Anyone going to buy stocks now?

[MotorSeven]

Intek,
ScottTrade, TradeKing, etc, there are alot of internet type brokerage houses that only charge a per trade fee, no mnimum.

RD

 

[jdbower]

You can open up an online brokerage account. Ameritrade, Etrade, probably many others will let you start with a low initial investment and charge typically <$15 a trade. You can buy one share of stock if you want, it's a decent way to learn about the market but you'll probably lose money on the commissions and probably won't make many good stock decisions (you don't make money buying GM stock for a month, you make money through long term regular investments into a diverse portfolio). Your best bet may be to just put away $100 a month until you have enough for an opening investment with a local financial firm. But before you do that most financial planners (the ones worth their salt) will guide you towards maxing out your 401k/403b contributions or setting up IRAs before you get a regular brokerage account.

 

[intekular]

Thanks for the input. When I first started out I worked for a credit union and had a good advisor and did alright investing that way until the tech market tanked...so I just feed my 401 and an IRA now. Of course my 401 is down over half now, but I just ignore it and don't look very often.

I guess I was not very clear...I am just wanting to get a few of the low dollar stocks I suppose out of curiosity and not to try and make a killing. More like buy a few and just sit on them and see how they turn out. It might not be worth the hassle as outlined by JDBower, but I think I would still like to give it a try.

 

[Travelover]

Think again about buying into a low cost index fund and just holding it. Most people that trade individual stocks don't end up with as much profit as those that just sit on an index fund. You owe it to yourself to read up on investing.

Classic books to read are:

Four Pillars of Investing
Random Walk Down Wall Street
The Only Investment Guide You'll Ever Need

A good recent publication:

Bogleheads Guide to Investing

Most of these are available at your local library or cheaply through Amazon.

 

[jdbower]

Most 401k or IRA plans can let you choose how you want to invest, usually at least one or more fairly diverse funds that can be comparable to index funds, more conservative or more aggressive. Personally I like the ones with funds geared towards people retiring in 10, 20, 30 or 40 years - this is an indication of the risks and potential rewards. The reason you should be maxing out your 401k and/or IRAs before thinking of a normal brokerage account is because you typically will be investing pre-tax dollars which gives you quite the leg up on the investment potential. Of course if you just want to learn about stocks trading individual companies can be fun as well, but don't think you'll actually turn a profit unless you've got a lot to invest. Then again you may get lucky or discover you're good at picking winners, but only invest what you can afford to lose.

If you can change your contributions at will (some companies only allow a change at a special time of year) now may be a good time to up them - but try not to reduce them when the market recovers.

 

[MotorSeven]

Well, i did it. The market went down again today, so i bought 87 shares in some small green energy companys. I spent just under $500. It should be entertaining to watch them........

RD

 

[js5020]

Anyone ever try trading forex?

 

[DocHeb]

Now is the perfect time to be purchasing undervalued stocks. The only question would be if the market has bottomed. If I could answer that, I'd be a lot richer than I am.

Don't invest money that you will need soon. IMHO, the market will be very volitile for a while, but then the decreased earnings reports will start coming in and depress the market even further. Of course, if I could time it perfectly, I'd be a lot richer than I am.

 

[Reg]

If you don't know when to buy you won't know when to sell.

If/when this all turns around will you have the "discipline" to sell once you've made some percentage goal ?
If not "greed will keep you in".

 

[smfcpacfp]

Buy on weakness, sell on strength

Unfortunately human nature often gets in the way of following this adage.