I am 18 and eager to start playing in the stock market but am not sure the best way to do it.. any advice?

Don't do it yet! Spend a few months observing trends and the way stocks work (if you haven't already). Take your time and realize that rushing a buy isn't worth it. Right now may be a pretty god time to buy, because all of my stocks just dropped a lot and hopefully things will bounce back up soon (remember, thats only my particular stocks, not the whole market). Maybe get some bonds first if you don't have any yet (they're almost guaranteed to grow) so that you are sure you will still have a good amount of money if your stocks do poorly. Also, once you get your stocks don't be discouraged if they don't do well right away. Watching them from day-to-day will probably just make you feel badly. Even a month to month picture isn't really a good representation. If you choose your stocks to be a long term investment, what happens over a few months doesn't matter too much. But still get familiar with when to sell (when your stocks hit an abnormally high spike, maybe sell some and then when it hits abnormally low point, buy a few extra). Keep juggling and you can really make some money.I am 18 and eager to start playing in the stock market but am not sure the best way to do it.. any advice?
we are going into a recession have you heard?I am 18 and eager to start playing in the stock market but am not sure the best way to do it.. any advice?
You might want to start off by learning about what influences stock prices and some different valuation techniques. I would suggest you take a look at Investopedia, a website dedicated to investor education. You should check out the tutorials on stocks, fundamental analysis and technical analysis to see what you are interested in. The website also has a lot of great articles you might want to check out as well. Next, you should practice the strategies you learn on The UpDown. The website offers a virtual portfolio, in which you can practice while not risking any money. The best part is you can earn real money if your portfolio beats the market consistently. You can find much of the details on companies that you are researching on Yahoo! Finance. For more information, you should check out the companies websites, namely information under the Investor Relations page. Once you think you understand the markets and have developed a strategy that works for you, you should open a discount brokerage account at Scottrade or another similar company. A minimum of $500 is required to open an account, but $2,000 or more is preferable, as $500 doesn't go far, especially when you factor in commission fees. I have included the links to the websites I mentioned, should you be interested, I hope they help.





Best of luck!





Brendan Prewitt


President, New York Capital Investment Group LLC
http://www.stockrhythms.com/stock-market鈥?/a>





http://www.amazon.com/Stock-Investing-Du鈥?/a>
Talk with a stock broker. we use AG Edwards.





Best bet is to invest in mutual funds. A mutual fund is a collection of different stocks that helps to reduce your risk.





The stock market cycles up and down. Right now is a bad downturn, but with Bush's proposal there may be a reversal and now would be the time to buy.





Don't invest all your money in the stock market but figure out how much you are willing to put at a higher risk (and possible reward) than a standard savings account.
You start by BUYING books on investing in the stock market... then you spend about a YEAR studying them BEFORE you put the first dime in the market... to do it any other way is financial suicide
This is a good site that will give you some good tips.
the best way to advise not enter intraday go for long term
Those are famous last words.





Do a lot of research. There are many factors that you need to consider when investing, including tax consequences if you're not socking the money away in a tax sheltered account.





If it is at all possible, you should invest using a tax-sheltered account. If you don't have access to a 401K plan, you should use an IRA.





Unless you have some sort of plan that doesn't have commisions, you should save up a decent chunk of money and invest in blocks at a time. A $5 commission may not sound like much, but that's 5% of a $100 investment. That means your investment would need to rise 10% just to break even ($5 to buy, $5 to sell).





Don't try to invest in single stocks if you have limited funds unless you're comfortable with losing your investment (especially in this market). You should never have all your eggs in one basket. I'd recommend mutual funds or ETFs to diversify.





Lastly, never put money in the market that you cannot afford to lose. The market has been known to swing wildly and could easily wipe out those funds.





While you're waiting and researching though, don't let your money sit idle. Several online banks offer 4% or greater interest rates for their money market accounts. They're FDIC insured as well, so there almost no chance of your funds vanishing. Have your money work for you while your trying to figure out ways to make it work better.





~X~
If you want to do good at the stock market then some of the first things you need to do are. Take an accounting course, trying to understand the market valuation, and also have to understand P/E ration, ESP ratio, P/S ratio, how many percent of stock that the company offer on the pulic, who are the major holders of these percentage...etc........ and the most important thing is you have to have a good understanding at the financial statement of the company you invest in. The more you understand in what you after the more you likely know when you should sell, and should not because the Principle of investing is ';Buy low, and Sell high'; without knowlegde and studying is just like gamble and if you like to gamble you can go to casino where you can get more exciting. ';DON'T EVER INVEST INTO SOMETHING THAT YOU DON'T KNOW';
I answered the same question earlier today. I'll copy and paste it here:





First, learn about the 50% retracement rule. This is the single most reliable and simple rule for a beginning trader. You may ignore every other ';technical'; or chart indicator when you are first starting out. You may learn about this by googling for it, or by finding a book.





Second, learn what to expect and what not to expect from the ';advice'; that you will find in your search to learn how the stock or commodities markets work. This ';advice'; will come in the form of fundamental analysis, news, websites, technical analysis, stock brokers, investment advisors. The best way to learn which things to pay attention to and which to ignore, is to read the book ';WAll Street: The Other LAs Vegas.'; It might sound like a cheesy title, but it's a good book written by a dancer who started trading in stocks, and learned what to trust and what not to trust. He learned the hard way. Once he figured it out, he turned some 50 thousand dollars into two million.





Third, you will need to develop a trading plan. This will be primarily based on your 50% retracement. rule. To this you will add a method to control your losses. For beginning traders, the easiest way to do this is to learn how to use ';stop losses.'; So you will enter trades with the rule, you will let your profits run, and you will limit your losses.





Next, you will open an online account with a stock, currency or futures brokerage. It doesn't matter which. Day trading is all the same. If you want to trade stocks, trade stocks. If you want to do currencies or futures, do those. The differences between them are as follows:





Stocks usually require several thousand dollars to trade. They tend to charge higher commissions and fees. With stock accounts you can usually buy a ';little'; more than how much cash you have. It's called ';margin.';





You can open up a currencies account with *very* little money. Like, $250. Currencies are highly ';leveraged'; trading. Meaning a little goes a long ways. It's good and bad.





A futures account is for trading commodity futures, stuff like oil, sugar, coffee. Again, highly leveraged. You need a minimum of 10,000 to open up this one.





If you live in the US, here are the things to look for when you shop for a brokerage:





- If you're going to trade STOCKS, look for a brokerage that is a member of the FINRA and SIPC. This means the company is ';regulated'; and you won't have to worry about them stealing your money.





- If you're going to trade CURRENCIES or FUTURES, make sure the company is a member of the National Futures Association (NFA).





Next, open up your account. If you open a currency or futures account, the cool thing is, you can ';practice'; trade with their demo accounts for as long as you need. This is very useful. I recommend doing it.





Finally, once you get used to trading, start learning about additional methods of risk control. Such things as option spreads are very useful.