<p>I am really getting into investing and was wondering what some good books on trading:short term and long term/investing would be.</p>
<p>on a side note while I am educating myself in the world of trading/investing, I was thinking I should open up a Roth IRA and an index fund. Would this be wise?</p>
<p>any help is appreciated</p>
<p>Read A Random Walk Down Wall Street by Malkiel. He talks about investing in the long term and how you should start as early as possible. Basically while speculating is fun and offers a small chance of beating the market, investing in index funds and other ETFs are really the best way to secure a strong financial future. </p>
<p>He offers a lot of advice about asset allocation and other types of diversification tactics that I found to be really useful, as I myself am starting to wondering how to allocate my current and future earnings. </p>
<p>I would absolutely recommend this book.</p>
<p>how would one go about learning how to day trade? any books? I know it is risky but, I am extremely interested. I could still long term invest and day trade with extra cash.</p>
<p>Off topic, but a good banking book is "Bank!", by David Bledin. I really liked that, and it was quite a short read.</p>
<p>miguel88, day trading is gambling, not investing.</p>
<p>If you want to day trade, I would recommend trading with something you lever more than equities. Transaction costs will eat you alive if you want to trade during the day with minimum gains. Instead of having 2:1 margin boosts, trading in commodities or forex where you can lever more than 100:1 is worth the extra spread and tc brokers ask for.</p>
<p>putting real money into forex without much info/experience is quite similar to playing russian roulette when your opponent puts the bullets in</p>
<p>or so i've heard.</p>
<p>Of course you should use a demo account before any actual trading. I thought that was obvious. </p>
<p>A good place to learn the basics about forex is this site: <a href="http://www.babypips.com/school/the_skinny_on_forex.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.babypips.com/school/the_skinny_on_forex.html</a>
which uses simple language to help unfamiliar traders learn. After reading this, I would use a demo account from FXCM to get used to what you learned--along with continued reading on the subject.</p>
<p>Are there any good books on forex and commodities trading?</p>
<p>Read Ugly Americans by Ben Mezrich or The accidental Investment Banker.</p>
<p>I second "The Accidental Investment Banker". VERY good book, give it a read - Knee is a genius.</p>