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Buying and selling shares 101
theSquid
Sydney, AustraliaRegistered User regular
Sydney, AustraliaRegistered User regular
Hi I'm a guy who's getting started in the world and I'm realising that if I want to afford a decent place in the city before the age of 107 I'm going to have to do a lot better than stash $1K a month in my savings account.
That being said I'm wondering if having a few shares might up the overall balance a bit. Firstly, is it relatively easy to make money? Something along the lines of buying shares the day before an Apple keynote then selling once everyones frothing at the mouth about whatever Steve Jobs has announced. Do I have any idea what the fuck I'm talking about? Am I in over my head? You decide!
The second question is simply: what's the easiest way to go about doing this?
That being said I'm wondering if having a few shares might up the overall balance a bit. Firstly, is it relatively easy to make money? Something along the lines of buying shares the day before an Apple keynote then selling once everyones frothing at the mouth about whatever Steve Jobs has announced. Do I have any idea what the fuck I'm talking about? Am I in over my head? You decide!
The second question is simply: what's the easiest way to go about doing this?
theSquid on
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Investing for your future is a great idea but you're already saying you can't afford a place in the city. Day trading will not get you any closer. We have a thread on this it seems at least once every two weeks. Browse through some pages in H/A and you'll find them I'm sure.
Shogun Streams Vidya
Nope.
Nope.
Yup.
Don't.
That's terrific, but ummm.... $1000 a month and you'll have a solid downpayment in under 5 years.
It would.
No. This is very silly. Apple doesn't make these announcements in a vacuum. Investors know that Apple is making an announcement and the speculation of how awesome/revolutionary the larger/smaller ipod is going to be is built into the ask price the day before.
1. Not really
2. No
3. In parts
-Go to Yahoo Finance and start reading. Similarly, bookmark investopedia.
-Find a company or two that you like and would like to invest in. Alternately check out a few index funds.
- open an investment account with etrade, schwab, fidelity, whatever.
- Look in a mirror and repeat loudly and confidently "I am not going to make $TEXAS overnight. I am looking to learn, have fun and net a better rate of return than my savings account."
- Or, just open a sharebuilder account and allocate some of your savings moneys into monthly direct deposit contributions to an infinite amount of stocks.
God, where have I heard that before?
edit- don't invest in anything where people tell you the price can only go up.
Unfortunately, the caveat is that you can't get your reward until you retire. But that's actually a good thing; it means that your long time in the market will lessen the risk.
Your current savings of $1k a month is really impressive actually.
Let 'em eat fucking pineapples!
Avoid hot tips, such as exposure to a particular stock or commodity.
Avoid thinking about it as "making money" and think about it more as "saving for retirement/homeownership" or somesuch. Most of the people making money on stock transactions are making it on the transaction itself (not on long/short positions).
If you're already in the habit of saving you've done the hard part. Now you just need to figure out what store of value you want to park that money in (be it cash, CDs, mutual funds, index funds, etc.).
Talk to a certified financial planner if you want more of an education about how to invest. You shouldn't have to pay anything for an initial consultation. Good planners/analysts won't push you towards a particular fund family (which may indicate they are pushing you towards funds that offer them good commissions for sales).
Also, an IRA is not an investment, and they may not have them in Australia (though there is likely some analogous tax-deferred type of account you can fund). It's just an account. Once funded you'll still have to invest the funds in something (stocks, bonds, funds, CDs).
oh no no no no, don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to sell him on anything
but it might be a market to look into?
read this book
if you really want to invest, you need to spend a great deal of time understanding how this shit works.
also, buying stock is for large capital holders only. if you want to gamble , buy options far away from the money.
If any of the italicized bits scare you, run away. If not, get an indexed fund and an indexed fund ONLY (not a managed fund, don't buy individual stocks).
Everything other than an indexed fund will be a higher risk, with potential higher reward, but you will be unlikely to make enough more out of it to balance the increased fees and/or increased time you will need to invest in market watching.
Play with me on Steam
The silver trade set sail in late September. I guess you could do it now, but you're exposing yourself to risk. The basic draw is heavier industrial use and "arbitrage" with gold. As long as gold keeps exploding, SLV and related funds will be doing fine. Plus the whole thing with the debasing of the dollar.
Honestly though? I hate commodities. Hate them. I view them as alternative money at best and pure speculation at worst. They're a really easy way to lose your shirt since their value is not derived by a discounted series of cash flows. Even worse, in commodities ETFs you can lose your shirt to traders gaming you on contango.
Also, Taleb's great but his stuff is inherently epistemological, so don't go looking to him for answers on how to make a fast buck. I think he's much more spot on in regards to his views on rare events, probability and statistics. Despite what some say, returns are random to a point, but then you have stuff like David Einhorn's epic takedown of St. Joe (NYSE: JOE) before the Value Investing Congress.
EDIT: You want a free piece of advice since I'm feeling bitter? Reverse Iron Condor HITT over a longish time horizon and buy it below 46 if it gets back down there.