Where do I learn the ins and outs of stocks, trading, and investing?

Question

Okay, this is the scoop. I am 21 years old and all my life I've heard how people have made a fortune through the stock market, going from rags to riches! I want a piece of the action too, but my problem is that I know squat about the stock market or even what the numbers mean!

I want to get started while I am still young. How do I? Can someone point me in the right direction or give me some pointers?

Answer 1

Read, Read, and Read!  Pick up a subscription to Investors Business Daily, and read all the books on trading you can get your hands on.  I have a list of recommended reading on my website, or you can find a much larger selection at www.traderslibrary.com  

Good luck!

Scott Cole

www.kungfutrader.com

Answer 2

The Short Answer:  Learn from books, blogs, investors and practice.

1.  Pointers--Patience is the key to successful investing.  You are wise to try to get started investing young.  I started when I was about your age and have done quite well.  Remember, the stock market will be around for a while and WHEN you invest is not nearly as important as HOW you invest.  Start saving up money now, educate yourself and practice.  By the time you feel ready to invest you should have some money saved up to get started.

2.  Books--This is the best way to get a basic understanding of stock market investing.  I would recommend:

Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki for basic theory of investing.

The Motley Fool Investment Guide by Tom and David Gardner to teach you how small investors have the advantage over big investors.

http://semperfinance.blogspot.com/2008/0...

Beating the Street by Peter Lynch for sound investment advice/technique by one of the greats.

3. Blogs and Websites-- One of the greatest assets you have as an investor is the Internet.  Websites like http://fool.com have getting started guides, but more importantly they have discussion boards where people from all over meet and discuss the latest news on individual stocks.  You should do your own research but also always check out the discussion boards on a stock to see what insiders, and research whizzes are talking about.  My blog has several posts on getting started in stock market investing:  http://semperfinance.blogspot.com

4.  Investors--Talk to people who are successful investors.  You can visit my blog and send me an email or leave a comment http://semperfinance.blogspot.com .  You could also join an investment club http://www.betterinvesting.org , or find people online at http://fool.com .

5.  Practice--Once you have become familiar with the basics of stock market investing, you can start picking stocks to analyze and follow.  You can either set up a virtual account where you invest with play money (they have one on fool.com linked below), or you can just track them in simple spreadsheet.  Just look up the price on Yahoo! finance or other service, then you indicate how much money you want to spend on stock in your spreadsheet and divide that by the share price to get the amount of shares you are "buying."  Then track the price of the stock until you are ready to "sell" and multiply the new price by your number of shares.

I hope this helps, good luck!

Answer 3

There are many places. Some are more difficult to understand than others. Good luck.

Answer 4

Let me warn you, making money over the stock market is tough. It takes along time, a lot of smart choices, some research, and a dash of luck.

Answer 5

I started with a couple hundred bucks 5 years ago around your age.  Now I've grown it to over 100K.  

I would suggest:

The book "Real Money" by Jim Cramer

watching "Mad Money"

Read everything you can from yahoo finance and http://www.investopedia.com/

Also practice with "virtual money" in an account like from optionsxpress.com (you dont need to add any real money first)

Once you're making virtual profits consistently you're ready to use real money

Answer 6

I was like you a 2 years ago knowing virtually nothing about the stock market or day trading; or I should say had no interest in it.

I started off with 3000K and I'm still learning each day but have become very good at it. I since have become a day trader more recently. But what you can do to prepare yourself is read. You have to do alot of reading and alot of watching CNBC or Bloomberg channels. Watch those two channels constantly for any new updates on the stock market and read yahoo finance on any new news on various stocks or the market as that really affects a stock price.

Alot of researching and graph reading so read as many as books as you can.

Answer 7

Forex trading-http://tradingsforex.info/