Wednesday, December 24, 2008

First Time Investing in the Stock Market part 1


Like most people I am constantly looking for ways to make money. As the economy is dropping fast, this becomes especially true. But due to this, it also brings up an opportunity. Now this opportunity is risky, but is now affordable. I'm talking about the stock market.

I am not a wealthy man, just an average blue collar worker, but I do have some money put away in savings. With all the current news of stocks dropping in value I thought to myself, isn't this the ideal time to invest? So I started looking into it, reading different reviews on stocks on as many different companies as I could find. It is best to do research on the stability and history of the company before investing. This information can be found on many stock trading sites or the companies own website. Look at the past to see how they performed and their current situation.

Once finding some companies that interest you, its time to find an online trading service. There are many different companies with different fees, services, etc. Most companies offer very low rates and great service. I went with scottrade.com. It may take you a few weeks to set up your account, but once you do it is a relatively easy experience. I liked scottrade due to the easy access to charts, price, and tools on the site. Plus having a local office didn't hurt either.

Trading with your site should be simple, you put in a request with how much your willing to pay or sell at. Keep in mind the markets are open Monday through Friday 9am to 4pm eastern standard time. Your service provider than takes care of the rest.

I am relatively new to this and will post up as I go along, I am currently invested in office depot odp, Harley Davidson hog, and Circuit City cctyq. It is relatively cheap to get started, I only have invested $500 so far. If I was to sell my office depot stock today I would have made an 11% profit , but I am choosing to hold it till the markets go back up to their normal level and see a large gain. Right now the market is going up and down everyday, so don't let small changes discourage you, the price will eventually go back up to its previous prices. That is when you need to sell. Keep in mind I am not a professional, so take this advice with a grain of salt. I take no responibility for any financial losses you may experiance. So stay posted and watch my progress.

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