Stocks Made Simple

How to invest in stocks?

I’m 20 years old and would like to learn more about investing in stocks. Can someone point me in the right direction on how to get started? I know absolutely nothing about this, so please try to keep it as simple as you can. It might help me to know how you all got started in this game. What were your first moves? What do you consider to be essential information for a beginner? What were some of the mistakes you’ve made? How much money do I need to start out with?

I met this crazy Greek lady once. I was expecting to meet with a client who has $6 million to invest. This lady walked into my office, and I thought she was going to kill me. She looked like a bum, she was dressed in what seemed like rags. I was blown away when I found out this was my client.

She could look at a stock chart, and tell you when it would go up, around what price it was going to hit, and even the closing price. I swear, they should grab hold of this woman and study her or something, because she was always pennies off the closing price, right on time with her day expectation, and always right on when something was headed up or down; creeped me right the hell out.

Most of us however, don’t really fit that profile. This isn’t to say that you can’t jump into the stock market unless you have a full understanding of what you’re doing. Saying that is like saying you can’t go inside a pool unless you can swim. Sure you can, you just have to stay shallow until you learn.

You can search sites like “StockCharts” for terms and investing strategies. Google the term “Defensive Stocks” or “Cash Stocks”. These are usually low risk investments, and investments what pay high dividends. It’s never to early to jump into the stock market, but it can be a mistake to DIVE into it if you’re not ready yet. Take it slow, and take minimal amounts of risk in the begining as you are learning things.

To get a feel for how easy it is to make and then lose money, the most realistic stock chart simulation online can be found at “trade-experience.com”. You can make an account for free, watch videos from a real Certified Financial Analyst, and get a feel of some fundamentals to investing.

After you get familiar with some of the tools the site teaches you about in its videos, go to msn.com and build a portfolio selection of stocks you think are expected to do well in the next 10 days. MSN has the same tools you will learn about on the site, and they actually look alot better.

Using MSN, you can explore the outcomes of a hypothetical portfolio and “what if” transactions. By doing this, you lose no money, but get the chanse to learn about trading. After you are done reading your books and doing research online, you should be ready to begin trading medium risk stocks, futures, options.

It’s a process that takes time if you don’t exactly have a degree in it or do it for a living, but it’s really not rocket science. The important thing is not to get demotivated, but not over-optimistic either! You should be fine, trading like a pro in no time!

: )

Hope that helped answer your question.

Stock Trading Made Easy LDK Style