young naive kid looking to invest in stock

xenoman80

xenoman80

CAGiversary!
im guessing a few of you older guys have or had invested money into the stock market and i wanna know if any of you guys made made a few dollars or lost. i found 100$$ in the streets walking with my mom. she said dont do anything stuipd like spend it on video games ( my very 1st thought ) invest it in some thing or buy a pair of those expensive sneakers that you always buy, any way ima take her adive and invest im only 17 but i figure i can get my mom to open an account for me if im not old enough. just curious how i should go about this.
1. invest through the net like sharebuilder.com
or
2. find one of those brokers to help me out. how would i go about hiring finding 1??

i dont know much about it but heres how it works from what i know you give the money like the 100 i have and tell him how long i want to invest like a week and in that week it price of that stock go's up and down and at the end of the week the give you back what you gained or lost from the 100. how do i get the money back after the week? a check online bank transfer?
 
[quote name='Scorch']I'll sell you 20 shares of Scorch Industry..[/quote]

That stuff's been falling like a rock lately. What you need is some LedTech.
 
Can you play cards?

I played for real money the first time ever online the other day and quickly tripled my money :)

Probably not something your mother would approve of :lol: but something to think about I guess ;)

It's a solid investment if you got some Hold 'Em skillz.
 
It's probably not worth it to invest only $100. Most of the programs I know about (like mutual funds or brokerage plans) require an initial investment of at least $500. Even if you were able to invest it, the fees would almost certainly more than what you get back.

I'm probably not the one to ask about this, but I don't think a stock market investment would be such a great idea.
 
I'm impressed you're interested in investing - but the amount might be a little low for stock investment. For now, it would probably save time and energy to simply open a savings account at the bank.

EDIT : Beat to it ^
 
What you are looking to do is more akin to "day-trading" where you try to time the market and buy right before you think the stock will go up and then pull your money out for a gain. This is obviously very risky - especially if you don't know what you are doing. I tend to invest in "safe stocks" that don't really go up that much but over time (years) they do - things like AT&T, Microsoft, Cisco, etc. I don't know what to tell you about getting started but $100 probably won't get you very far... There are broker's fees and other assorted crap you have to deal with so your profit margin might not be as great as you would like either even after assuming all of the risk. Good luck though.
 
dam broker fees and stuff would i save money investing over the net cut the middle man out and use the middle machine?
 
A week and $100 is a little to low.

Also you probably arent going to get to much advice given that they could be held liable.

Why dont you get a savings bond or something and lock it away for a few years.

In that time fake your investment.

Read a little on the subjec tand start graphing out where teh stock curerntly is. Then periodically check backa nd graph it. Then you can see what you would have gained or lost.

If you are serious about it you will gain experience and be ready (knowledge and financial wise) when the bond is done.


I almsot dropped $10,000 on stocks right after 9/11 and decided against it. I would have made a nice chunk as the stocks dropped fast the day after they reopened and were back up for a while before they crashed again...
 
[quote name='xenoman80']i dont know much about it but heres how it works from what i know you give the money like the 100 i have and tell him how long i want to invest like a week and in that week it price of that stock go's up and down and at the end of the week the give you back what you gained or lost from the 100. how do i get the money back after the week? a check online bank transfer?[/quote]

what you are describing here is just like gambling where you put your money in for a period of time and hope that the stock rises. this way and with $100, you are not going to earn much because if you invest in something that is $30 per share, you can only have 3 shares and if that stock is to be raised by .03 during the period you invested then you have earned yourself .09 total. I don't recommend doing that at all. instead, think about it this way: investing in a business means that you are part owner of that business. i could recommend you invest your $100 not for a period of time but more like a "savings account" where you would just leave your money there. this way, you can earn dividends if the business does well. for example, you invested in nintendo and their stocks is $30 per share thus you have 3 shares. at the end of the first fiscal quarter for nintendo in march, nintendo made enough money to declare there will be dividends for their shareholders and it will be $1 per share. since you have 3 shares, you would have earned $3. i hope i didn't confuse you or anything but in a nutshell, investing in stock is purchasing a small percentage of a business so if a business does well, you will have cash.
 
