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Anyone have any stock market experience. Im sure plenty of you do. I just remembered my grad present from my parents was an Etrade acct w/ a nice chunk of cash in it. I haven't even touched it in 6 months basically b/c I have no idea what I'm doing (even tho Im a business grad :roll:) Anyone have any advice, any good books to read on it, anything at all? Thanks boys
www.fool.com
At least stick it in a money market account until you know what you're doing with it.
Have you taken any finance classes or have any interest in investing at all? If you do then pick up some Warren Buffet books or something, watch business television, follow the stock market...you'll get ideas, learn as you make mistakes, etc...
If you dont like finance or analyzing companies just find some good mutual funds or index funds that are somewhat balanced and that fit your risk tolerance and investment horizon...
In the meanwhile throw the money into a money market account, anything interest bearing, like Warpe said.
Ya'll must think Im a huge idiot. Its in an account slowly rolling up the interest. I just want to get more aggressive with it.
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Originally Posted by Alexos
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Originally Posted by bigspenda73
Details?
I don't want it growing at 2%Quote:
Originally Posted by Alexos
If your in the US, banks are offereing CD's at 5-6% which is alot better than 2%
You can get those rates for 3 month-12month CD's which should give you a better return and a little more time to figure out what you want to do with it.
Realestate prices are coming down, maybe you can venture into that. Like Warren Buffet said, there not making anymore dirt.(i think)
The Intelligent Investor :shipit: :shipit:
Plus if you have any specific questions I am sure there are plenty of intelligent people on this forum who can help you out.
Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham, Beating the Street by Peter Lynch.... fool.com, also motley fool's CAPS website can be useful. If you don't want to take the time research individual companies, index funds are the way to go.... don't bother with actively managed funds.
I'm gonna bump this thread. Right now most of my bankroll is in a money-market account getting 4.5%, but I want to set up an IRA and invest some of it in some index funds.
Could someone go into a little more detail here or recommend whom I should read or talk to to find out more? The above doesn't mean a whole lot to a noob.Quote:
find some...index funds that are somewhat balanced and that fit your risk tolerance and investment horizon
Do this first (or something like it) to determine your risk profile:
http://www.schwab.com/cms/P-778947.2...fpid=P-1033020
im investing mine in partygaming when gambling is relgealised in the US <3
I'm not sure what companies offer index funds in the U.S., im more familiar with canadian ones...
But my guess will be something like Vanguard or Powershares, ishares maybe?
Look at the products they offer and you can figure out which are the riskiest from past returns, volatility etc...I'd probably go with something with the words "balanced" or "dividends" in it as a less risky investment.
I'm super long term with Aggressive risk tolerance. What next?Quote:
Originally Posted by Warpe
These are the two books I read and approaches I took. There is a group of analysts who base there recommendations on Grahams philosophy (www.intelligentinvestor.com.au) but this only covers the Australian market. I'm sure there would be similar organisations in the US.Quote:
Originally Posted by Harry
Using their approach (value investing) and some of my own ideas I managed to turn $120k into $350k in three years which was better than the market return and killed the big fund managers and index funds.
I highly recommend these two books.
That means you can tolerate the highest risk which is 100% equities (stock), so low-fee, exchange traded index funds would be good for you. An S&P500 fund would be a good start for your biggest holding, plus some international equity. I don't know much about specific American funds though.Quote:
Originally Posted by swiggidy
Given your average age, most of you guys will probably test aggressive and long term, unless you have a short term goal for using for the money.
Warpe whats the deal with the definition of risk in financial circles? When people talk about equities being high risk does that just mean high variance on the path to bigger certain long term profits or does it mean high chance of going perma-busto? Are they more long term +EV in the poker sense compared to conservative investments?
Awesome, I can do the S&P. There is also an international fund. What kind of split should I consider, 75/25, 90/10? Your help is appreciated.Quote:
Originally Posted by Warpe
My understanding of risk is how dependent are you on the money? If you need access to it, you aren't risk tolerant because you might loose 20% of it one year. If you are risk tolerant you don't care because you'll still make mad monies long term.
Asian emerging markets and technology is where the money at
Yeah, in poker terms stocks are higher variance but have historically provided the greatest return in comparison to bonds, so presumably they will continue to do so in the future. On the downside, companies can go bankrupt obv. so their stock can become worthless (which is where being diversified into a lot of stocks comes in as opposed to having all your eggs in one basket, like many Enron employees did). Then we have bonds. The highest quality bonds are usually issued by national governments so they have a practically non-existent chance of default. You pay for that surety however with low (comparitively) rates of return. Corporate bonds are higher risk but compensate for that with higher rates of return. The higher the rate offered on the bond, the more risky it is, until you get to what are commonly known as "junk" bonds.Quote:
Originally Posted by Irisheyes
Retirees with no income other than from their pensions/investments are interested in conserving what they have so they generally have a low risk tolerance. This makes them "conservative" investors, with portfolios containing 75% or more in high quality bonds/interest bearing cash deposits with little or no stock to speak of, while young working people are usually in portfolios containing anywhere from 60% to 100% stock, because they have time to ride out any market downswings. A "balanced" investor usually has a roughly 60/40 stock/bond mix, a "moderately aggressive" investor is roughly 80/20, and an "aggressive" investor is 100% stock.
