Stock traders?

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mobster011

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I was interested in getting into stocks. I've always been told that cheap tech stocks are usually profitable. I don't know how to go about finding info on what stocks are predicted to be money makers. I was wondering if anyone knew of some kind of site that reported on stocks that are predicted to increase in value. I wanted to do it all online. I don't feel like dealing with a stock broker.
 
"I was interested in getting into stocks. I've always been told that cheap tech stocks are usually profitable."


^ Whoever said that is a dumbass. Cheap stocks only differ from larger stocks in that they have more percentage "swing" IE if they go up $1.00 that could be huge, whereas an expensive stock like google, $1.00 is just about nothing.

They merely have the potetional to make market moves much faster. That said, if you have a limited budget and are attempting to at least make back your trade commissions each month you won't be able to sit around with stocks like GE.

"I don't know how to go about finding info on what stocks are predicted to be money makers."

Mad Money with Jim Cramer is fairly good he's spot on most of the time, and he calls out a lot of bad stocks which is always good. Its on CNBC I think.

"I wanted to do it all online. I don't feel like dealing with a stock broker."

Scottrade is good, ecspecially with a low $500 opening account depoiset that said at $7 Trades, you will most likely need to invest at least $2,500 if you plan on actually coming out with some cash (just not realistic to assume any stock you pick is going to double in value).
 
I don't know how to go about finding info on what stocks are predicted to be money makers. I was wondering if anyone knew of some kind of site that reported on stocks that are predicted to increase in value. I wanted to do it all online. I don't feel like dealing with a stock broker.
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All I can say is you better do a HELL of a lot more research than that before you start putting any money down. There is no magical website that will give you advice, and if a website claims to give you this information, they are lying and trying to pump up their own set of stocks. The only way to make money short term is a ton of research on specific companies and a bit of luck.

Over the longer term (and we are talking 10+ years), you can go with some big "safe" stocks like oil companies, GE, Microsoft, etc. You would still be advised to put some of that in something like an index mutual fund as well.
 
are you looking for a quick buck, or longterm investment. That info would help.

imo it is best to diversify. Take up to 20% of your investment money and put it into stocks. Lets make up a number of 100k of money to invest. So 20k is going into stocks. I would use about 1/2 of that or 10k and spread it out over several different mutual funds. That leaves you with about 10k to invest into individual stock.

Now if you are looking for the quick buck and short term investment, yes go after the .25 up to a couple dollar stocks. These are usually stocks you invest in from a couple days, up to a couple months. If you buy it a thousand shares at a dollar a stock, and it goes up .25 over a couple weeks, dump it, take the 1250, and turn around and find another stock to invest in. These stocks are usually move quite a bit, as .25cents is 25% increase/decrease. You might loose everything, you may make 100% or more increase, but you need to watch there value as well as company statements.

Places to look for info are the wall street journal, cnbc, every major news channel has a money show. On Fox, I like Neil cavato during the week, and then they have a couple shows on the weekend that is very good. There is no place that will tell you how to invest, as the stock market can change very quickly.

International investing is solid right now. With the globilization of the markets, third world countries are getting a lot of jobs/investment opportunities on the cheap. Contact a stock broker, they will send you whatever they are pitching and give you a prospectus sheet. Look it over when you get, if you don't understand something, call the broker. Make sure you explain to him what you are looking for.
 
Cramer is the best. Check out his show and his forum. Cramersmadmoney.com

Techstockstoday.blogspot.com is good also
 
I like ETFs and mutual funds. If you are willing to do the research and come up with some evaluators, etc. individual stocks can be great. But it's generally not a good idea to just buy something because a talking head says it's hot. I find most financial/market shows to be next to worthless. They are always talking about where the market is going tomorrow or next week. I invest for the long term, not to make some money to cover rent next week.

Most mutual fund companies will let you set up periodic investments for no fee once you own the fund. I like Vanguard funds. BuyandHold.com let's you invest in stocks and ETFs (although you can only buy ones they cover) on a weekly/monthy/etc schedule and you pay one monthly fee for unlimited trades. Only good if you are actually going to do 4+ regular trades a month obviously. If you don't have enough to buy into a good mutual fund's S+P 500 index, etc. fund you can buy shares of the corresponding ETF. (SPY for the 500 for example.) B+H and some other brokerages even let you buy partial shares. For example setup B+H to buy $20 of SPY per week and you'll have over a grand invested in it after a year. (Barring a market drop of course.)