[quote name='Admiral Ackbar']Comics man, put your money into comics! They're like paper gold![/quote]

Dammit Ackbar, your sig is absolutely hypnotic.
 
[quote name='Snake2715']A week and $100 is a little to low.

Also you probably arent going to get to much advice given that they could be held liable.

Why dont you get a savings bond or something and lock it away for a few years.

In that time fake your investment.

Read a little on the subjec tand start graphing out where teh stock curerntly is. Then periodically check backa nd graph it. Then you can see what you would have gained or lost.

If you are serious about it you will gain experience and be ready (knowledge and financial wise) when the bond is done.


I almsot dropped $10,000 on stocks right after 9/11 and decided against it. I would have made a nice chunk as the stocks dropped fast the day after they reopened and were back up for a while before they crashed again...[/quote]
wow 10,000
im thinking about investing in copys i buy stuff from like mircosoft,sony,ea(dont like em to much but if i can make money off of them why not.) nintendo. has anyone ever bought invest online?
 
[quote name='craven_fiend']I say go all in blind. Them read 'em and weep.[/quote]
lol (used that gameplay 1st time i went down ona girl and almost went blind)
 
$100 isn't going to be a great investment in any stock. Unfortunately, the fees most places are gonna charge you will just eat into that money really fast. My advice, if you had more like $1000 then that'd be a smart idea to invest into some stock. With $100, look into a strong savings account with good interest. Someone one here was talking about an ING account a little while ago with ~4% interest. That's really good in today's market, and you're guaranteed to make money, which is most definitey NOT the case on the stock market. Good luck man! I woulda spent the $100 right away!
 
[quote name='Xtreme331']$100 isn't going to be a great investment in any stock. Unfortunately, the fees most places are gonna charge you will just eat into that money really fast. My advice, if you had more like $1000 then that'd be a smart idea to invest into some stock. With $100, look into a strong savings account with good interest. Someone one here was talking about an ING account a little while ago with ~4% interest. That's really good in today's market, and you're guaranteed to make money, which is most definitey NOT the case on the stock market. Good luck man! I woulda spent the $100 right away![/quote] can i go to any bank and set up a savings account or mutal fund or savings bond.
 
Try a mutual fund if you want something less risky. Still some risk, but less than investing in just one stock. Do a little research on past performance and which stocks are in the portfolio first though.
 
[quote name='xenoman80'][quote name='Xtreme331']$100 isn't going to be a great investment in any stock. Unfortunately, the fees most places are gonna charge you will just eat into that money really fast. My advice, if you had more like $1000 then that'd be a smart idea to invest into some stock. With $100, look into a strong savings account with good interest. Someone one here was talking about an ING account a little while ago with ~4% interest. That's really good in today's market, and you're guaranteed to make money, which is most definitey NOT the case on the stock market. Good luck man! I woulda spent the $100 right away![/quote] can i go to any bank and set up a savings account or mutal fund or savings bond.[/quote]??? can i ??
 
People make more money buying stocks and not touching them for years than the person who trades constantly. Mostly becuase of trading fees. I suggest when you have a descent job, find a good broker.
 
[quote name='doodle777_98']People make more money buying stocks and not touching them for years than the person who trades constantly. Mostly becuase of trading fees. I suggest when you have a descent job, find a good broker.[/quote]
wouldnt i have to pay to keep my money in curculation for years
 
i was thinking about invest in software and hadware companys. namely viode games like ea,sony,microsoft,nintendo, and software like capcom square-enix.
 
You can do a few things with $100

1)Open a CD. You could open a CD with your local bank or an online bank. ingdirect.com tends to have some of the best rates, or check bankrate.com to find the very best. You have to have a checking account with a B&M bank to link to the ING account. A CD is like a savings account that ties your money up for X number of years.

2)Start a DRiP (Dividend Reinvestment Program or it might be Plan) These are offered direct from the companies, but you generally have to have one share in your name to start. There are companies that will set this all up for you for a small fee. I have one of these with JNJ (Johnson and Johnson)

3)Set up a discount brokerage account (better get one that doesn't charge a monthly fee) and put it in a ETF stock like SPY or QQQ (these track an index) buyandhold.com let's you buy fractional shares, but there is a monthly fee.

