What do you do if you are a noob and you get $500 to invest?

<p>Watch Mad Money, do the opposite = win</p>

<p>Are you guys being serious when you say to invest in BP?</p>

<p>Don’t buy BP. The entire problem with BP is that it is impossible to determine whether it is overvalued or undervalued because its liabilities are unknown. The risk is too high, and you won’t learn anything about investing by doing so. </p>

<p>There is a ton of good information on the internet about trading. I would recommend Investopedia, which has good tutorials introducing you to various investing topics.</p>

<p>I would buy BP. Americans have short memories and in one or two years nobody will remember who BP is or what they did that was so bad.</p>

<p>It seems that the general consensus is that I should go all in to BP in July. Then, how long would I sit on that investment and at what point would I sell? Also, it is to my understanding that the only way to invest on your own is through the Internet. If that is the case, what website do you guys recommend?</p>

<p>I WOULD BUY BP. Although cc2727 statement is correct, that it’s assets/liabilities are unknown that it’s hard to place a value on it, the same token is true by inmotion.<br>
Buy BP now. They are pretty much at their 52 week low, and they have estimated to stop the spill by mid August with some reports earlier. Buy now, in 2 months, there will begin commercials about how much BP cares (remind you of cough* Toyota *cough) and the American people will continue to guzzle their cars with ARCO gas that is always a few cents cheaper than everywhere else.<br>
I’ve got to be honest though, constantly playing the market like all those commercials (is that John Hancock or TD Ameritrade?) is not sensible. I think the least amount of time we are talking is a year or so. </p>

<p>I bought AIG when it was down to 11 a year and a half ago or so. I told a few people, and they laughed, saying I threw away my money. HAHAHA. Yeah, AIG has been back up to 44 and is currently at 34 (My plan is to sell when it gets out of the 30’s, positive or negative).</p>

<p>You’ve got it backwards. I said July PUTS for BP, not calls. The trend is your friend and you just get cut trying to catch a falling knife.</p>

<p>BP’s stock price is going up, even while the rest of the market falls. A July put would be an awful idea because even if it does go down any further, it’s not gonna be by very much. This is like telling someone to bet against exxon in 1989. The price of the stock went down for about 2 months, then quickly rebounded and is now worth about 3 times as much, inflation-adjusted, as it did before the spill in Alaska.</p>

<p>The Exxon spill didn’t last 100+ days. This thing is dwarfing any other spill. Is BP gonna declare bankruptcy? There is a small chance the North American subsidary might, but the hold co won’t. It will rebound eventually, but not anytime soon. There will be bear rallies and shorts covering, but there won’t be any significant change in trends until after this thing settles (by that I mean it stops gushing oil into the gulf). Also, the OP said he was trying to make a lot of money in a short amount of time. </p>

<p>It will continue to decline throughout the first three weeks of july, that’s for sure. But by how much is anybody’s guess.</p>

<p>“It will continue to decline…”</p>

<p>It’s already reversed direction upwards the last week. A decline would be a reversal of momentum not a continuation.</p>

<p>It’s a bear rally, the exact same thing happened at the end of may.</p>

<p>Anybody know if there’s an ETF for collectible Elvis Plates? Maybe the OP can look into that.</p>

<p>Oh and also be sure to check out <a href=“http://www.spammingsucks.com%5B/url%5D”>www.spammingsucks.com</a>. It’s a great way to have fun and learn at the same time.</p>

<p>My advice… don’t even try to invest it because you’d lose it. Either invest in treasuries or pick a low-cost index fund. Think Vanguard.</p>

<p>“Are there any well-known guides or anything else that I should start reading?”
How about the Wall street Journal,specifically the personal finance section</p>

<p>I’m not a pro in the stock market, but I did make quite a bit of (simulated) money simply by paying a lot of attention to the media. From what I’ve seen, the media drives the market.</p>

<p>When the BP oil spill first started, I sold short about 1000 shares of British Petroleum. Every time something positive came up, I’d buy shares. When something bad happened, I’d sell short again. Worked very well.</p>

<p>Again, I’m not a Pro, and I’ve never actually used real money. I just inherited about $1,000 though, so I will be soon.</p>

<p>Typically those that try to trade around events buy on rumors and sell on news. For example, if there were rumors that Apple was going to come up with some kind of fancy pants tablet computer that was really awesome, you’d buy stock in Apple and when the iPad was actually announced and shown to be good(at least in the eyes of Apple fanboys) you’d sell the stock. In efficient markets(in terms of information), the price of a stock already has well known news “baked in”, pretty much instantly. You theoretically are going to have abnormally good returns when you buy or sell based on information you have that few others do(assuming you aren’t an insider and can go to jail for doing that).</p>

<p>I hope you bought BP when I told you to. It’s up over 10% since then.</p>

<p>I’ve made over $900 from BP so far :D</p>

<p>My portfolio went up 25% from the oil spill. I invested in several oil companies, though.</p>