch of money on the simulation it has given be a starting point to learn more about stocks and I have made a decent profit from my endeavors even during and after the recession. 

[bleyd]

I don't have money to invest so rather than buying a bunch of stocks or putting it all on a few stocks, I buy no load index funds.  I have a few funds that are in different categories.