If you aren't going to do a lot of research, stick to funds or ETFs. (I'm lazy so that's what I do for the most part.)

There isn't really anything wrong with dipping your toe in by buying an individual stock or two. But realize that it's risky and you could get burnt for a loss. Especially if you are going with a cheap tech stock short term play.

www.fool.com is a site to check out. Not sure if it's still any good but I read some of their stuff when I was starting out.
 
Cramer and mad money is a joke. I did a personal research project and typically the stocks that he chose would immediately go up, and then fall to where they were before or even below that within days. Don't just buy whatever he suggests. I've been debating shorting the stocks he suggests for some $$. lol...

finance.google.com Start doing your own investing researching. Just check out different companies you're interested in and start researching them.

www.investopedia.com has a great simulator and has plenty of information on learning about companies and what to invest in. Use a simulator BEFORE you dump your hard earned cash in.

My personal favorites are the titanium stocks. Especially with this was in Iran deal. TIE, RS, BTU are all in my holdings and TIE has made me quite a bit of money in the last year.

Finally, remember that you have the commision fees. Plenty of people actively sell and buy and end up losing money because of them. Also remember the difference between long term capital gains and short term capital gains and how much you're taxed on them. Quite a few people forget this.

Don't just limit yourself to US markets -- only 39% of the world stocks are US.
 
I own a few mutual funds, but nothing big. Most of my money is into induvidual stocks I have researched and picked. Unless you're willing to drop time into it, don't get into a stock without enough research. I don't mind losing money or making money it is fun for me. You're probaly right though, ETFs and REITs are great ways to get your feet wet if you're not ready to lose money (which it doesn't sound like the OP is) Mutual funds sound like the solution he needs.
 
So what's a good amount of money to start with for someone looking to get into mutual funds? I have most of my money in CDs right now but I feel like I could be making much more. I figure it would be best to start early plus I don't have any major expenses (ie kids or mortgage etc).
 
There are soo many facets of trading you can get into than to limit yourself to just stock trading. You have:

Futures
Commodites
Stock Options
Future Options
Commodity Futures
Forex (currency exchange)
Forex Futures
Treasury Bonds
Mutual Funds
Municipal Funds

Some markets are more risky than others. You need to RESEARCH what works best for your trading style. Best strategy is a multi-prong approach to manage your risk factor. For example, Bonds tend to be more secure but have less of a yield (profit margin). Whereas Futures tend to be more volitale(higher range of price swings) but can yield higher gains (or losses).

While it's the job of the standard broker to buy/sell stocks on your behalf, they are also there to advise you on future purchases AND sells. Discount brokers (which basically just execute your trades) give you no such advise, but thier commissions (thier fee for buying/selling the stock for you)are lower.
 
[quote name='cletus']So what's a good amount of money to start with for someone looking to get into mutual funds? I have most of my money in CDs right now but I feel like I could be making much more. I figure it would be best to start early plus I don't have any major expenses (ie kids or mortgage etc).[/QUOTE]

Many funds let you start with 1K or maybe some even less. Vanguard is great because their fees are very low compared to industry averages, but they have a semi-high min. investment for non-retirement accounts. Index funds are great because their fees are much lower than actively managed funds. Avoid funds that charge a load. Especially for an index fund, no reason to pay a load on those at all. I think you should setup an account directly with the mutual fund company and not pay anything more than a modest annual or quarterly maintenance fee. (And some companies don't even charge that - but you do always pay something in the form of the expense ratio.)

If you can swing it try to setup a periodic (monthly is good) purchase in whatever fund you end up buying. Even a small amount invested every month can really grow.

Also don't get discouraged if the market takes a down turn soon after you buy into a fund. It can definitely happen and panic selling back into CDs would generally be a bad move.

And, this probably doesn't apply for you, you want to pay off most debt (especially credit card debt) with your money before putting it into stock or other investments, IMO.

