Stock trading
 

Does anyone have any suggestions on where I can start dabbling in online stock trading? I opened an account with e-trade a while ago but it didn't seem to be very user friendly. I was thinking about signing up with Microsoft's site moneycentral.com. Since I'm pretty new to this stuff I'd rather go with a site that someone recommends.

sharebuilder

If your really looking to invest this is the place for one reason, stocks and bonds are longterm investments if your young (18-45) and the buy and hold startegy is the benchmark for the S&P 500.
If you have at least 20 years till 65 then well researched and chosen stocks held for a maximum time will consistently perform strongly. Just remember that really investment value is measured in years or decades, not days and weeks.

Also, invest in a copy of "The Intelligent Investor", its the definative guid to common sense investing that has always proven strong results over longer periods.

However, take all this with a grain of salt. In many cases, it's a much greater investment to find a real investment house/ person and work with a well educated professional to slowley work towards a goal. Just keep in mind that the best investmenty houses are the ones that don't have to come advertising for your money. Many even refuse to run websites, since the cost of running one is passed to the investor by means of higher fee's. many also don't want to work with "get rich quick" guys or day traders. After all, as Benjamin Graham said it, "The average person can only fool themselves for at most several years before realizing they do not possses enough knowledge to acuratly pick indivigual stocks."

Try to find a fund or investment house with fees of less than .5% if you choose a firm by the way.

Best of luck.

There are many excellent services based on what you're looking to accomplish. Can you elaborate a bit?

IRA?

Long-term?

Short-term?

Day trader?

Stocks, bond, funds?

What's your overall comfort level and experience with investing?

What I'm looking to do is start off small, say with 500 dollars and invest in 1 or 2 different stocks. I guess I'd want to day trade meaning that I would constantly monitor the price of the stocks and sell high and buy low.

My motivation is that there are periods in which stock market crashes, and stocks drop to dirt cheap levels, nobody wants to buy because they're in a panic. My view is that I would take advantage of such a time and buy some stock which is at a low value, that I know will recover. One example of such a company is Intel. After 9/11 this stock was as low as 18 dollars a share (maybe even lower) now it's at 28 dollars a share.

Am I using sound reasoning?

Hey, just my .02 if lucent ever drops to 1.50ish range, buy it, its always going up and down, tons of cash to be made, and same w/ nortell, if it hits the 2.00 mark :)

Any trading service will work for you - eTrade, Scottrade, AmeriTrade, etc.

AmeriTrade's interface isn't spectacular, but it doesn't really need to be since all that is entered is the ticker, trade type, and number of shares/$. Order placed and done!

I use Scottrade for IRA funds because they don't charge any acquisition fees.

Real day traders use specialized services that trade in real-time. "Consumer" trading services that promise order fulfimment in less than 30 seconds aren't necessarily the same thing. A friend of mine uses a (relatively) expensive service to trade options in real-time. Unfortunately I don't know the specifics.

Personally, I would go the route of "buy and hold." Funds, not stocks. But it's up to what your investment goals are and your risk tolerance.

Best of luck to you!

I use Ameritrade. EZ to use

i use ameritrade, unless you are good with stress dont try it. also do your reading first on all the terms.

I think I might go with Sharebuilder, it looks really simple and easy to use. But my nobody addressed my question regarding the Intel example I posted.

If I had purchased 27 shares of Intel stock @ $18 a share it would have come out to $486 + buying fee. If I sold those 27 shares today @ $29.16 it comes out to $787.32. Would my net profit be approximately $787 - $486 = $355 ?

^sounds about right to me, except you have to pay a fee to trade again(sell) dont you?

Also buy tech stocks now, it is already a little late to start, but they're still on sale.

yes and no

ok first what you sell it at depends on several factors, when you are bidding online (ameritrade...) you are compeating with many other people, when you sell, some one has to buy. if you just chose to sell, then you will get what price they can find. about what the going price is but a bit less then the quote. but you can use a limit order you chose what price you want to sell it at, and it will try to find that price, this can take days to get that price.

the simple A yes you would get a net profit of 350, but that is if you are able to sell and buy it at the listed prices, the market moves fast.

i hope this helps and if you need any more help please either PM me or add to this thread.

watch Qualcom for the next month.

OK, now that the basics have been cleared up, how does the tax thing work? I generally fill out either a 1040ez or a 1040a at the end of the year. Would I have to calculate how much profit I made at the end of the year and file it in my taxes? Will I have to fill out a different tax form?

Also an important thing to remember is that you should make sure that the person who is handling your investments should himself own every stock he's having you buy--in effect, making him put his money where his mouth is. That's the sign of a confident investor.

You'll get end of year statements from your brokerage detailing your earned interest or capital gains. Just use those numbers in the appropriate places on the 1040 you use.