20 Years Old, Where to start?

kenon said: "Hi guys, I'm a 20 year old university student interested in starting investing. I have 0 debt. I know I'm going to get serious sooner or later in life with investing, why not start early? I don't know much about investing, I took a business class which taught some investing, but not that much. I'm self employed (operate website & do some ebay) and right now have 1-2K in cash. I know this may be a stupid question, but what broker should I use to start off with? I've been doing some comparison and Scottrade looks pretty good. Do you guys recommend any good magazine to subscribe to? Also- I'm really interested in Apple computers. I own everything Apple, their company is growing at a tremendous rate. Apple stock looks fairly stable just by looking @ a chart. Good investment in the long run? With lets say $1,200, is it worth buying 6 stocks, or should I invest in something cheap like Ford? Also- I have $15,000 in a Hennessy fund which grows around 9% a year. That said, I don't want to put my money in a fund, I want to do it myself and learn this stuff."

Rbreb13 said: "Read, read, read and then read some more. [url]http://www.superiorinvestor.net/thread6391.html[/url] I use Scottrade and they're pretty good for me."

JAP said: "Keep saving your money, but don't put one dime into the stock market... not now. There will most likely be another interest rate cut next week and the market will take off... ignore it. We will have a crash or major correction soon after that. That will be the time when you should go all in. Your patience will be well rewarded."

JT_Moore said: "My first investment was Ford :) But as previously stated, don't buy anything right this second. I know how tempting it can be to just buy something, and sure, you might make money. But usually if you go into a stock because you think it will do well, it doesn't. And don't worry, even after you do start trading, you will make mistakes. Sometimes big mistakes. But the only way to learn is by making mistakes. For right now I would recommend using "fake" money on a stock market simulator ([url]www.investopedia.com[/url])"

cwms said: "When you asked about Apple, you said is it worth buying 6 stocks or should I buy something cheap like Ford. Did you mean to say buy 6 shares? A $1200 investment is a $1200 dollar investment and it doesn't matter whether it is 5 shares or 50 shares. I'll take a few shares of a quality company over lots of shares of a not so quality company any day of the week. One of the best investments out there is Berkshire Hathaway. Their "A" stock is well over $100,000 per share and their "B" stock is over $3000. Quality of stocks and not quantity will make you money. I suggest making your investments within a retirement account. No taxes on profits, gains or dividends (at least until you retire)."

JAP said: "[quote=cwms] I suggest making your investments within a retirement account. No taxes on profits, gains or dividends (at least until you retire).[/quote] Gains/dividends within a ROTH IRA are [B][I]never[/I][/B] taxed. The downside is you're only able to contribute $4000 [I]earned[/I] income per year... $5000 if you're 55 years old and over."

LongArm said: "[QUOTE=JAP] The downside is you're only able to contribute... $5000 if you're 55 years old and over.[/QUOTE] I think you meant 50 and over. :) BTW, the maximum contribution increases by $1000 next year. Lots of good advice above. You might check out Fool.com, the aforementioned Investopedia.com and Morningstar's free investing "classroom" as places to begin learning this stuff."

geomatster said: "Yes right now do not investment. As JAP suggested there might be a rate cut, an upward surge and probably a correction, till then hang around and learn the trade. Do visit website's that would give you an insight into companies like that of Investopedia, Morning star, marketsimplified etc. Keep watching CNBC which will give you an idea of the trend. So by the time you are ready for investment you would have equipped yourself with some amount of information. But after saying all this, the best way to learn is to trade; so wait for the right opportunity and invest All the best!"

scottlarock said: "I 3rd or 4th or 5th the idea of not investing right now."

emfb said: "Keep a journal documenting every trade (buy and sell). For every trade document your reasons for making the transaction (technical analysis, news, hunches, value, etc.). Update your past entries with a post trade analysis (did the stock rise or fall after the sale). In addition to tracking your return, track how long you held the stock and calculate an average daily return. Because what's better, 20% in 6 months or 10% in two weeks? Set an stick to loss limits. You have to know when to call it quits on a stock. It's easy to convince yourself that a stock is going to recover, and it just might. But you'll have better luck cutting your losses and moving on to a stock already on an uptrend instead of waiting for your loser to turnaround. Learn about technical analysis. Specifically MACD & RSI. Find and use good tools to give you the big and small picture of the market. Do a Google search for marketmap & sectortracker. Beyond the numbers it's good to know about the company your investing in. Do background research on every company you buy. Apple is a good one for instance. Everyone knows about them and their products. And they are absolutely destroying Microsoft & Dell in stock growth. Ford stock is an absolute horrible buy. They mortgaged everything they own for 24 billion dollars and their burning through it like there's no tomorrow. Their stock is absolutely worthless for three reasons. 1) There is no long term growth potential , their market share is shrinking 2) To expensive, the stock price wiggles around and has some volatility in price which creates opportunities, but I wouldn't think about it unless it dips to below $7.50 a share. 3) They are already owned by the banks. There are too many good companies out there to bother wasting time on this bum. Think global. Think China. Realize that they are behind us which means the things that made huge money here in the past are blowing up huge over there right now. China Mobile Ltd. (CHL) and Baidu.com, Inc. (BIDU) for instance. You can also get some good investment ideas by looking at some leading mutual funds in Google finance. Google shows you the funds top 10 holdings. Ignore the Gold bugs. They are right in that the price is going to continue to rise but there will always be better options for your money. I only use it as a place to park my money if I want to sit on the sidelines for a bit. As everyone else is stating wait for a correction before jumping in. Don't force it, do your research figure out who the market leaders are and lie in wait for your chance to jump in. Good luck."

JAP said: "[quote=LongArm]I think you meant 50 and over. :) BTW, the maximum contribution increases by $1000 next year. Lots of good advice above. You might check out Fool.com, the aforementioned Investopedia.com and Morningstar's free investing "classroom" as places to begin learning this stuff.[/quote] I mistyped... 50 is correct. Thanks LA."