those of us who have no clue as to how to trade stock but would like to try - is there a resource for this? I read there was a website where you can freely trade virtual stock for practice. I'm just thinking about getting some long term stock and wanted to learn how to do it. Thanks M
friends ... I am unfamiliar with this term ... please elaborate my friends are with scientists or loser and often both. HAaa! Just kidding. I do have one friend who is Chinese who does trade but it seems, to me, he transfered his gambling addiction at the casino over to Internet stocks - I'm nto sure if he's really the person I want advice from.
Well, I'm not planning on giving up my day job - but I want to know alittle more about trading some stocks. OR at least being able to buy some if I want to.
michael your still in australia right? The commonwealth bank runs a stock trading system which might be worth having a look at. I think they will advise you or let you do it yourself (over the internet) as you see fit.
Look around you. See what you like to buy as well as what other are buying. Then find out the manufacturers of those products and buy their stocks. That way you know that the products are good as well as those products are being sold and people are buying them. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Yes, it is called a bookstore. There is another, mostly free source called the internet... Seriously, there are plenty of trading books even in the Dummies series or Idiot's guide series...
If you're looking for long term investments, stick with index/etf securities. No reason to "trade" stocks if your looking at a long time horizon for the investment. If you are investing through a 401k or other tax differed program, look at mutual funds.
http://finance.yahoo.com/ "Create a portfolio" at yahoo finance. Look at charts. See how various stocks tracked with each other and withe the indexes. Read the book, "a random walk down Wall street" Oops, I forgot people exist outside of the USA. A Random walk down Wall Street is a good book even if you will trade in Australia because the principles are the same. I wonder if there is an Australian version of Yahoo finance. Don't try to beat the pros on their turf. Do things they can't or won't do. I think the pros are weak on macro economics and I try to use that. If you find a great product or service, check out the companies financial data. The pros work from the other side; first they see the financial data and then they may or may not think about the products. A good product that is regional can spread to other regions and therefore create growth. A good product that is already being sold everywhere to everybody who would want it will not create growth. Look at PE ratios. Growing companies have high PE ratios while "mature" non growing companies should have low PE ratios.
I would think that you have a better shot at beating the pros with micro cap stocks. Every bank has entire divisions making macro plays. Micro caps, or penny stocks...well, even in that case...transaction costs are gonna murder you. A Random Walk is a great place to start. I would highly suggest tho to stick with indexes and etfs for long term investments. Look for funds with low expense ratios as they are "cheaper" to own than highly active mutuals funds. Like someone else said. When you're talking about making big plays on single or a few stocks, its a lot like gambling.
Etf = Exchange traded fund = a mutual fund that trades like a stock. Conventional (original style) mutual funds buy more assets as people buy shares of the fund and sell assets as people sell shares of the fund. This can force the fund to buy assets when their values are inflated and sell assets when their values are depressed. Conventional fund share price is typically the value of the assets devides by the number of shares "outstanding" (existing). When the number of fund shares existing constantly are increasing and decreasing we call the fund open ended. Exchange traded fund are usually "closed end" meaning their are a set number of shares and you buy your shares of the fund through the stock exchange from somebody who is selling their shares through the stock exchange. Shares of exchange traded closed end funds will trade above or below the "net asset value" of the fund divided by the number of shares outstanding. This is called trading at a premium or trading at a discount.
The stock market is not a game; it's a job. The only way to make money reliably, rather than simply gambling, is to be an informed investor. Never buy stock in a company unless you are well informed about the country it is located in, its industry, the company itself, and the general state of the economy. Furthermore, you should have a good understanding of the principles of economics in general and finance in particular. The wisest investor I ever knew gave me the best advice: Invest in what you're interested in, because those are the things you understand the best. If you love Persian rugs, or precious stones, or fine art, then put your money into those things and you'll do well. Don't just invest in stocks because everybody else is doing it. We've never made diddly squat off of the stock market, but fortunately my wife is really interested in real estate so that's where most of our money is. And we've done very well, even in hard times. I guess the answer to your question is: Laymen should not invest in stock. Those virtual investing websites are games and games are only as good as the conditions in which you play, which in this case are the short-term real-world conditions. What you "learn" from playing this game will not do you any good when the real-world conditions change. Trust me. We did that with currency trading and got really good at it. So we invested some real money and within a month we lost $30,000.
Anybody know of a nice 50+ year Dow vs Gold vs Real Estate vs oil chart? Five years ago the charts showed that stocks were best over the long term. The last five years may have changed the way the "long term" looks when looking back in time. History does not repeat but history is still the best thing that we have for predicting the future. The financial planners, with all their education, have only come up with one worthwhile piece of advice for their clients: "take risks when young and avoid risks when old". Taking risks pays off in the long term but the risks should be diversified. Sometimes even diversified risks all produce negative results so an old person who is relying on his investments maintaining a planned for retirement lifestyle should avoid risks. I think that statement is too stark and pure. It is hard to have decent diversification while avoiding stocks. When you buy mutual funds you can get professional management for a price. If I was not expecting the great depression I would love index funds for their low cost diversification. I think everybody should be minimum 1/6th invested in emerging markets. Emerging market stock mutual funds are the easiest way to do this. The emerging markets should have the best growth because they are starting from so far behind. I like oil because demand will probably keep rising faster than supply. Just have to keep our eyes on the transition from oil to biofuels to make sure we don't pay too much for our investment in oil.
