Posted by: fortunefaded May 31, 2009
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Thanks for the message राछस. First, to all the newbies, do not invest any money unless you are prepared to lose it.
1. Now, about how to go on choosing the right broker...
For folks who are new to investing, I would suggest to go with the names. Etrade, Ameritrade, Scottrade etc. These brokers have high commission fees but also better service and trade execution time.
I personally favor Ameritrade, because I use Quotetracker . If you have seen my postings on eminitrader's thread, then you will notice I extract my charts from freestockcharts.com .
If you are on F-1 you can still open an account with a broker and trade. Like I have mentioned many times before, all you need is a Social Security.
To open account with a broker, just go to their website and start registering. It's just like opening a new credit card or bank account. TD Ameritrade will ask you to print out their agreement and fax or mail the signed document along with a W-9 form if you are on F-1.
When I used Etrade, I never had to mail anything back and opening the account was much easier.
Note opening an account with take 1-3 Business days.
2. Now you have opened an account, next thing is to put some money to invest. There are several ways to do that, including checks, money order, electroinc transfer and wire transfer. I use electronic transfer. It is not that hard to figure out how to transfer money but if you have problem, call the broker customer service and they should help you out. For electronic transfer, you need to get your bank information (account number, routing number, etc). If you do electronic transfer, it will take additional 3-5 business days until the money you transferred can be used for trading/investing.
Note: The fastest way is wire trasnfer, which will take one business day. But also there usually is a small fee for wire transfer, around $25-50. For electronic transfer, there is no fee.
3. Now you have money in your brokerage account, the logical step is to start investing.
If you are a newbie, I do not suggest you buy something on the hype. Before I even opened my account, I read a few books about investing, and you should too! The first one I read was Investing for Dummies.
I will provide a pdf download for a few books so that you guys can download it for free and start reading right away.
4. Once you know something about investing, start asking yourself some questions. Now, you also have to figure out your goal before you invest. Don't just dump money in a stock and hope it will double by next year. Chances of that happening is extremely low.
Some questions you might ask yourself:
a) How much are you willing to risking? 1K, 5K, 10K?
b) What is the timeframe you are looking into? There are renowned investors like Warren Buffet who put money into stocks and let it grow for years, while there are traders like Tony Oz who buy and sell stocks on the same day, making profit in the small daily change of the stock.
Like some folks in sajha, I consider myself a swing/weekly trader. That means I hold positions for more than a day and less than a month.
c) How much time are you willing to put into trading/investing? If you want to invest today and forget about your investment for a year, then you should approach investing in a different day.
If you can put in a hour or so to do research on the market, then you can take more risks.
5. Ok, once you got some basic questions cleared out, it all amounts to this: Which stocks to buy and when to buy? There is a ton of information on the internet about this...Example, go to youtube and look for vidoes on stocks trading. Eminitrader has put his picks online and countless other folks do it. Don't buy from the hype. You can watch fast money on CNBC but ultimately you have to pull the trigger. If you are thinking of short term trading, understand that timing is the key. You can lose a lot of money if you don't timing right.
6. Now you have bought the stock, there is little you can do about it. If you were right and the stock makes money, sit back and ride the wave. If you were wrong, don't sit back hoping the tide will turn. Many investers are successful not because they were right all the time, but that when they were wrong, they had the discipline to exit the trade.
Alright, I don't want to put you to sleep, here are a few books that might though
Into to investing and fundamentals:
http://rapidshare.com/files/53582165/stock_investing_for_dummies.rar
The bible of Technical Analysis:
http://www.amazon.com/Technical-Analysis-Financial-Markets-Comprehensive/dp/0735200661
Blog for a ton of downloadble trading books:
http://rapidsharebloggers.com/ebooks/stock-and-trading-ebooks-pdf/
Peace,
FF.
1. Now, about how to go on choosing the right broker...
For folks who are new to investing, I would suggest to go with the names. Etrade, Ameritrade, Scottrade etc. These brokers have high commission fees but also better service and trade execution time.
I personally favor Ameritrade, because I use Quotetracker . If you have seen my postings on eminitrader's thread, then you will notice I extract my charts from freestockcharts.com .
If you are on F-1 you can still open an account with a broker and trade. Like I have mentioned many times before, all you need is a Social Security.
To open account with a broker, just go to their website and start registering. It's just like opening a new credit card or bank account. TD Ameritrade will ask you to print out their agreement and fax or mail the signed document along with a W-9 form if you are on F-1.
When I used Etrade, I never had to mail anything back and opening the account was much easier.
Note opening an account with take 1-3 Business days.
2. Now you have opened an account, next thing is to put some money to invest. There are several ways to do that, including checks, money order, electroinc transfer and wire transfer. I use electronic transfer. It is not that hard to figure out how to transfer money but if you have problem, call the broker customer service and they should help you out. For electronic transfer, you need to get your bank information (account number, routing number, etc). If you do electronic transfer, it will take additional 3-5 business days until the money you transferred can be used for trading/investing.
Note: The fastest way is wire trasnfer, which will take one business day. But also there usually is a small fee for wire transfer, around $25-50. For electronic transfer, there is no fee.
3. Now you have money in your brokerage account, the logical step is to start investing.
If you are a newbie, I do not suggest you buy something on the hype. Before I even opened my account, I read a few books about investing, and you should too! The first one I read was Investing for Dummies.
I will provide a pdf download for a few books so that you guys can download it for free and start reading right away.4. Once you know something about investing, start asking yourself some questions. Now, you also have to figure out your goal before you invest. Don't just dump money in a stock and hope it will double by next year. Chances of that happening is extremely low.
Some questions you might ask yourself:
a) How much are you willing to risking? 1K, 5K, 10K?
b) What is the timeframe you are looking into? There are renowned investors like Warren Buffet who put money into stocks and let it grow for years, while there are traders like Tony Oz who buy and sell stocks on the same day, making profit in the small daily change of the stock.
Like some folks in sajha, I consider myself a swing/weekly trader. That means I hold positions for more than a day and less than a month.
c) How much time are you willing to put into trading/investing? If you want to invest today and forget about your investment for a year, then you should approach investing in a different day.
If you can put in a hour or so to do research on the market, then you can take more risks.
5. Ok, once you got some basic questions cleared out, it all amounts to this: Which stocks to buy and when to buy? There is a ton of information on the internet about this...Example, go to youtube and look for vidoes on stocks trading. Eminitrader has put his picks online and countless other folks do it. Don't buy from the hype. You can watch fast money on CNBC but ultimately you have to pull the trigger. If you are thinking of short term trading, understand that timing is the key. You can lose a lot of money if you don't timing right.
6. Now you have bought the stock, there is little you can do about it. If you were right and the stock makes money, sit back and ride the wave. If you were wrong, don't sit back hoping the tide will turn. Many investers are successful not because they were right all the time, but that when they were wrong, they had the discipline to exit the trade.
Alright, I don't want to put you to sleep, here are a few books that might though
Into to investing and fundamentals:
http://rapidshare.com/files/53582165/stock_investing_for_dummies.rar
The bible of Technical Analysis:
http://www.amazon.com/Technical-Analysis-Financial-Markets-Comprehensive/dp/0735200661
Blog for a ton of downloadble trading books:
http://rapidsharebloggers.com/ebooks/stock-and-trading-ebooks-pdf/
Peace,
FF.