hi, i wanna start buying and selling stocks online but have no idea where to start...i visited a few websites but donot know where to start and have a few questions for the pros..
1-what are the risks involved in buying and selling stocks online? 2- what are the best resources online for starters like me? i would like to start small may be buying stocks for max $2k.
I use Ameritrade and when I signed up they gave me a bunch of free trades and a premium account upgrade. They never shut me off even though I did not maintain the account requirements. The risk of having an online account are the same as having one at Merril Lynch. The cash accounts are covered by SPIC not FDIC.
mod edit: removed referral code info
buzolich
Loyal Member
posted: Nov. 15, 2009 @ 12:12p
I use Zecco and have had good success with them. Their customer service is reported as not being the best, but I found that if I am patient and just make sure I have all my documents in a row then things were fine. Just follow what they request exactly and you can get anything done. Opening a basic cash account for buying and selling stocks was easy. There was an added form to make it a joint account with my wife's name included. I later added another form to add permission to trade stock options, which I wanted to try as a learning experience. Zecco offers free trades once you have a $25,000 minimum balance in total cash and equity. I never got my account up that high, but we had some great success over this past year. We practically doubled our money between March and November, then I pulled out half of it to consider investments in property. Stocks are NOT the way to make quick money though. Our returns this year were very abnormal. Stock purchases really should only be with money you don't plan on needing or thinking about for at least the next 10 years.
Xnarg
Senior Member - 5K
posted: Nov. 15, 2009 @ 12:40p
Most people who have less than $1M of "play money" have no business picking individual stocks. In general, they're much better off investing in index funds.
Of course there are plenty of exceptions, such as those who have studied the market, but if someone has to ask "how do I buy stocks online and what are the risks," he probably does NOT qualify as an exception to the rule.
For people who are itching to play in the market, I urge them to set up some pretend portfolios on stock tracking websites (Example: Yahoo Finance) and see how they do for at least a couple of years, using different strategies.
With 2k max to invest, I would suggest sticking with mutual funds (no-load, low cost, broadly diversified index funds). Otherwise, trading costs would be a big fraction of your total investment (Granted you could get some freebie trades as opening bonus but in the long run, trading costs can eat up a lot with a small investment). Get your feet wet before you jump into the water.
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