As a complete beginner can someone help point me to some good sites and books?

I need to learn a little first before investing and as I have so little to invest at this point it doesn’t matter too much if I screw up quite yet.

Also, what are people’s thoughts on investing in Apple right now? I figured the Ipad would sink but it does seem to be doing quite well, their marketing is excellent as is their innovation.

Like I say I’m new so , , shares and so on mean little too me other than being words with little daily impact directly on my life.

Thanks for your time.

 

  • chicago_sky 5:01 pm on April 18, 2010

    Here is a basic steps to start, however, you need to read a lots either online or books before you start investing.

    1. Determine Your Capital: the minimum requirement to open a brokerage account is $500.00 for most broker. If you are going to invest in Stocks or Mutual Funds, I would recommend that you should be sure that you are able to keep that money in your brokerage account for at least 6 months. If you could not do that you should not risk to invest your money because investing in Stocks & Mutual Funds involve risks and may lose value.
    2. Find a Broker: there are a lot of brokers which offer phone call trading, trading through an agent, or online trading. Usually, trading through a phone call or an agent is very costly which is not recommend for small capital investment (less than $50,000) because the fee is too high. Most of the brokers now offer an online trading which cost much much cheaper some of them offer as low as $0 commission free trading (some restriction may apply). Online trading is very popular nowadays due to its low fee.
    * Bank of America: offer as low as $0 commission per trade (online only) for 30 trades per month some restriction apply.
    * TD Ameritrade: offer as low as $9.99 commission per trade (online only) with trade free for 30 days and get $100 for first time sign up.
    * E*Trade: offer as low as $7.99 commission per trade (online only) with 60 days trade free for first time sign up.
    * Scottrade: offer as low as $7.00 commission per trade (online only).
    * Fidelity: offer as low as $7.95 commission per trade (online only).

    After you found a Broker that is suitable for you, then Sign Up! Make sure that you understand all fees involve.
    3. Research, Research & Research: before you trade any particular security be sure that you do enough research on it. If it is your first time, I would suggest that you learn how to use all tools in your online account first such how to buy, sell and how to use research tools. After you know all the tools then start do some research on the company that you are interested in buying its security. It is very very important that you do enough research on the company before investing in it.Be patient and don’t rush, take your time as long as it take to research on the company financial strength, other experts advise, follow the company news, analyze its price chart .etc. to make you feel confident enough to invest. There are some websites that help your research such as Yahoo! Finance, MSN Finance, CNN, Finance, MorningStar .etc.
    4. Invest In What You Know: many financial advisers suggest that you invest in the company that you know instead of something that you never heard of or because it is cheap. Always remember that cheap stocks such as penny stock are very risky to invest. So, if you know the company you would have some idea what the company does, what products/services it offers, and how good the quality is. Thus, it is always best to start up with what you know.
    5. Keep Up To Date: after you buy a security that doesn’t mean that you are done with it. You should spend time to follow up on your stock. You need to find out how your stock is doing. Yahoo! Finance would be a good resource to use, you may need to make a decision (when to sell or buy more) or adjust your portfolio depend on the condition of the each stock. If the stock price going down, do not panic, you need to follow up the news and do more research on that stock to find out why its price is going down then you can make a decision whether to keep it or sell it.
    6. Be Patient: investing would need a lot of patient. You should not expect the market will always move at a direction you want. You need to wait and watch the market.
    7. Know Your Financial Goal: is your investment for long-term or short-term?

    Find out more at: http://market.orkitra.com

  • B0uncingMoonman@aol.com 5:01 pm on April 18, 2010

    You can `buy and sell` (and track) `virtual shares`. There are many sites that allow you to do this. This is probably the best way to learn, as you feel you are actually buying and selling shares – and it is still a virtual thrill if you make a substantial gain and obviously you can`t actually lose any actual money.

  • Akash 5:01 pm on April 18, 2010

    To acknowledge that you must learn before investing in and through the stock market is a good starting point. You may consider reading the following books:

    Security Analysis bby Graham & Dodd
    The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham
    One up on Wall Street by Peter Lynch
    Invetsment Analysis & Portfolio Management by Prasanna Chandra

    As a starter you could read:

    Investing Made Simple by Anthony Loviscek

    You may find a more exhaustive collection of books on investment management at Amazon

    Sincerely,

    Akash
    http://www.narachinvestment.com
    http://mobile.narachinvestment.com
    http://www.narachphilosophy.com
    http://www.narach.com
    http://finance.narach.com