<p>So how much would you guys think is an appropriate amount of money to invest if you're investing in stocks? In mutual funds? In options? In bonds?</p>
<p>Now is a terrible time to invest in wall street, especially bonds.</p>
<p>It's a great time to invest! Everything is on sale! Well, not everything. I would recommend starting with a small amount of money. About 1,000-2,500. Some investment companies like Fidelity make you deposit a minimum of 2,500 or so into an account. Also try to pick an investment company that your parents have accounts in because then they can give you lower trading rates, which I highly suggest.
Just buy companies that you believe in, that you believe will perform well in the future. You can also research past performance on sites like bigcharts.com. By the way, you can't really go too wrong if you invest in a solid company and just leave it there to grow! The most important part is to try not to look at your stocks all the time, since it will drive you crazy and you will want to sell. Also- don't be too scared of losing money because in the end, the stock market outperforms savings accounts, so it's in your best interest to invest! (no pun intended)</p>
<p>If you believe Goldman Sachs (they are predicting $200 a barrel), invest in oil futures.</p>
<p>The best time to invest is when everyone else is in panic mode. The worst time is when everyone else is in. For this reason, there are sentiment indicators - when sentiment is at an extreme, go in the opposite direction.</p>
<p>The NASDAQ Composite is up around 22% since March. I use the QLDs (twice the QQQQs) so they should be up around 44% since March, and it's been a nice ride trading in and out.</p>
<p>Trading in oil futures is risky as it's typically leveraged and you can get stopped out by the volatility. You can get commodity mutual funds like PSPFX or buy ETFs of energy companies to play the energy game. My favorite is IGE which holds integrated oils, drillers, natural gas companies, coal companies, and refiners.</p>
<p>Just want to throw this out there. </p>
<p>1st, If people are really just interested in dabbling/starting out, Stock</a>, trading stocks, stock trading, trading stock, investments, stocks, the stock market by Buy and Hold lets you buy partial shares of stocks, and the cost is 6.99/month to make trades. No broker fees, no hidden fees. $6.99/month to have an account and makes trades. Minimum buy is $20 worth of stock, but buy as much as you want.</p>
<p>2nd, Fool.com:</a> Stock Market Advice | Stock Investing Advice - The motley fool, a great place to learn about basic investing, good stocks to buy, and other investment information.</p>
<p>3rd, General Electric (GE), Intel (INTC), and Johnson Controls (JCI) are all strong companies in various industries to invest in.</p>
<p>If you are interested in investing, study first then get your money in. You should be watching videos every day on what is happening in the world. Check out Jim Rogers and Marc Faber... they are the smartest people in the investing world. Stay away from the CNN, MSNBC.. etc</p>
<p>The Motley Fool is aptly named.</p>
<p>GE, while a great company, has a lot of financial exposure. Their 1-year chart looks dreadful.</p>
<p>I like Mark Faber. There's Jim Puplava at financialsenseonline.com - you can download three to four hours of market commentary on the weekends from his site.</p>
<p>GE's one year may not be the greatest, but their 5 year is better. Most people on here should be looking at investing long term, since few are close to retirement and most are looking to multiply money longterm. Very little in the market is strong right now, but for the last three years, GE has been marked as a buy, long term buy, or outperform by the major research firms.</p>
<p>GE is up 22% over the last five years. Apple is up about 2,000% over the same period. Disclosure: I'm long Apple from $120.</p>
<p>NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- General Electric - widely viewed as a proxy for the U.S. economy - posted a surprising first-quarter earnings miss Friday, deflating investors' hopes that the conglomerate could rise above a continued economic slowdown.</p>
<p>GE also lowered its full-year earnings guidance, and its second-quarter forecast fell short of analysts' expectations.</p>
<p>Shares of GE (GE, Fortune 500) - a Dow Jones industrial average component - tumbled about 12% in Friday trading, and the results sent the stock market tumbling.</p>
<p>"Our primary shortfall was a decline in financial services earnings," said GE chairman and chief executive Jeff Immelt. "We knew the first quarter was going to be challenging, but the extraordinary disruption in the capital markets in March affected our ability to complete asset sales and resulted in higher mark-to-market losses and impairments." </p>
<p>Also dragging results down were double-digit percentage drops in the health care division and in the industrial division, which struggled on slumping consumer sales.</p>
<p>General</a> Electric earnings show surprise fall - Apr. 11, 2008</p>
<p>If you think that the problems in the financial industry are going to go away in six months, that the economy is going to recover by the end of the year, than GE may be the right company to go with. If you think that the growth potential of this mature company is going to smoke as the Fed starts raising interest rates to control inflation, then I guess GE is the right stock. I do think that there are better opportunities out there in terms of risk/reward.</p>
<p>The time to buy GE is in a capitulation move. And we're not there yet.</p>
<p>No, but I play a real time stock simulator. Investopedia.com</a> - Your Source For Investing Education</p>
<p>If I had 7,000 real dollars to invest in on May 5, I'd be $4,350 richer (excluding fees). CSIQ purchase @ 27.43, currently 44.90. </p>
<p>If only...</p>
<p>too bad you didn't have 1 million dollars to invest</p>
<p>They have a $1 billion market cap but no earnings. Book value is about 10% of market value. That's a trading stock, not an investment.</p>
<p>Stock simulators are terrible indicators of anything. You're willing to take far more risk because it's not real money, and the entire psychological aspect is just not there. There's people that rack up 500%+ returns in two months on those, and I've reaped over 60% myself.</p>
<p>Also, you have to take into account the fact that actual trades require another to deal with, while sims will give you a little leeway in purchasing and selling price.</p>
<p>do it: SSL</a> - Sasol Limited (ADR) - Google Finance</p>
<p>coal to oil. Once the initial investment is made, OPEC oil could be replaced at the cost of $50 per barrel.</p>
<p>It's a year late, but you should still get in before the big jump.</p>
<p>I know this thread is kind of old, but I think I should post this before anyone loses money. Fact 90%-95% of people who invest in the stock market end up losing money rather than gaining any profit. These studies have been done numerous times and I am not making up this statistic.</p>
<p>To anyone who is wanting to invest in the stock market- read up on different type of strategies ( you need to stick with one) blue chips are over inflated and don't increase much now too so don't bother with most fo them. I would recommend reading 3 books before you even put a penny into a stock ( An American hedge fund, Reminisces of a Stock Operator, and Practical Speculations). </p>
<p>It would be a very good idea if you raised $2,000 to start playing in the stock market that way you can short sell. Short selling is the best way to make profit in a down market like this, because you can borrow stock and sell them, then buy them back once the stock goes down to make profit. Short selling you're betting the market to go down. If you want to seriously start investing i would reccommend reading timothysykes blog ( TIM</a> - Timothy Sykes ).</p>
<p>If you are new to investing, I would not recommend starting with stocks. You're better off putting money in some kind of fund (probably an index since the average actively managed fund doesn't beat its index) and begin learning about the market as a whole as you observe how the fund performs. After a year or so, you will have a much better idea of how the market works, and you will have a much greater chance of profiting from individual stocks.</p>
<p>I think that $30,000 is the minimum to play in the market. $2,000 for shorting and you're likely to get hit with a margin call and commissions will eat you alive.</p>
<p>If you're going to go the mutual fund route, get to know the fund manager.</p>
<p>"Fact 90%-95% of people who invest in the stock market end up losing money rather than gaining any profit. These studies have been done numerous times and I am not making up this statistic."</p>
<p>Ever? Sure. Overall? Absolutely not, you're insane.</p>
<p>My VMWare tumbled 25% today =(.</p>