BogeyDope

I've always wanted to invest my mine. I turned 18 not to long ago, and am now ready to fully invest the money I have saved up for the last 18+ years of my life. The only question is which broker should I invest with? So far, Scottrade and Fidelity seem to be the best, with their low rates and customer service, but it seems as though they all have major problems. I was just wondering if any of you [who currently invest] could tell me which broker you invest with, and your experiences with them.

I'm currently looking at partial day trading, as well as investing in foreign/global stock.

Byrnison

I have accounts with Fidelity, Vanguard, and USAA (USAA is for military members or their spouses/children, so may not be available for you).

I am pretty much mutual-funds only and don't do much stock trading so I cannot comment on the day-trading aspect of your question. I actually like all of them (Vanguard and Fidelity for the ease of use and information available online, USAA for the customer service), but if you were to ask me to pick just one I would lean toward Vanguard. Since I don't see that mentioned in your post maybe check them out? Happy investing!

Baraka_Guru

You don't want a broker yet. You first should seek a financial advisor. A broker is a salesperson who is driven by commissions and quotas, and they are often better rewarded for channelling your savings into specific funds that are mostly for the benefit of the company they work for. Find someone who gets paid for giving you sound advice, not a salesperson who wants a portion of the money they'll tell you* you'll make.

*This is the key.

__________________
Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön

Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot

soma

Put your money in a moneyMarket account (ING, emigrant, HSBC etc) and spend some time learning about how the stock market works (fundamental analysis, tech analysis, taxes, open close times, interest rates/other econ indicators etc) before you jump in. Actually, I'd just keep the money in a MM account and forget about trading. That's just me though.

check out zecco.com and sogoinvest.com

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BogeyDope

Well, I'm not looking for a broker per se, I just need a middle man to invest for me, as in I want to self-invest.

Baraka_Guru

I see. Well, then, do what soma mentioned. I'd hate to see you lost 18+ years of savings on day trading and foreign stocks. It won't take long if you don't know what you're doing. It might not take long even if you do know.

You should read a lot of books before doing anything at least. Synthesize a lot of ideas and then determine your own way. There is not universal formula. Even if someone on TFP can give you some tips, be sure to add much more to that before you start throwing your money around.

Good luck.

__________________
Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön

Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot

eribrav

If you really want to day trade, find someone to give you a play money account of $100,000 and work on that for a good 6 months.
Either that or just paper trade, without real money.
Hopefully you will get pounded either way and give up on the idea.
The worst thing that can happen is you are succesful those first 6 months. That will make you believe that you actually know what you're doing, and then you will get your clock cleaned over the next year.
I'm a succesful position trader, trading stocks and options. It's taken me about 8 years to get consistently profitable, and more importantly to truly grasp risk management, which is what keeps you in the game.

BogeyDope

Any tips/intro advice then?

I've been playing around with simulators for about seven years now. My first experience with one was with investopedia a long while back. I invested my 100K and took a look at it everyday, and eventually left it alone, checking on it once every two-three days. I have about 800k now, from 100k. It seriously made me suicidal knowing had I actually had 100K to invest [and been 18], I would have a nice sum to pay for my over-priced college education right now, instead of working two jobs.

soma

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host

It is not a time to be investing in "long" positions, and I do not recommend "short" positions or "put" options for someone seeking a "middleman".
<center><img src="http://chart.finance.yahoo.com/c/5y/_/_gspc"></center>

I have never seen an "invesment" firm or advisor who is anything other than a commission salesman advising you to take long investment positions. If the bulk of your liquidity is in dollar instruments, buy <a href="http://www.tulving.com/goldbull.html#silver">US pre=1965 "junk" silver bags of coins, 715 ounces per $1000 face value</a> whenever "spot" silver bullion prices are under <a href="http://www.kitco.com/">$14.00/oz</a> if you have a secure place to store it.

If you get nervous, buy some of these put options to hedge:
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/op?s=PAAS...8-07?s=USPSE.X

...and reading everything that is posted <a href="http://boards.prudentbear.com/">here</a> , because I think that finally, it is their "time".

squeeeb

i've used scottrade for the last 10 years, and, and i've been quite happy with them, but i just use them to buy and sell, i dont' get any advice from them, i do my own research. for advice, you can get an account with edward jones, and they will help. i also have some stuff with them and i've been pretty happy with them, but that is more a personal thing. one edward jones guy might be crappy, another one in the same town might be great, it's kinda knowing what you want in a guy, and that just comes from experience.

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onward to mayhem!

Merlocke

Warren Buffet Method mixed with a few good tips.
Buy and Hold forever yes - but you need to know what to buy.

Any company that is committed to raising shareholder value and equity by acquiring assets and mergers is always going to have the news reflected in the price. If a .05c company just acquired a few large assets and hasn't been audited yet, chances are that after the audit - things are looking upwards from .05 yes?

http://ipointclub.blogspot.com/

My own blog on learning the stock market. I'm a newbie too - so good luck to us both

__________________
-=[ Merlocke ]=-

host

Again....it is not time to enter long positions, and that is what almost all "middlemen", and Buffet's method would advise doing:
Buffet's method would not have served anyone well who entered the market in early september, 1929, with the Dow 30 index at a 393 intraday, record high....it declined to close at just 41 on July 8, 1932, and did not exceed 393 again until 1953.

