I am a college student and looking to invest in the stock market?

Question

how much should i start with? what is the lowest amount of money that i can invest? anything else would be helpful

Answer 1

i think you can try overnight income investment. it more simple, workable, profitable and  no risk investment.  

Answer 2

If you open an account with Etrade there is no limit. But with scottrade is 500.00 if you want to open an account.

Answer 3

Some brokerage firms have minimum deposit requirements.  However, some do not.  I currently use Firstrade ( http://www.firstrade.com ).  They do not have minimums at all so you can start with as little as you want.  However, I would recommend that you start with at least $100 because commission rates still play a factor.  However, if you open account with Firstrade, you don't worry about commission too much because they are much cheaper than big name brokers like Etrade, Ameritrade, and Schwab.  I would definitely recommend Firstrade because I have not encountered any problems with them so far.

Before you jump in and start investing, it would be wise to do some learning and some research.  Read some books and visit some online tutorials.  My favorite site is Investopedia ( http://www.investopedia.com ).  You should definitely check them out.

Answer 4

try starting with a phony portfolio say with yahoo finance and see how you do. then if you like what you see the online trading companies will start your account with as little as 500.00

Answer 5

First you need to identify industries that you think will peform well in the upcoming years, and then u would need to find the best performing companies in those industries. So those companies would be best position to take advantage of the future growth.. I'm a strong believer that precious metals will outperform other investments simply because we are about to enter a very turbulent financial era, and I believe United States dollar is going to loose a lot of value. check out this site for more info http://www.gold-speculator.com  (watch all you tube videos and read up on articles)

There is also a very good book on this subject that I think will put everything in the perspective.

http://www.amazon.com/Financial-Reckonin...

Another thing, investing is not easy, and not many people make money, you would need to read a lot of books and do research if you want to be successful.

Also, a very important thing to do is also to study technical analysis, read up books on that subject. You need to be able to tell when to buy and sell and charts can help you wtih that.

Start with a small amount, most likely you will loose most of it.

Answer 6

Off-hand I'd say $1000, though I think you can start with some "sharebuilder" accounts with less than that.

I'd ask first, how long are you planning to invest?  (If less than 5 yrs stocks might not be your best option)  How active do you want to be in managing your investments?

If you plan to leave your $ alone for 5+ years, you wouldn't do bad investing in one or several index funds.  (At least per the historical record.)  If you want to actively manage your investments I'd recommend studying a lot - starting with books by Benjamin Graham & Peter Lynch.