4)Open a savings account, similar to a CD but you can get the money without penalty if you want. But the yield is less.

A real broker isn't going to want to deal with you as an investor having only $100, unless s/he decides to mentor you in the investing game as some sort of community service or something. Besides IMO it's not worth the high fees a real broker charges.

And if you are going to put it in stocks don't plan on getting your money out in a week. You need to think long term (7+ years) If you want to spend the money next week, put it in your wallet.

Personally I'd probably suggest buying a savings bond or opening a savings account at the bank. But if you can find an online brokerage that doesn't charge a maintenance fee and will let you have an account with just $100, this could be a good way to get your feet wet in the market. (Just remember you can lose money)
 
[quote name='xenoman80']i was thinking about invest in software and hadware companys. namely viode games like ea,sony,microsoft,nintendo, and software like capcom square-enix.[/quote]

Those are all OK, I guess - the trick to investing safely is to pick companies who aren't going anywhere - ever. Microsoft and to a lesser extent Sony are safer bets than the others... remember, once you invest you stand to lose everything if the company goes under...
 
[quote name='xenoman80'][quote name='doodle777_98']People make more money buying stocks and not touching them for years than the person who trades constantly. Mostly becuase of trading fees. I suggest when you have a descent job, find a good broker.[/quote]
wouldnt i have to pay to keep my money in curculation for years[/quote]

Traditionally you pay a brokerage fee when you buy and when you sell stock (plus you pay taxes on your gains when you sell) So buying and holding for years means you only pay the buy brokerage fee up front and nothing else for years until you sell.
 
[quote name='Xtreme331']$100 isn't going to be a great investment in any stock. Unfortunately, the fees most places are gonna charge you will just eat into that money really fast. My advice, if you had more like $1000 then that'd be a smart idea to invest into some stock. With $100, look into a strong savings account with good interest. Someone one here was talking about an ING account a little while ago with ~4% interest. That's really good in today's market, and you're guaranteed to make money, which is most definitey NOT the case on the stock market. Good luck man! I woulda spent the $100 right away![/quote]

Yea, ING does have pretty good interest - and if somebody sends you a referal email you make 25$ if you leave your money in the savings account for a month. Its not that bad of a deal IMO as far as savings accounts go, I like it.
 
[quote name='Chris in Cali']What if someone had about $1000, what would you suggest?[/quote]

$1k is a more realistic amount for getting started with the market.

Assuming you are comfortable with the risks of the market and won't need this money in the short term I would

Either open a discount brokerage account (scottrade.com, buyandhold.com, sharebuilder.com, ameritrade.com - check them all out and look at their various fees) and buy a few different stocks (1-3 maybe).

Or put it into a mutual fund. Personally I love Vanguard funds and think the Vanguard 500 index would be a good starting fund, however their min initial investment is $3k. Alternately you could open a discount brokerage account and buy SPY which is an ETF which also tracks the 500 index.

If you might need this money in the next several years, I would consider just opening an ING savings account and putting the money there.
 
[quote name='wubb'][quote name='xenoman80'][quote name='doodle777_98']People make more money buying stocks and not touching them for years than the person who trades constantly. Mostly becuase of trading fees. I suggest when you have a descent job, find a good broker.[/quote]
wouldnt i have to pay to keep my money in curculation for years[/quote]

Traditionally you pay a brokerage fee when you buy and when you sell stock (plus you pay taxes on your gains when you sell) So buying and holding for years means you only pay the buy brokerage fee up front and nothing else for years until you sell.[/quote]
cool i was thinking about using sharebuilder.com to open an account. anyone use them . my mom has a chase account and said she sould start a savings account just for me under my name if i want.( she already has one for me she thinks i dont know about it but i do). anyway the savings account would be one id have access to and the i would mange on my own.
 
Go invest in the gamerush deal... at the least, you get free videogames. EASY money, plus it is legal.

ING gives really good rates on their savings account. You can get a 25% return on your $100 just by using a referral link. Easy as 1-2-3.
 
