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do you invest/trade stocks?

imelting
edited January 2008 in General
just curious to see if anyone is doin it?

ive recently started (august ish?), was a complete noob and made some dumb mistakes (costly).. its pretty hard with the small capital that i have, but im doin pretty good, my goal was 15% at the end of the year, but i should surpass that soon hopefully

im SO much more interested in this than school, i feel like the knowledge ive gained from reading books on swing/momentum/day trading and stuf is gonna help me more in life than what ive learned in school thus far.

Comments

  • gawdawaful
    edited October 2007
    any recommended readings?
  • noname
    edited October 2007
    I wanna do it but yeah I have no money right now as all my money is invested in my education.

    Well when I'm done with the CFA program hopefully I'll have the knowledge and capital to make some good investment decisions.
  • da_prodigy
    edited October 2007
    I've always wanted to invest in stocks, but I haven't really found the time yet. The great thing about the stock market is that you can actually apply your fundamental understanding about companies and the way they function to choose good stocks. And you can invest short term (ie. day trading) or long term so the options are there. How much cash did you start off with? I've always assumed that you need at least 5 g's to play around with, but I could be wrong
  • imelting
    edited October 2007
    for readings, ive read a ton of stuf online, for basic and fundamental stuff, i found the articles at investopedia.com pretty good

    books, i've been reading stuf from elder (good principles/theory), turner (practical books written by a daytrader) and a big tech analysis book by achelis (just a big bible of tech analysis)

    personally im definitely more into 'trading' than investing (very short term), and i base my trading decisions on mostly technical analysis (reading charts, and candlestick patterns)

    and about where i started off.. i started off with ~2.5k, but realized it was too little, and i increased my acct funds to close to 5.5k
  • illicit
    edited October 2007
    i've been informed that GIC's and BONDS are good to start off with. the payoff rate isn't necessarily high but you can't lose money with these to my understanding.
  • meeshmeesh
    edited October 2007
    GICs are very low risk since you are guaranteed the face value at the end of maturity.
    Certains bonds are more volatile, like long-term bonds, because the magnitude of an increase in interest rates will decrease your return substantially, but alternatively if interest rates decrease then you'll have a very high rate of return.
    So, if you're less of a risk-taker I'd say go for short-term bonds...

    I've been thinking about investing in stocks but I don't have enough time to commit to it.
    Investopedia has a stock market game for anyone who wants to learn about how it works before getting serious about it: http://simulator.investopedia.com/home.aspx
  • da_prodigy
    edited October 2007
    I've looked into GIC's, and although they are a guaranteed investment (meaning you can't lose any money), the return is so low that its not even really worth it unless you have a big sum of money and/or will be doing a long term GIC which gets a little bit higher return. I think the return on a GIC is anywhere from 3.5-6 % but your money can make more in other things (for example, real estate).

    Mutual funds might be a good alternative to GIC's. They are tied to markets, depending on the funds you choose to invest in. For example, if your portfolio consists of oil company funds, then if the gas price (barrell price) goes up, so does the amount of money you make. I wouldn't mind some clarification on mutual funds though, if anyone knows...and maybe even which ones are good to invest in.
  • meeshmeesh
    edited October 2007
    Yeah I agree, GICs are not really worth it--you get around the same amount of interest payments through a savings account. although the highest GIC rate I know of right now is through Scotiabank (4.5% for 18mo holding period). That's a really good rate considering how short-term it is, usually rates are that high if you have GIC for about 3-5 years.

    as for mutual funds, they sound intriguing but i don't know enough about it to make any informed decisions...and i find the oil/gas market to be scary and confusing lol
  • Steven
    edited October 2007
    GICs guarantee only one thing.. guarantee you to be broke! If you think about it, some GICs don't even beat inflation.. and on top of that you have to think about the tax consequences on the investments. You are better off putting your money in a savings account like PCF that gives you 4.25% and does not take away any liquidity on your money!