How would the Buffet method. work for a Japanese investor who entered that country's stock market in late 1989?

<center><img src="http://chart.finance.yahoo.com/c/my/_/_n225"></center>

The US Fed is lowering short term interest rates in reaction to it's growing concern that declining housing prices and consumer demand will trigger a worldwied, deflationary depression. Watch for commodities, oil and metals other than gold and silver to steadily decline in price. If they hold firm and rise in spite of declining demand, then it will be apparent that the Fed is succeeding in destroying the purchasing power of the dollar via interest rate cuts. The Fed sees inflation as the only way out. Debtors will be less burdened with inflation than deflation. Stocks do not generally do well in an inflationary environemnt, but precious metals did in 1980 during the last period of US hyper inflation.

yellowmac

First, kudos to you for getting started with investing at an early age. I'm not that much older than you but I already wish that I had known the things about money that I do now. Never underestimate the power of compounding interest and returns over time...

I'd first recommend trying to set a goal/objective. What exactly do you want to do with your investment funds? Do you want to sock it away for retirement? Hoping for a big account when you graduate college? Figure that out first before you invest your money.

I don't know the particulars of your financial situation, so I'll stick with general advice... given that you're 18, rather than going into day trading, I'd highly recommend starting a Roth IRA at a solid investment company. Look for a mutual fund that tracks the total stock market index. It'll be a solid return long-term and it being an index funds means that the management costs are low. Personally I use Vanguard but I'm sure just about any solid investment company will have comparable products. I'd try to max out your contribution every year, and this year it's at $5,000.

If you've still got some money to play with afterwards, then yeah, find a good online brokerage. I'd recommend zecco.com since they have zero commissions for a set amount of trades every month (it's like 10 or 20, I can't remember off the top of my head). I'd stay away from trying to speculate quickly as a day trader or foreign stocks, as tempting as it seems. If I were in your shoes, I'd put as much as I could in an IRA, then split the rest in an online savings account and an index fund.

Do keep us updated, it's always fascinating to talk about money/finances.

Baraka_Guru

host, there are money managers out there who are doing their clients a great service at this current point in the cycle by not being afraid to park much of the assets in cash. Long-term buy-and-hold strategies are not failproof ways to grow and maintain wealth. You need to know when to sell, park, and buy. It isn't just about making money; it's also about protecting it.

These same money managers are, of course, considered contrarians. Or insane. But in hindsight, they can be viewed as geniuses. But we tend to forget about genius when caught up in the herd mentality.

__________________
Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön

Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot

BogeyDope

Well, I've raised enough money to the point where I want to invest it, but if I lose it I have plenty more money for my expenses [this is side money I saved up just for this].

I understand that above all else, investing in Index's is one of the most profitable and least risky options, particularity for a relatively long term. Can anyone explain an Index more thoroughly?

Also, how might I go about personally investing in a company i.e. without a middleman/broker/bank [Fidelity, Scottrade, etc]?

__________________
Focus. Control. Conviction. Resolve. A true ace lacks none of these attributes. Nothing can deter you from the task at hand except your own fears. This is your sky.

Echan

GeneralMao,

Generally, you don't. I'm not entirely familiar with the purpose of having stock in street name, but you are going to have to go through a broker either way. If you want to forego a broker, you're going to need to invest in a company with a DRIP (Dividend Reinvestment Plan) and check out their website for instructions on how to reinvest money with the company. Coca-Cola for example, has a DRIP, once you own their stock, they have provisions for automatically reinvesting your dividends to buy shares. They usually allow you to mail them cheques to buy more stock without any broker fees. I believe in order to do this, you need to have the stock under your name and it'll probably cost ~20 bucks for your brokerage to do the necessary conversion. When you purchase a stock, Coca Cola doesn't see that you own 100 shares, they see that TD Ameritrade or whatever broker owns X shares; the broker deals with their own bookkeeping to determine how much are entitled to you.

Personally, I have an account with TD Waterhouse and I've been happy with them. The service has been far better than online brokerages, although their trading fees are higher. It's also convienent being able to move money between my accounts without a holding period as my chequing account is with TD too.

Yellowmac offered great advice, I feel like you are ignoring him a bit with that reply. You are focusing on a relatively trivial matter. To be perfectly honest, who cares which brokerage you use? The holding periods, service charges etc are completely irrelevant in the long run. You are paralyzing yourself by worrying over pennies and cents by exerting so much energy into avoiding a broker.

Your primary objective, above all else should be your goals. Be honest with yourself. Do you want to just put money away for retirement? Thinking about traveling somewhere in the next 5 years and want to grow your savings in the short term? Do you just want to gamble it all on something risky to buy that motorcycle you always wanted? It's difficult to give sound advice without knowing where you want to go in life. I don't think that stating you have saved up play money you can afford to lose is a good enough indicator to give any sound advice.

opentocomments

I would start here its a neat tool/game.
http://vse.marketwatch.com/Game/Homepage.aspx

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Bagezio2

If you are interested in just playing around with stocks check out http://www.updown.com. They give you $1 million to play around with and it is great to learn.