^^ Just looked at their site and sharebuilder would probably be a good option for you if you definitely want to put it in a stock. No fee for the basic plan and you could put the entire chunk in one company for just a $4 trade fee. (If I skimmed the fees correctly)

Keep in mind they may start a monthly fee at some point in the future.
 
[quote name='wubb']^^ Just looked at their site and sharebuilder would probably be a good option for you if you definitely want to put it in a stock. No fee for the basic plan and you could put the entire chunk in one company for just a $4 trade fee. (If I skimmed the fees correctly)

Keep in mind they may start a monthly fee at some point in the future.[/quote]cool ill talk to my mom tonight and see if she plans to follow through with my decision to invest
 
With $100, I would get a savings bond or a CD. You can get an I-Bond at the bank. It is a type of savings bond that is guaranteed to make the rate of inflation, plus a fixed amount over that. You can look up rates at www.savingsbonds.gov

http://www.savingsbonds.com/rates.cfm

Once you have more money, don't invest in individual companies unless you do your research and really know what you are doing. You are better off investing in the Vanguard Total Stock Market Index (vtsmx) if you don't want to spend a lot of time reading company balance sheets. It is basically an index of the entire stock market. This fund also has very low fees. The minimum investment for a regular account is $3000, but the min for a Roth IRA is $1000. A Roth IRA is for retirement, and you can't use the money until you are 59.5 years old. The advantage is that you'll never pay taxes on your gains. Actually, you can take the money out of the Roth for certain circumstances, but you don't really want to mess with tax free stuff if you can avoid it. I believe you also have to be employeed to invest in a Roth.

Once you invest in something like vtsmx, you just want to hold it for years. Don't put money in it that you will need in the near future.
 
[quote name='xenoman80'][quote name='wubb'][quote name='xenoman80'][quote name='doodle777_98']People make more money buying stocks and not touching them for years than the person who trades constantly. Mostly becuase of trading fees. I suggest when you have a descent job, find a good broker.[/quote]
wouldnt i have to pay to keep my money in curculation for years[/quote]

Traditionally you pay a brokerage fee when you buy and when you sell stock (plus you pay taxes on your gains when you sell) So buying and holding for years means you only pay the buy brokerage fee up front and nothing else for years until you sell.[/quote]
cool i was thinking about using sharebuilder.com to open an account. anyone use them . my mom has a chase account and said she sould start a savings account just for me under my name if i want.( she already has one for me she thinks i dont know about it but i do). anyway the savings account would be one id have access to and the i would mange on my own.[/quote]

I have a sharebuilder account. And one of the things I have is Nintendo (NTDOY). They are up and down (January has been down for the whole market). But unless you were in for the long haul and can afford to lose everything, I'd go with Spyder or Nasdaq like others have suggested and even those have risk. I'm currently down probably 5% on Nintendo, but I've been up as much as 10% as well. But they could totally tank as well (their 52 week low is less than a third of the high).

But, never go to the market to make some quick, badly needed cash. My advice is to only invest what you can afford to lose. The smartest thing would probably be a savings account or CD, like has been suggested. But what you do is your choice.
 
Buy a savings bond with the 100 bucks. Even the e-trade things want 8 bucks or so for a trade fee. Savings bond is guaranteed return [long term, but still] and can be purchased, I believe for free, online.

CD would be good too, but I doubt you'd be able to get a decent one with 100 bucks. The idea to get a link and put it in INGDirect is pretty good, they offer good rates and a 25.00 bonus is like an instant 25% return.

The stock market is *supposed* to be for long-term investments, showing consistent growth, faith, and improvement in a company. The company uses that money to invest in itself, and create better, more efficient products and treat their employees better.
I think the biggest harm to the stock market was the 'get rich quick'/lottery mentality of the 90's, it did nothing but destabilize the market. I like the convenience and flexibility of the e-trades, but the stock market isn't supposed to be a thing where you put in 100 bucks on Monday, and sell for 500 on Wednesday.