Alexander Elder wrote a good book, called "Trading For A Living"
That was the first book I've read before I started trading and recommend it to any novice to the markets.
I personally don't do stocks, but if you watch cnbc regularly- you can catch some real good advice on picking a sector from fastmoney and Cramer.
I remember geting into their 1m competition and trading for playmoney and actually made a good return on sectors they recommend. safe solid companies like Starbucks, BP and Goldman Sachs. Anyway, yeah watch cnbc or bloomberg. Those guys have good information.
thanks warpe
warpe just summed up my entire intro finance course in one post (minus the tedious calculations)
u need to diversify ur bonds nigga.
Someone needs to teach me to get good at forex. I keep reading and reading and reading, and paper trading trading trading... but just not making shit.
You aren't just trading by the srtats, posted through your broker, are you?Quote:
Originally Posted by euphoricism
Who are you trading through? Pick a company where you can buy/sell as low as 10grand worth of currency and don't charge for overnight, monthly inactivity and execute orders in less then a second.Parper trading at forex is like play money at poker- two different things. I remember starting out at forex, I made 1k into 10k in few weeks at papertrading, but the same with real money is very much impossible(although I know people who do it, but then they lose their ass next week). It only took me a few weeks and 1k of real money to realize that. The biggest misconception about the market is that it's easier and you get more return then stocks.
Forex is really the hardest and most dangerous market by definition so if you are looking for easy trades- do stocks (personal opinion)
If you just love currencies, though and still want to trade it- read a book on technical analysis first( maybe one on Elliot wave counts too). Pick your weapons of mass distruction (your tools, with which you'll do technicals) and get really really comfortable with them on the practice account.
Also money management- you have to be tighter in forex then you are at stocks since it is a quite speculative and manipulative market.
I've just been reading forexfactory and trying a couple of their "systems". They seem to work awesomely for everyone but me.
I dont have a broker, and I havent gone live.
Give me stuff to read, assume I'm a fourth grader, because I'm probably at the point where what i know is dangerous because I dont know it well enough. If that makes sense.
Books are good and I wrote about them below, but what you need first are basic concepts. Understand, that there are no "systems". If there was one- everyone woul be a billioner, especially on forex. Also those systems are for scalpers and you don't want to scalp. Scalping is for veteran traders, who are tired at the end of the day and just need some excitement between regular trades. Never try to make a 5minute trade- FX is not the right market for that. All it takes if for a decent bank to invest few hundred mill in a certain currency on a thin market and it will knock you right out of that trade in seconds.Try midterm trading. I make about 1-2 trades a month at max. Sometimes I keep them for a day, sometimes for weeks, sometimes for month or two. But I always look at the bigger picture, not just a few minutes, like in those systems.
What I would do in your position, is open an account with forex.com, they have one of the best reputations and awesome analytics, I've been trading with them since before they became so huge and never had a complaint(and no, I don't work for them). What they have is weekly webinars- its kinda like the grinderschool for forex, but live- they teach basic analysis, analysis that actually works. I think the minimum you have to deposit is like 250 bucks, which is worth it just for the seminars. Listen to those guys first, then you can attempt "self educating" yourself with textbooks.
As far as books go,I just finished reading "The Money Bazar" by Andrew Krieger, it's not a nessesity,but if you o decide to read it, it will give you a good idea on what it's like to trade forex and certain market manipulation concepts. Interesting stuff.
As far as textbooks to start with- very much depends on what you are planing to do. If you really really determined about scalping- you might want to study some in-depth technicals. Other then that- you are only going to use some trend lines and a couple indicators.
Technical textbooks are all very much the same, some more updated then others. You don't need in- depth analysis or anything, so don't bother getting a thick heavy 4 volume books like I did and then found out that all that info is retty much useless.So get something basic like http://www.amazon.com/Technical-Anal...7762320&sr=1-6
Elliot is also very useful and although I never read it myself, quite a few traders are recommending "Elliott wave principle applied to the foreign exchange markets" by Robert Balan
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Originally Posted by Warpe
Considering your high risk tolerance, diving into 100% equities with low-fee, exchange-traded index funds is a solid strategy. An S&P500 fund as a core holding, complemented by international equity, aligns well with your risk appetite. For specific American funds, thorough research could uncover some gems. Given your age, an aggressive, long-term approach seems apt unless you have short-term financial goals in mind. Exploring the Best Paper Trading Apps for Stocks and Options can be a smart move to fine-tune your investment skills without real financial exposure. Happy investing! [link deleted]