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

College Majors Business Major
41

<p>But to answer the question… I’d invest in gold. One of the best decisions I’ve made.</p>

42

<p>How’s my virtual portfolio?
<a href=“http://img51.imageshack.us/img51/1476/virtualportfolio.png[/url]”>http://img51.imageshack.us/img51/1476/virtualportfolio.png&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

43

<p>How much money have you lost so far max?</p>

<p>[BP</a> plc (ADR): NYSE:BP quotes & news - Google Finance](<a href=“http://www.google.com/finance?q=BP]BP”>http://www.google.com/finance?q=BP)</p>

44

<p>Be sure to sell your gold within the next 6-12 months. There is a bubble in the gold market similar to the real estate bubble of '07 and it will pop eventually.</p>

45

<p>You really can’t do much w/ $500 and common day traders usually lose. Wall Street Wizards > you. 2/3rds of the trades on Wall Street are split second trades where they make a fraction of a penny, but since they trade w/ millions they can make/lose a few hundred thousand dollars in a split second.</p>

<p>If you’re in it to make money stay in it for the long haul. Buy 1 or 2 stocks that you’re comfortable. Don’t just look at stock reports, but look at the company as a whole. Is management good, their product, past profits, etc.</p>

<p>I’d tend to stay away from Virtual Stock websites unless it mimics your current profile. My reasoning behind this is you’ll tend to do riskier things you normally wouldn’t do b.c you’ll have the mindset it doens’t matter if I lose 10%.</p>

<p>Good luck with your endeavors. :)</p>

46

<p>According to studies, you are better off randomly selecting stocks (as in random, like drawing them out of a hat) than actually selecting them.</p>

47

<p>just buy like small firm’s stocks (since they tend to do better… although they have higher default risk than firms like google obviously) and buy like 15~20 of unrelated stocks to lower systematic risks as much as you can.</p>

48

<p>I would get more money because $500 is nothing. If that is absolutely not possible, I would put it in a general S&P 500 ETF or general market ETF and keep adding to that position and expanding into more specific ETFs as that grows or I get more investment money</p>

49

<p>That’s awesome Abranch. Thank you.</p>

50

<p>Man I should have invested in BP when I had the chance :/</p>

51

<p>LOL. I should have taken my own advice. That stock has gone up like 40% since I told you to buy it. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any money to invest at the time. There will be other opportunities though.</p>

52

<p>BTW, congratulations “thes1tuation”. You’ve made 2400 dollars in 2 weeks off of BP. Also, now would be a good time to sell and lock in your profit.</p>

53

<p>Yea, I sold BP when it reached high in the thirty nines; furthermore, what do I invest in now?!?!</p>

54

<p>Possibly apple, theyre bound to come back up.</p>

55

<p>Yeah, I’m considering buying BP stock again if it goes down to around $30.00</p>

56

<p>I’m not a big fan of apple right now. Their expectations are too high, so they have to be perfect or else people consider them to be failing. Same with Toyota. </p>

<p>BP is definitely still underpriced. I think about 45 is where they should be at, and if you wanted to think more long-term I would buy them again even now at 35.</p>

57

<p>I just bought 250 shares of BP at 35.75 per, hopefully all goes well…</p>

58

<p>Don’t panic if it goes down a little bit more before coming back up. Overall it should reach 40 within a month maybe two. </p>

<p>What’s your stop loss and sell point?</p>

59

<p>I probably won’t sell it till It hits 40-50 a share, only way I could see my self selling is a severe problem with the oil slip that could postpone the whole operation of stopping the oil for months, in that case i would sell instantly and then buy back in once it reaches middle 20’s.</p>

60

<p>By the way, does anyone use power etrade? any positive or negative comments on it?</p>