    A good tip for those of you who want to invest in the stock market is to start off with some mutual funds. Save regularly..say every month or so. This will allow you to "build" your investments and grow your money hence when you reach maybe.. $10000 you can start doing trades in stocks. However, technically, when you buy Mutual Funds, you are buying stocks.. just you don't have control to what specific stock you would like to buy. But at the same time, your risk of losing money has decreased significantly.
  • 中国&#30
    edited October 2007
    I have to agree with Steven that $10,000-$15,000 is required to begin as a novice investor. Anything below $5000 is not enough capital to make a substantial return. I disagree with both mutual funds & GIC's for both long-term & short-term because the profit will never compare to tips from investment advisers. The money made between a phone call to buy and a phone call to sell is just phenomenal.
  • baby e
    edited October 2007
    Good thread.

    Ive always wanted to get going in this, but....
    1) dont have enough money to do it
    2) dont know what the hell im doing with it

    Id like to learn more about it. I know a guy who made $2.3 million in the stock market, and hes only 25 years old! :o
  • illicit
    edited October 2007
    baby e;16515 said:


    Ive always wanted to get going in this, but....
    1) dont have enough money to do it
    i have known people that take out student loans and use the money to put into investments.
    i would play, but i'd be on the losing end. so no thanks. now if i had an uncle that was along the lines of that profession, i'd consult him and ask him about this idea/tips for investing. unfortunately, i know none that do so.
  • meeshmeesh
    edited October 2007
    Yeah with student loans, I just put it into savings.

    can't deal with the idea that if I invested it and lost money, I would deal with even MORE debt...*shudder*
  • segadcsonic
    edited October 2007
    Actually, I started investing a few weeks ago. My route is to invest in ETFs (exchange traded funds), which are basically mutual fund type stocks traded on exchanges, but are passively managed and have lower expense ratios. On a long term basis it seems like it will work out fine!

    GICs are a safe bet but the money won't be "growing" much (ie: 4% - 2% inflation = 2%, but after tax it could be 1.5% or less). They say that in the long run, a well balanced portfolio can net 12%+ each year.
  • yung44
    edited October 2007
    yeah starting off with mutual fund is good. it doesn't require a huge amount to capital to start (as low as $25 a month) and their management fee is reasonable (2% of your investment a year; they are no load funds).

    There are different types of mutual fund with various level of risks, returns and combination of stocks/GICs/Bonds. The profit might not grow as fast as if you invest your "own pick" stocks when u pick the right ones, but it definitely beats GIC a big time in the long run.
  • jackandjerry
    edited January 2008
    google "vanguard 500 index fund www.fool.com"
    you will find amazing tips on investing there.

    I personally thinks index funds are the best.
  • segadcsonic
    edited January 2008
    Yup, index funds are the way to go. Save up money everyone, the stock market has been going down lately and will likely continue for a while...all these companies stocks are "on sale"
  • siuying
    edited January 2008
    lol.. well make sure you pick the right one cause you don't wanna be sitting with one who has ties with the subprime mortgage crisis that's been rocking stocks everywhere..
  • no_one_cares
    edited January 2008
    ok, so which of you were dumb enough to invest in US stocks in the last year? This past week must have drained your portfolio - no?
  • Nice Girl
    edited January 2008
    I am going to start investing this year. I am not quite sure what I want to do yet...I am thinking about index mutual funds and stock indexed GICs.
  • Steven
    edited January 2008
    no_one_cares;21165 said:
    ok, so which of you were dumb enough to invest in US stocks in the last year? This past week must have drained your portfolio - no?
    The market is down there but its a great time to buy now! It's like.. boxing day in the investing world.
  • siuying
    edited January 2008
    ^ hmm.. i'm not so sure about that.. if the US economy is going to go into a recession.. i don't know how well the stocks are going to manage there.. i would say keep speculating..
  • Steven
    edited January 2008
    siuying;21666 said:
    ^ hmm.. i'm not so sure about that.. if the US economy is going to go into a recession.. i don't know how well the stocks are going to manage there.. i would say keep speculating..
    Perhaps, but I'm pretty sure the larger companies would still do okay through this period. Obviously do not invest in small companies at this time. Invest in large companies as their stocks are at a relatively cheap price.

    At the same time though, it really depends on your risk tolerance.

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