If you do invest in the stock market, unless you like the feeling of a roulette wheel, *research*, *diversify* and *be patient*. If all investors did those three things, almost everyone would make money.
 
and here i thought all of use cag didnt have lives outside work school and games. out guys are like a waterfall of knowlegde
 
I'd watch the stock market first before you go and invest any money you can't lose. The stock market has been down the first 3 weeks of this year, and depending on how tomorrow goes, could make a month straight. If you have access to cable tv, watch CNBC. It's not really for beginning investors but overall helpful. If you're going to invest later in life, you should probably wait until you have AT LEAST 5k, fees pile up fast when you want to diversify. Oh, and probably go with an online brokerage, the fees will be much less expensive.
 
Consider your $100 an investment in learning what is going on- how the market can overreact to any news day to day, what earnings reports are actually telling you, what all the terms mean and then what they REALLY mean.

Get someone to invite you to sharebuilder- you get an extra $25 which covers the $12 startup fee (if you want, I can send you a referral, just PM me your email address and name- i will not have any access to any information on your end, financial, personal or otherwise- all you get is an invite)
the person referring you gets 5 free trades

now the downside to sharebuilder is the $4 trades are only done every tuesday and at market price (as opposed to limit price)

but sharebuilder does offer easy direct reinvestment of dividends- do not get into the idea of buying and selling each week- you would have to earn a return of 15% just to break even on taxes and fees (12.95 i believe)
also, just buy 1 stock -and sharebuilder allows you to buy partial shares- then follow this one stock for at least a quarter

a better place is scottrade.com (but the downside is a minimum $500 to invest) for a number of reasons i wont get into now

a good place to watch your portfolio and get information is morningstar.com- they are an independent research place and have a good network for those starting out

right now, if you are looking for something to get- check out Fifth Third Bank- they have been beaten down to a good value and its a strong company so you wont get hosed for a huge loss anytime soon.
 
[quote name='Ledhed'][quote name='Scorch']I'll sell you 20 shares of Scorch Industry..[/quote]

That stuff's been falling like a rock lately. What you need is some LedTech.[/quote]

Nah, avoid LedTech. They used illegal immigrants for cheap labor. And kids, too. Mutated kids.

Invest in MoxioCorp. They care.
 
If anybody is interested in learning about investing, read "The Intelligent Investor" by Benjamin Graham. He's the one who taught Warren Buffett. Get the latest edition (July 2003) with commentary by Jason Zweig.
 
^^ Just put a hold on that at my library.

Speaking of books on investing...

Check out the Dummies or Complete Idiots guides to Investing, Mutual Funds, Stock Market, etc. I've checked a few of those from the library when I was getting my feet wet and think they are great for a stock newbie (or even a veteran to skim over really)
 
[quote name='wubb']^^ Just put a hold on that at my library.

Speaking of books on investing...

Check out the Dummies or Complete Idiots guides to Investing, Mutual Funds, Stock Market, etc. I've checked a few of those from the library when I was getting my feet wet and think they are great for a stock newbie (or even a veteran to skim over really)[/quote]

I checked out "The Intelligent Investor" today. I also tried to get "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" (something that I was planning on picking up even before this topic popped up) by Robert Kiyosaki. But they only have one copy and someone (probably faculty) somehow has it checked out until November. So I am now waiting on an interlibrary loan. If they're as good as people say, I'll end up buying them. I like to invest in investing books. :D
 
^ Yes, you're correct! And don't listen to Moxio. Buy shares in my bank account. Just a minute, I'll PM you the routing number. :twisted:
 
[quote name='RaekwonThaChef']Can you play cards?

I played for real money the first time ever online the other day and quickly tripled my money :)

Probably not something your mother would approve of :lol: but something to think about I guess ;)

It's a solid investment if you got some Hold 'Em skillz.[/quote]

dude seriously this guy knows what's up. i actually play online poker for a living and do very well. like last night i made 1800. u should take that 100 to paradise poker, play the free money games for a bit to get familiar, then play the 1 cent / 2 cent games till you are comrotable, then move up as you get better. i make good money on just $1/$2 blind games because, once you get experienced, you can play 3 tables at a time. also, there are even bigger games on other sites,.... i know guys that make over a million a year just playing online poker.
 
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