I've been checking out the site storamin linked and this is a pretty good intro to investing IMO. Give it a read:

http://www.investopedia.com/university/beginner/

And then be sure to check out their Mutual Fund Basics article:

http://www.investopedia.com/university/mutualfunds/default.asp
 
Thanks Wubb. I always wondered if I could put additional money into a mutual fund every now and then after opening it and I guess that's what you mean by 'periodic purchase into a fund'. When you say 'pay a load' is that some type of upfront fee for getting the account? All this is probably explained in those links you provided but I'll go ahead and ask them now.

I'll have to find out more about index funds since they seem a bit simplier then mutual funds to get into. Do they average about the same returns as a mutual fund or is that the tradeoff for simplicity?

I looked over Vanguard's site to find out more about them. I think I'll give them a call eventually to get more detailed info. First I'm gonna look over the site in your post.

I've got a few questions about taxes and investing too but I think I'll save that for another thread.
 
You got it. A load is a fee. There are front-end loads (you pay those when you buy - every time you buy) and back-end loads (you bay those when you sell.) Best to buy only no-load funds.

An index fund is a type of mutual fund. They try to track an index and are passively managed. For example an S+P 500 index fund tries to track as accurately as possible the S+P 500. So an index fund is successful even if it loses value as long as it tracks that index accurately. Actively managed funds generally seek to beat the market. Their manager(s) pick out stocks that fit the profile of the fund that they think will do well. They have higher fees than index funds and they make more major buys and sells so they have greater tax implications in general as well, I think. I should probably know more on the tax side than I do, though. Be careful about just looking at what fund had the top return over the past year or whatever as your sole or main decision factor. Very often a big gainer one year doesn't do so hot the next.

As to whether an index fund does better than an actively managed fund... I've read reports that the majority of actively managed funds do not beat the market so that means an index fund would beat most. But I guess if you do some research and find an actively managed fund or two you really like it can do well for you. If you think an expert fund manager can beat the market than you want a traditional fund. If you think they really can't, go with an index.

And yep you got my meaning with periodic purchases. Most fund companies are more than happy to setup a link to your checking account to automatically transfer funds for the periodic purchases, although most probably have a minimum amount per buy. I can't imagine a company charging a fee for that, but if they do I'd look elsewhere.

Also keep in mind I'm no expert, so be sure to do lots of reading on your own. But it sounds like you're already planning on doing that :mrgreen:
 
First you have to let us know what your investment goal is:short term or long term.

I mean, short term you could get into day trading (which will drive you crazy...honestly).

I highly suggest that if you are getting into it for the longterm (ie. comfy retirement) to invest in you companies 401k plan (if you have a company and they have a decent match). Also start up a Roth IRA...$50 bucks a month is a good start to get into the habit of putting money in every month. I dont really recommend noobs starting out stocks without a RL friend or broker to help you out...surefire way to get pissed and lose a boatload of money that couldve been placed elsewhere.

Anywho, thats just my two cents...sounds like we have some decent financial minds here which is a nice change of pace from a lot of other videogame boards!
 
[quote name='secretvampire']All I can say is you better do a HELL of a lot more research than that before you start putting any money down. There is no magical website that will give you advice, and if a website claims to give you this information, they are lying and trying to pump up their own set of stocks. The only way to make money short term is a ton of research on specific companies and a bit of luck.

Over the longer term (and we are talking 10+ years), you can go with some big "safe" stocks like oil companies, GE, Microsoft, etc. You would still be advised to put some of that in something like an index mutual fund as well.[/QUOTE]
First and foremost, research is a given. Nobody is dumb enough to drop money in to the stock market and any random company. And just so you know, there are sites that advise on investing in the stock market. It comes at a cost, but it may not be "magical."

Anyway, thanks everyone for your help. I know I didn't state any amount I wanted to invest, what price range of stocks, what companies, etc, but I already knew what I was looking to do. I just needed some way to know what stocks would work best with my approach. What I want to do by the way is invest in penny stocks and sell at any considerable and worthwile spike in stock price.

I'll look in to those TV shows everyone stated. I knew all the research part, I just didn't know any way (besides sites that charge for their advice) to access information on low cost stocks.
 
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