Where do I start for investing!!!?

Question

My question is " How do investors know what to invest in and where do they find there resources?!!!"

I have looked on Yahoo finance and a couple other sites and they mostly show popular stocks from Coca-Cola or Honda, etc. But they dont show stocks from smaller companys and I dont get how investors find these small companys. I would like to look at a list of stocks that I could invest in that arent just the companys like Coca-Cola and big companys.

But Where do I start?

How do I find a smaller company to invest in?

Please help because an answer will be highly appreciated

Answer 1

Widen your search. Look into investor or trader forums on the internet. Here are a few sites you might want to look into:

- http://clearstation.com

- http://elitetrader.com

- http://trade2win.com

Clearstation.com is a good place to start. They have screens for stocks that might help you.

Good luck!

- Jim Syyap, http://jsforex.blogspot.com

Managed Forex Accounts

Answer 2

A good one to look at is ETGF.OB, do your research on their product at www.e21sports.com

The stock is fairly cheap and has great potential.

Answer 3

Be sure to do really good research, understand balance sheets and how to read 10Q's, market caps, share structure and so on.

If you dont know what your doing, you'll lose your money alot faster than making it.

I would suggest starting with paper money before you do the real thing.

Answer 4

The first step is to look at what sectors you might want to invest in. These can be industrials, energy, transportation, agriculture, retail, etc. Then look at companies involved in the different sectors. Look at their performance and what the stock is doing.  Go to Yahoo Finance and that may give you a starting point. Also consider how much you have to invest.  

Answer 5

identify your investment style, including your long-term (or short-term) goals. know your risk profile, your time horizon, liquidity needs, and any other specific relevant info.

maybe try being an event-driven investor. you identify some macro type trend, like for example, all the rural people moving into the cities in china. so that points you towards investing in china. so you have a notebook w/a heading 'China'.....then you start to do your research and keep notes, and always refer to your basic tenets of your investment profile and needs.

Or keep notes based on sector. do you do fundamental analysis? yes, if you're in it for the LT. if you have a section in your notebook that keeps 'hotlisted' stocks ...have a column of important financial ratios that you always fill out to give you some perspective on how healthy these companies really are.

you'll get more ideas jsut from reading the WSJ and other good sources of info, but don't spend too much time worrying about HOW you're going to organize your investment thoughts, but rather WHAT your ivnestment thoughts are. spend more time learning than organizing. although organzing your thoughts is obv. important.

you can look up some small cap mutual funds, and then, on morningstar for example, you can look up their holdings. or also check on www.sec.gov for their filings which would provide some idea of what they're investing in.

there are more sophisticated tools out there also where you can screen by size, etc but they tend to be expensive. bloomberg is the best one out there but it costs like $30K a year.

Answer 6

Many people leave questions asking which stock or fund or currency should I buy?

There is no magic wand answer to that question.

And if you owned the goose that lays golden eggs, would you give the eggs away for free in a public chat room?

So... as trite as it may sound, it starts with doing homework... Please go to the library or purchase a book like "Investing For Dummies", "Getting Started In Investing", etc.

Go to Yahoo Finance and under the "Investing" drop-down menu click "Education". There are many articles and tutorials on beginning investing.

Knowledge is power and successful investing comes from constant reading and research.

And then start understanding which stocks and companies have good fundamentals, which industries are doing well overall, how economic factors affect the stock market, and how aggressive or conservative you want to manage your money.

Good luck !