Members jonathan_matos5 Posted March 26, 2010 Members Share Posted March 26, 2010 i am considering purchasing some stock with some of my tax refund. what is your experience with online trading? i know without researching the companies it can potentially be just a waste of time and money. perhaps just a CD will be best with the little amount i would be starting with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Emprov Posted March 26, 2010 Members Share Posted March 26, 2010 I did E-Trade years ago, they were about as good at helping me watch my money go bye bye during DotBomb as any other one would have been. As far as investing, I'd probably go for a mutual fund if you don't have that much, perhaps some sort of tax managed account such as Eaton Vance's Tax Managed Small Cap fund? Stash some away every month and let it sit until you have enough to diversify. Then, start playing around a bit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ec437 Posted March 26, 2010 Members Share Posted March 26, 2010 There's lots of strategies. I'm currently following the "buy stocks people are afraid of but aren't really that bad" strategy. Most of this kind of "investing" is common sense; don't just throw money into anything that comes to mind. I bought some C recently and its gone up 20% in a few weeks. Wouldn't hurt if you bought some too* *but seriously, do your own research! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Kindness Posted March 26, 2010 Moderators Share Posted March 26, 2010 Definitely start with a mutual fund. I'd pick an index fund from Vanguard. If you want to do online trading for profit, you need to be as serious as the pros and understand the market: http://www.xkeys.com/utilization/trader.php Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members zachoff Posted March 26, 2010 Members Share Posted March 26, 2010 I have a TD Ameritrade account, but I don't really "trade" - I just put money into a few different mutual funds for retirement. The research tools are a little hard to get your head around but once you do they're pretty powerful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members jasper383 Posted March 26, 2010 Members Share Posted March 26, 2010 Definitely start with a mutual fund. I'd pick an index fund from Vanguard. +1 Do you have a fully funded Roth IRA? Every year. Do you have a job that offers a 401(k)? Is it maxed out, or at least funded up to your employer's match?Do you have any debt? You paid off your car a while ago, is there anything else? I wouldn't think of buying individual stocks unless 1 and 2 are yes and 3 is no. If you buy individual stocks, be prepared to find out that you are consistently trailing the market, after costs and taxes. It may take a while, maybe even a few years, but you will find this out. Just buy the Total Market Index Fund and the Total International Index Fund from Vanguard, and do your best to forget about them. The more actively you trade, the worse you will do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members PaulyWally Posted March 26, 2010 Members Share Posted March 26, 2010 I use Scottrade. $7.00 per trade (for NY and NAS) regardless of quantity. It's never been more than $9.00 or so for any OTC I've bought. I won't pretend to suggest anything to you... especially right now. Everything is risky. I've lost more money in mutual funds than I did in any of the stocks I was day trading. But with day trading, I had that money in a much better position to withstand the hammer dropping two years ago. My mutual funds dropped 75%. Just think about what it is you want to accomplish. Do you want to day trade? Do you want short term investing? Or do you want long term investing? What are you goals? edit: I just remember someone telling me about a website that lets you set up a "dummy trading" account so that you can play the stock market with fake money. If you want to learn investing in any form (but especially stocks), do that for a while so you can get your head around the research and tracking it takes when selecting stocks. I don't remember the website though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members jonathan_matos5 Posted March 26, 2010 Author Members Share Posted March 26, 2010 i bought a single share of Microsoft today. (aren't i a big spender) so far i have lost $0.35 i could have taken a toll road across town for that:cry: i think i will hold on to this one though:) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members collinwho Posted March 26, 2010 Members Share Posted March 26, 2010 Buy low. Sell high. Remember, you haven't lost anything until you sell for less than you paid. If it is a stable company and its losing value, that is probably a sign that now is the wrong time to sell. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members bbl Posted March 26, 2010 Members Share Posted March 26, 2010 I bought some C recently and its gone up 20% in a few weeks. Wouldn't hurt if you bought some too* Pump and dump! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members bbl Posted March 26, 2010 Members Share Posted March 26, 2010 i bought a single share of Microsoft today. (aren't i a big spender) so far i have lost $0.35 i could have taken a toll road across town for that:cry: i think i will hold on to this one though:) What was the transaction fee? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members bbl Posted March 26, 2010 Members Share Posted March 26, 2010 Do you have a fully funded Roth IRA? Every year. I'm amazing at the number of people I meet who are eligible to contribute to a Roth, can afford it, but don't (and don't do Trad IRA, either). Giving up those tax free earnings is like throwing money away, imo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ec437 Posted March 26, 2010 Members Share Posted March 26, 2010 i bought a single share of Microsoft today. (aren't i a big spender) so far i have lost $0.35 i could have taken a toll road across town for that:cry: i think i will hold on to this one though:) lol Unless the transaction was free you've lost more than $0.35... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members bbl Posted March 26, 2010 Members Share Posted March 26, 2010 Definitely start with a mutual fund. I'd pick an index fund from Vanguard. That's my approach. Diversify, and do it as cheaply as possible. All hail Bogle! I'm a CPA, can read financials like the back of my hand, and I will not buy individual stocks. Unless I have about 40-60 hours to spend researching each stock. And I don't. And even if I did, I wouldn't trust the financials, anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members jonathan_matos5 Posted March 26, 2010 Author Members Share Posted March 26, 2010 What was the transaction fee? 9.95 but i am not counting that as part of the money lost because i expected to have to pay to make the transaction. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Thrustin Posted March 26, 2010 Members Share Posted March 26, 2010 Try gambling online. I have a buddy who does pretty good with the horses. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members jonathan_matos5 Posted March 26, 2010 Author Members Share Posted March 26, 2010 Try gambling online. I have a buddy who does pretty good with the horses. i had a great uncle that owned a horse that he would bet against. he always made enough to pay the jockey, the stable and feed and the entree fees. he eventually bought a horse that would win:lol: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ec437 Posted March 26, 2010 Members Share Posted March 26, 2010 9.95 but i am not counting that as part of the money lost because i expected to have to pay to make the transaction. Funny story. Accounting standards require that to be capitalized into your investment base. So you're actually $10.30 in the hole. You're not a corporation, of course, but the more you know Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Emprov Posted March 26, 2010 Members Share Posted March 26, 2010 I'm a CPA, can read financials like the back of my hand, and I will not buy individual stocks. Unless I have about 40-60 hours to spend researching each stock. And I don't. And even if I did, I wouldn't trust the financials, anyway. I get way, way to emotional about my stocks. Seems that, once I find one that I like, selling it seems like admitting failure to me. So, during DotBomb, I rode 5 or 6 all the way into the ground but hey, at least I didn't admit failure. Soon after that I hired a guy to do it for me. My life is much less stressful now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members chunky-b Posted March 26, 2010 Members Share Posted March 26, 2010 I BUY stocks online, not trade... Then hold them until they go up, years and years later and then have them for retirement... Go for the growth stocks and don't be a day trader... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members bbl Posted March 26, 2010 Members Share Posted March 26, 2010 I get way, way to emotional about my stocks. Seems that, once I find one that I like, selling it seems like admitting failure to me. So, during DotBomb, I rode 5 or 6 all the way into the ground but hey, at least I didn't admit failure. Soon after that I hired a guy to do it for me. My life is much less stressful now. Yep. Same here. I have bought 2 individual stocks. They're long-term holds, but it wasn't fun watching one of them drop 2/3'd of it's price in 9 months. Kinda fun watching it come back, but I don't invest for fun. If you're not doing your due diligence, you're gambling. Blackjack is much more fun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members bbl Posted March 26, 2010 Members Share Posted March 26, 2010 9.95 but i am not counting that as part of the money lost because i expected to have to pay to make the transaction. Wall Street loves fools like you. You're down 26% in one day. MSFT will have to climb 34% just for you to break even. And you're not even investing if you're buying one share (unless it's high-price stock like BRK.A). You just wanted to own a share just to say you own a share. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ec437 Posted March 26, 2010 Members Share Posted March 26, 2010 I BUY stocks online, not trade... Then hold them until they go up, years and years later and then have them for retirement... Go for the growth stocks and don't be a day trader... These are good advices. Diversifying is widely accepted as a good idea. One the other hand, C is the only individual stock I hold right now (I also have a large stake in a global growth fund) and I only bought it after keeping an eye on it for over two years and spending many hours going through their quarterly financials. Considering my income I put a relatively large amount into it. Like the Buffett says, "I prefer to keep all my eggs in one basket and watch that basket closely." Lots of people are still afraid of this one but I think it is rather safe for reasons that are pretty logical. I only see it going up in the next 5-10 years. I think $20 is a reasonable long-term target price. YMMV. I ain't no broker or CPA. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ec437 Posted March 26, 2010 Members Share Posted March 26, 2010 Wall Street loves fools like you. You're down 26% in one day. MSFT will have to climb 34% just for you to break even. And you're not even investing if you're buying one share (unless it's high-price stock like BRK.A). You just wanted to own a share just to say you own a share. Haha, yep! I only buy stocks when I can offset a TX fee with a 1-3% gain Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Dthraco Posted March 26, 2010 Members Share Posted March 26, 2010 I don't gamble, so no stocks for me. Much better things to do with what little money I have. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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