Investing advice for beginners?

[Lion]

Lovely economy, I know... but I also figure that now is probably the right time to get into investing. (What's the old dogma? Buy low and sell high?) Ask me to read anything coming through the stock exchanges and I can't understand a blasted thing. What does an arrow going up with 1.25 mean? I don't have a clue.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how/where to start for us normal people who have never taken a business class?

[CKW]

check:

http://www.articlebiz.com/article/568435-1-the-key-to-understanding-the-stock-market

http://www.allbusiness.com/banking-finance/financial-markets-investing-securities/8518931-1.html

[Mastrmynd]

i'm buying stock in chicken.
ppl ALWAYS eat chicken!

[Vic Vega]

A person whose opinion on this stuff in general I value swore by the Motley Fool books as a starter.

[Curtis Metcalf]

A person whose opinion on this stuff in general I value swore by the Motley Fool books as a starter.

I've heard that too. Here's their website.

[Mastrmynd]

i used to play Motley Fool broadcasts on Atlanta's WSB 750AM back in the day.
very informative.

[BmoreAkuma]

Well ironically I have started on the investing thing myself recently. As of right now, I'm using sharebuildler through INGDIRECT. Sharebuilder imo is great for beginners whom want to get their feet wet in investing.

There is no start up deposit to open an investment account. You can have you checking account linked to your investment account and even have money deposited into this account as frequent as every 2 weeks (your pay periods)

It provides a peace of mind knowing that you are stashing something away into this investment account. Once you have money deposited, you can choose the option to buy real trade or automatic invest.

Buy real trade is simple, you would purchase stock and determine how many. Once you determine that then you have stock ownership. The 2nd option is automatic investing where if you dont have the fund to outright buy stock you can place a portion of money into the stock. It is more of a long-term strategy.


Further details and be read at the website
www.sharebuilder.com

[DRobinson]

Lion,

I appreciate your anxiety about starting to invest or even just figuring out where to start learning how to invest.

Like most things worth doing, taking charge of your financial future can be intimidating, but at the end of the day, it is absolutely worth doing.

There is more “information” out there than ever before and that body of information gets accelerated exponentially by the internet. A great deal of that streaming information is just noise, so it is critical that you narrow your focus to a manageable number of quality sources.

Along those lines, I recommend that anyone interested in taking charge of their financial life, start with reading Investors Business Daily (IBD). IBD is a manageable size, daily financial newspaper that even Joe Friday could love because it gives “just the facts mamm”. If you go to the IBD website, they have an offer for two weeks free delivery of the newspaper; take advantage of it.

Start there and feel free to shoot me any questions you have.

Hope that helps & good luck.

[Cheirel]

Remember investments are for the long term. If you have a 401k at your place of employ take advantage of the "free" money with match and the before taxes use off money.

You still have control over where this money is placed used etc. If you like you can set there and play with it everyday. I have a friend who made a bundle on hunch it floated through our whole company at that time.

I always say put a little in safe account that you know will be there. It depends upon your age and how much time you have to play.

I always play with a few stocks over a few weeks before I put actual money on them. Like set up three bundles, the best performers are the ones to go with. After your homework is done.