Q&A: How should i go about investing in stocks ?

by Newton Free Library

Question by sam r: How should i go about investing in stocks ?

i was thinking of entering the stock market world and start investing, i have to admit that i am young and only in high school, but i have such an attraction to the stock market. i plan to use the money to save up and help pay my tuition for college. Ive been reading about stocks and researching but i need help in going into it.

How could i start ? What could i do as of now to help me invest properly, and what tips could you give me once ive started ?




thanks in advance.




Best answer:

Answer by Kat the Great
You can do a general course in Economics to get the background of the industry and basic knowledge etc then an Investments course at college. You should also enlist a professional stock-broker to explain to you the current market trends etc and get them to explain and teach you about what they do. Also you could volunteer for work experience at a Brokerage Firm, you will learn all the jargon and many other things...

Stocks are rather complicated as there are so many influences, predictable AND unpredictable. Sometimes you do your homework and lose, other times you take a punt and purely get lucky... its not only skill but luck comes into the draw as well.

Make sure you have researched the financial reports for the companies you wish to buy shares in and reading the financial review daily is a must.

You can try your hand without it costing you anything by investing an imaginary 00 into shares then assess how the shares are doing each day (plot values on a graph for each share so you can see if there is a trend and also know what influences caused the share price to go up or down). Set yourself a period of say a month then calculate how much you have made or lost on the original 00.

There is also expensive share/trading software you can use for share price and trend predictions but the results are all based on computer algorithms (ie calculation of probabilities and you never really know which way a share will go unless you came back from the future!)

Another good idea is to invest in currency - when USD is strong, buy other currencies, when the other currencies are weak, convert em back to USD etc.. but you have to get the timing right.

Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!