Stock market advice:

[Shadow Wolf]

For some time now I have been considering investing in stock trades. Has any body had any luck with it, and care to share some advice?
I am wanting to get, among other things, a Ph.D. in psychology and medicine so this may be my only option to pay for such an expensive endeavor without racking up a debt that will take many, many years to pay off.
My car is going to be paid off in a few months, and I am wanting to invest a part of what would have been my payment, so my budget is very small. But I still have a couple years to let even a modest budget grow before my tuition goes from about $1,500 a semester to about $4,000 a semester, and the text book prices I complain about now will seem pretty cheap.

[Revoltingest]

Watch what I do.
Then do the opposite.

[bobhikes]

Originally Posted by Shadow Wolf

For some time now I have been considering investing in stock trades. Has any body had any luck with it, and care to share some advice?
I am wanting to get, among other things, a Ph.D. in psychology and medicine so this may be my only option to pay for such an expensive endeavor without racking up a debt that will take many, many years to pay off.
My car is going to be paid off in a few months, and I am wanting to invest a part of what would have been my payment, so my budget is very small. But I still have a couple years to let even a modest budget grow before my tuition goes from about $1,500 a semester to about $4,000 a semester, and the text book prices I complain about now will seem pretty cheap.

Like education true stock investment you must do your homework. Second even with reliable information stock investment is still a gamble. One bad world event and everything tanks.

But if you wish to try

First you need to decide if you are going to do solo or get help. Help costs money, solo to be successful costs time.

I went solo, I invested in buying the wall street journal and the penny stock exchange newspaper. I bought 2 money magazines a month. All this information is old information but it helps you form trends.

Today you have the internet but you get a lot of bad with the good if you don't understand your getting bad information its a problem.

All stocks I considered buying I fully investigated before buying. I did a lot of my research in the library today I use the internet but at a cost. Sites that provide valid information charge. If you have a 401k and they have a web site you can get free information.

Before I put money in I experimented with fake money following my stocks for a period of time and then when comfortable put my money in.

1) Need a secure fallback dividend stock so when you are ready to sell you have a stock you can put the money into until your ready to buy again. Sell and buy times are not always grouped together.

2) Never go for the quick buck you will lose more than you gain.

3) Always set sell limits. If you buy a 3 dollar stock sell some at 6 dollars sell some at 9 dollars do not wait to sell at the top you will miss the top.

4) You must monitor the stocks you own. If the CEO quits you need to know so you can adjust you levels.

5) If you must take a risky stock be sure you can lose the money.

6) Give it time, like anything you will not be a millioniare tomorrow maybe if your good in dozen years.

My success, I took 2000.00 and in 2years created 6500.00 which I used for my own schooling. Later I had the only sucessful stock picks in a stock club for two years because of my method. I did leave the club because of the stupid choices they made causing us to lose money. During the last stock collaspe I moved to protection mode 6 months before the collaspe I lost far less than my stock friends.

I am not a stock guru. I am a conservative investor with a modest supply of money that I wish to grow over time. I try to find trends before others do and then invest in the most stable company in the trend I am following.

I will say right now is a good time to watch what happens. The events in Japan are going to effect the world markets for the next 6 months and can possibly cause another crash. It is currently a very unstable market be very conservative.

[Penumbra]

Originally Posted by Shadow Wolf

For some time now I have been considering investing in stock trades. Has any body had any luck with it, and care to share some advice?
I am wanting to get, among other things, a Ph.D. in psychology and medicine so this may be my only option to pay for such an expensive endeavor without racking up a debt that will take many, many years to pay off.
My car is going to be paid off in a few months, and I am wanting to invest a part of what would have been my payment, so my budget is very small. But I still have a couple years to let even a modest budget grow before my tuition goes from about $1,500 a semester to about $4,000 a semester, and the text book prices I complain about now will seem pretty cheap.

I started investing in my teens, and have built a pretty decent portfolio now.

I only do long-term stock investing; not trading. I'm mostly invested in dividend paying companies, but I include partnerships and other asset classes like bonds.

Investing with a target exit date in mind is risky, because you won't have time to recoup your losses if a crash or a loss happens close to your exit date. Basically, good advice is that you shouldn't invest money you can't afford to lose. With long term investing, you can take advantage of lower prices by buying on sale, but if you have a target exit date in mind, you may find yourself cashing out during a market bottom.

If I were saving up for something at a certain date, I'd probably stick mostly to bonds with investment grade ratings, so that I am close to guaranteed to get my principle back with interest. The drawbacks are that there is interest rate risk (and with Qe1 and Qe2, that's no small risk), and the returns are mediocre. So I'd probably supplement it with dividend paying stocks and partnerships (which are typically more inflation hedged), and perhaps some covered call options on those stock positions as well (due to the target exit date, they may help squeeze out some returns in those few years, but with your portfolio size you may not be able to use them without under diversifying).

[sharetipsinfo]

If you are willing to make some profits investing in the stock market then you have to put your best foot forward so that you get the right type of stocks for you. You need to concentrate on the market where you would be able to know the updates of the different stocks in the market. You also need to look at the stock charts where you can have a good idea where you need to invest your money and the stocks that you should avoid investing. A single wrong step that you make in the market might lead you to bear a heavy loss in the market. You have to know how not to burn a hole in your pocket in the stock market. This would help you to know where you can get the best profits from the market by investing a small part of your income in the market.

Get to know how to manage your budget
Get to know how to manage your budget
Making a good investment in the market and concentrating on your budget both plays a very important role in the market. If you feel that you know all about the market and its positioning in the market then you can get to earn good profits. You have to make sure that there are always some risks in the market and you have to tackle the risks that come your way in the share market.

How to get the right information
You have to know where and how to get the right and updated information on the stock market. You can visit different websites that helps you in providing with all the latest updates of the market. In this way you would be able to know whether the particular stock would really help you get the maximum gains from your investment or not.

Get some tips from the market
When you are ready to invest in the market you should at first try to know how to get the right source of information of the market. Well in this case you can visit different websites where it would help you in getting all the latest updates of the different stocks in the market


Happy Trading!!
Regards,
shareTipsInfo

[Kilgore Trout]

1) Start small by investing a very small amount of money.

2) Lose it.

3) Try something else.

The money you lose will be well worth it by learning to avoid the scam known as the stock market.

You actually can make good gains if you're willing to spend all day every day following intraday patterns, and risking a lot to gain small percentages here and there. Otherwise, you'll either gain a modest amount over a period of years, or just give your money to the large investment firms like most people.

[Onkara]

I get the impression you can either go "long" as Penumbra explained, and hope for long term gains, or spend time analysing the market and companies in which you invest, to benefit from short term gains. As sharetipsinfo points out, this means taking time to read on-line info and make decisions on your budget.

Obviously the more money you invest then the smaller increments will yield grater gains, so it can be fairly disappointing to expect a 1000 dollars to double as quickly as you might earn a 1000 dollars at work.

When the prices drop really low you might have the option to donate them to a charity to avoid broker and tax costs.

[Kilgore Trout]

Keep in mind that short-term capital gains are taxed at 35%, but if you lose money, you can only claim a deduction of $3500 a year spread out over how long it takes to cover your losses.