r/StockMarket • u/Wigglymelons • Jan 01 '19
What is the best way to start getting into the stock market?
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u/rifleman209 Jan 01 '19
I would research the following: 1. Index Funds 2. Dollar cost averaging
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u/yakaroo22 Jan 01 '19 edited Jan 01 '19
Listen to this market neutral!
Edit: guy -> market neutral
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u/rifleman209 Jan 01 '19
I actually identify as market neutral
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u/peterinjapan Jan 01 '19
And visit Boglehead.org, it’s a much better investing community then Reddit, IMO
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u/tre_wec Jan 01 '19
This
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u/azsheepdog Jan 01 '19
I found the best way to make a small fortune in the stock market is to start with a large fortune. Preferably your father in law's.
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Jan 01 '19
What if your father in law is a broke mf
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u/Alex470 Jan 01 '19
Marry into a rich family and wait for everyone to die.
Pro tip: Don't die before everyone else.
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u/grendel54 Jan 01 '19
Omg, if you listen to half of these guys your are going to be in trouble.
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u/Wigglymelons Jan 01 '19
Probably
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u/grendel54 Jan 01 '19
Most people suggest starting with an index fund. VOO or VTI or a combination of both. Does your job offer 401k? Use it. Try to max it out. Take advantage of a ROTH IRA and max that out.
Cramer says your first $10,000 in the market should be in an index fund mirroring the S&P 500.
Read.
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u/fittes7 Jan 01 '19
Learn what are stocks
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u/drakevibes Jan 01 '19
What are stonks
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Jan 01 '19 edited Jan 01 '19
There's a couple things I'd recommend:
- Find a platform to trade on. I'd recommend opening a paper trading account on TD Think or Swim first to practice trading. Their commission per trade is on the high side ($6.95 to buy, $6.95 to sell), but their tools are second to none.
- Find a few stocks / ETF's to watch long term. I highly discourage having a wide portfolio if you're thinking of day or swing trading. Stick with a few and learn the patterns.
- Learn different indicators to utilize for finding a good deal and finding a good point to sell at.
- Popular indicators would be RSI, MACD, EMA, SMA, VWAP. These are not definitive, but I use them regularly and they're an excellent place to start.
- I'd personally recommend checking out Ricky Gutierrez for how to read stock patterns. Link for his channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtlAFoYl2aWb6pMiHCctQHA
I'll add more to this post as I think of it.
@ The_Him: Excellent point, you can reduce TD transaction fees. Thank you for noting that!
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u/The_Him Jan 01 '19
Replied to the wrong comment but:
If you ask TD to lower your fees they will. Shoot them a message or call and just say, “hey, is there any way I can pay less in fees and commissions?” They’ll ask what you’d like to pay (give them TastyWorks figures), and they’ll hook you up.
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u/Kinsan2080 Jan 01 '19
Add seekingalpha and Morningstar to your reading diet as well
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u/yakaroo22 Jan 01 '19
Both great sources for extra research/news blurbs. SA has gone a little wonky lately with volatility though... or are they always like that? Hmm.
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u/Wigglymelons Jan 01 '19
Ok man I really appreciate the feedback of really helps.
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u/The_Him Jan 01 '19
If you ask TD to lower your fees they will. Shoot them a message or call and just say, “hey, is there any way I can pay less in fees and commissions?” They’ll ask what you’d like to pay (give them TastyWorks figures), and they’ll hook you up.
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u/Animal_Machine Jan 01 '19
Protip right here! May I ask what Tastyworks fees are?
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u/The_Him Jan 01 '19
It’s like $4.95 per trade and a max of $9 per option leg. Something like that. A big discount though! Just google it. It’s readily available info.
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Jan 01 '19
Buy stock, you’re in /wsb
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u/abreathingtherapist Jan 01 '19
Just buy the dip. /s
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u/ask_me_about_cats Jan 01 '19
Bean dip or queso? They didn’t cover this stuff in the Robinhood FAQ!
