<p>How would you more experienced traders suggest getting into the stock market? I’m very interested, but I have absolutely no idea what it entails. In fact, I don’t know anything about the stock market at all. Where should I start?</p>
<p>Start with a simulation. Google some of the more popular ones, so you can get some community feedback. Observing their trading patterns might also help, but they’ve got hundreds of thousands to millions of virtual dollars to trade, so it won’t be too realistic.</p>
<p>I used [url=<a href=“http://simulator.investopedia.com/]investopedia[/url”>http://simulator.investopedia.com/]investopedia[/url</a>] for awhile.</p>
<p>Simulators are also a good way to dream lol. At the peak of the market’s crash, I bought 15,000 shares of Ford on the assumption that, if it did tank, there would be more pressing issues than a couple thousand virtual dollars lost. A 65k gain on one stock is pretty awesome, lol.</p>
<p>@ Millhouse: While you don’t personally have to take the advice of any stock enthusiast such as Jim Cramer, I don’t reccomend telling teenagers to find random stocks and hope they move in their favor. Jim Cramer’s made fortunes from his early days at Harvard, to his top trader days at Goldman Sachs, to his own hedge fund that raked in huge returns, to his TV show today where he runs his own charitable trust. He’s had over 40 years of experience in the market and nobody on this board could come close to analyzing stocks like he does. </p>
<p>So I like I said, you don’t have to listen to people like Jim Cramer, you could just throw your money in a gold ETF or start up an account in a Vangaurd mutual fund, but heck where’s the fun in that?</p>
<p>I did one real stock trade and lost some money, so decided just to do simulation. I bought lots of shares for the companies that own Wal-mart and McDonald’s at just the right time…too bad it wasn’t real money this time around!</p>
<p>Mulberry, find out what the terms mean when you look at the stats for a stock, and maybe buy a book with tips on when to buy and when to sell certain stocks. While you teach yourself you can “practice” with random stocks until you feel comfortable enough to use real money.</p>
<p>Rebel, I don’t mean random companies. But if you do some analysis while investing (not even quantitative… just qualitative), then you aren’t just doing what the “herd” is suggesting. I interned at a hedge fund last summer. It was a long/short HF, so it was investing, not trading. Obviously, I didn’t know any technicals but I did great qualitative work and learned a lot about specific industries that you should do when investing (not listening to bogus advice).</p>
<p>@ Millhouse: How do you get lined up to do something like that? I mean intern at a hedge fund, that sounds pretty sweet.</p>
<p>“^ Are you being sarcastic? Because if you are, it’s not funny. If you aren’t, great job!”</p>
<p>Nope, I’m not being sarcastic. 
I started out with the free games as well, we had to do it as a school project, but when I dealt with real stocks, it was my own money at risk.</p>
<p>I thought I’d buy some Macintosh/Apple stocks this summer.
Especially after their iPhones, their stocks skyrocketed.
Stock is really nothing much.
You search through the papers to see a inspiring/fresh/high-potential items
and buy a bit of stock from that particular place.
But it’s sorta risky though, but i have made profit in total.</p>
<p>Apple doesn’t give significant dividends, I wouldn’t buy into it.</p>
<p>@Zupchurch : And you made money? That’s very laudable. Great job.</p>
<p>@ DataBox: You crazy? There’s obviously a tech rally going on right now, from RIMM, to AAPL, to GOOG. Apple is lowering prices on iphones and that’s just gonna make the stock hotter. Common’ man, know what your talking about before you speak.</p>
<p>I’ll be the first in this thread to admit that I have lost money</p>
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<p>AAPL definitely is not the best of the tech stocks right now, it’s rather close to it’s 52 week high and I view it as a very stable stock, but not one that’s going to make you a lot of money in the long run. The last time they gave a split was in 2005 and they have never given a dividend. </p>
<p>I have made several tens of thousands of dollars in the stock market and definitely know what I’m talking about.</p>
<p>If you think this is a bear market rally and you want dividend protection, obviously you don’t want to be in Apple. But if you do believe in this rally, as I sure do, you definitely want to be in AAPL. It’s still $50 bucks away from its 52 week high and who says how high a stock can go? Just because a stock is 140$ a pop doesn’t mean it tops out at 200 or so. The company’s fundamentals and outlooks are fantastic, and it definitely has a lot of room to run in the future. </p>
<p>Anyone can make money in a bull market, but how much in the plus side are you YTD?</p>
<p>@Zupchurch you’re a complete liar, Citi’s 52 week low was 0.97, furthermore once it past the 1.70ish threshold it never return to those levels again</p>
<p>have fun pretending to trade</p>
<p>hey, those stuff sounds cool. Where I can get a simulation of the actual stock market conditions and learn stuff about it?</p>
<p>52-week highs aren’t the only thing to look at. I was thinking about buying RBS when it was at $12 in January because its 52-week high was around $200 (I think), but it ended up falling to $3 a few months later. I’m not sure where it is now.</p>
<p>I lost a ton of money when I first started because I was too lazy to do any reading and extensive research. My account went down by about 60% and then i felt screwed, because I realized it was my own fault and not anyone on cnbc or that guy on the pennystock forum who convinced me to buy a very, very, very bad stock. </p>
<p>Anyways I sold all my stock cause they were pretty terrible buys, and spent a while studying. I applied some strategies I learned, and earned all the money i lost back then some.</p>
<p>So are there any other traders here? I actually wouldn’t call myself a trader, i only play about 5 stocks a month, but i never hold for more than 3 days now. I’m definitely not as educated as some of you in the stock market yet, but i’m still reading technical anaylsis books slowly…</p>