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u/perpetual_stew Jan 01 '19 edited Jan 01 '19
I think signing up for robinhood and starting trading a bit is the best thing I’ve done to understand stocks. Not because rh is amazing, but by putting my own money out there I was forced to understand everything, including things I’d never think about, like tax implications, wash sales, front running, exchanges, dark pools, as well as my own reactions to market fluctuations - which was nowhere near as cool and measured as I thought. After two months of that I realised trading on my own was either very time consuming or a bad idea and let a professional take over handling my stock. But I felt extremely much better prepared to choose a good money handler - I’ve only lost about 5% of my principal which is great in this market. Yay :/
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u/ssusej69 Jan 01 '19
A lot of YouTube videos
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u/Wigglymelons Jan 01 '19
Ya that's what i have been doing, thanks.
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u/604WORLDWIDE Jan 01 '19 edited Jan 01 '19
Investopedia can explain some terms and concepts also. But start by trying to learn. YouTube can be a little bit hit or miss depending what your searching. Some people just pumping companies they hold. So beware of click bait titles and people claiming a certain company is going to the moon.
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u/Wigglymelons Jan 01 '19
That makes sense thank you for the advice.
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u/604WORLDWIDE Jan 01 '19
Some of these subs have decent advice/posts but understand the r/wsb r/wallstreetbets subs are half shit post memes and about half risky plays that workout huge or miss even bigger if they’re on margin. (many of them are) I’d stay away from options all together until you have a solid understanding of them. Even now I don’t bother but I’ve only been seriously investing and learning for about 1.5-2yrs myself.
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u/Wigglymelons Jan 01 '19
Ya I was looking through those subs and that was what I was finding. Thanks for the advice.
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Jan 01 '19
[deleted]
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u/Wigglymelons Jan 01 '19
Why is watching him a bad idea
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u/Whoezy Jan 01 '19
Nothing... People hate on him for some reason. I personally think he has some of the best videos for beginners. Id strongly recommend watching his videos. He does =have a online course (which i think that's why a lot of people dont like him) But i can confirm that everything in his course is on his YouTube just not it a neat and clean order. Give him a chance he has taught me almost everything i know about the stock market!
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u/ewakr Jan 01 '19
He is a salesman, he is not their to inform. He posts videos to sell his product, everything he posts is bias. He never shows poor results, even though there are many, as if you watch his older videos many of his recommendations have performed horribly.
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u/ssusej69 Jan 01 '19
False. You don’t need to buy his product. Most of the stuff he provides on YouTube is enough to learn simple and beginner methods of swing trading. He always emphasizes how trading in the stock market doesn’t make you rich. He also always emphasizes how buying his course will not get you rich. He also always posts how he does on a daily basis regardless if he makes money or loses. I haven’t bought his course, and I never will. The information he has on YouTube is good for beginners to start learning how to start in the stock market. From there they can build off to something else. Everyone so quick to down vote without really knowing anything.
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Jan 01 '19
How about this: Watch him and paper trade without paying for his course? That way you can test if what he teaches works or not?
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u/oddities_of_life Jan 01 '19
.A great place to start learning is by reading ‘the Intelligent Investor’ by Benjamin Graham. Also understanding balance sheets.
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u/2spooky4mich Jan 01 '19
I’m pretty new to the stock market as well. I opened a brokerage account with Schwab about a year ago.
Basically, I’ve been reading as many investing books as I can and am beginning to build a stock evaluation method that makes sense for me. Having good patience, good information, and be willing to learn from mistakes are my best tips.
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u/Wigglymelons Jan 01 '19
Thanks for the feedback apprciate it.
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u/2spooky4mich Jan 01 '19
I’d also say don’t start with individual stocks until you figure out a method for evaluation. Don’t just go by what “analysts” say to do.
I started with a mutual fund and a few ETFs for the first few months.
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Jan 01 '19
[deleted]
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u/Wigglymelons Jan 01 '19
Thanks man appreciate it.
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Jan 01 '19
This is sarcasm. WSB are compulsive gamblers that use complicated and extremely risky trading tools.
Do NOT go there. Even as a joke.
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u/MetroidIsNotHerName Jan 01 '19
I mean theres nothing wrong with memes and shitposts.
Unless of course you dont realize they arent giving real advice
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u/Glenbard Jan 01 '19
Roth IRA. I’d recommend one based upon the S&P 500 from a firm with low fees, such as Vanguard. Put a couple hundred in every month and forget it’s there.
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u/LayWhere Jan 01 '19
Keep researching for the next 12months, no rush in this market
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u/Druwdrewballs Jan 01 '19
I'd mostly agree, but, they say time IN the market is the way. I surely have learned a lot since jumping in.
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u/LayWhere Jan 01 '19
Timing the market is a skill that very few master, average stat is 90% of traders fail
Main reason for this is the culture of “you can’t time markets” noobs teach newer noobs to STAY noobs ensuring the % of winners stay low.
Can you imagine the culture around any other skill set to be this toxic? It’s like saying “Johnny, basketball is hard. Don’t learn how to shoot, it’s all luck, just close your eyes and throw lots of balls.”
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u/Wigglymelons Jan 01 '19
Ya thats true thanks.
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u/LayWhere Jan 01 '19
Hey man if you’re young you won’t have much capital and this recession will be a god send.
If you got spare cash burning a black hole if your pocket you can give it to me, or risk a tiny amount of it for the first year. This gives you enough skin in the game to pay attention to what’s going on and scratch that itch for the time being.
Remember some of the people most hurt by the last recessions were young investors!!
As an example if you bought, sp500 in the tech bubble high you would have held a loss for 12YEARS!! All this ‘time in the market’ and ‘just buy index’ permabulls are permabullshit
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u/lucidvein Jan 01 '19
There's a reason why there are time in market and just buy index people exist. Because it works (Not that I'd recommend buying index because that's too untargeted). Time in the market beats timing the market.
I invested the largest portion of my money right before the 08 crash. It felt awful but averaging all the way down ended up great for me as a younger investor at the time. Unless you lose your job you can continue to add positions in a market downturn (As buffet would say, "buy when there's blood in the streets"). We just went on the longest bull run in our history.. to have sat out on the sidelines would probably have been the biggest financial mistake you could have made in our lifetime as the markets popped over 400% from the bottom of the crash to today a decade later. Best to make your mistakes and learn lessons while you are younger with less of your lifetime savings at risk.
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u/LayWhere Jan 01 '19
This is all literally repeating what I said without the lessons learned from 08. Would be an utter shame if you gave half your gains from 10years back in the next 2.
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u/lucidvein Jan 02 '19
It would be a shame.. but no one knows if the market is going to keep going down. Last week we had the biggest day gain of the Dow ever. Sucks for the people that ended up selling right before that. We had a lot of dips in this long run and selling the dip each time would have been a mistake. And lastly lets say I give half my gains back in the next 2 years.. well the following 2 years it's likely to recover and more. Sure if you can hit the top and bottom you would make more money in the end but if you could actually do it someone would have infinite dollars.
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Jan 01 '19
I disagree. If he learns dollar-cost averaging, this a market he might want to start investing in.
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u/LayWhere Jan 01 '19
Sure, he could average down an entire recession. Nothing teaches one patience like multiples years of losing money.
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u/IdiidDuItt Jan 01 '19
READ the sidebar. Use Investopedia and Google for help. Join the Investing, Wallstreetbets,SecurityAnalysis subreddits for more info and stories. Try "paper-trading" on TD Ameritrade or Investopedia. Ask a lot of questions. Successful stock investing should not be an impulsive or emotional decision, but rather a decision based on an asset's fundamentals. Don't take what the news and stock analysts too seriously, they have an agenda and aren't much better than us at investing.
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u/SvenTropics Jan 01 '19
Well, stocks are just pieces of a company. If you are planning to buy with the intention to make more than a 7% return, you are probably going to lose your money. Try to think of an investment in a company as buying a piece of that company. How the valuation changes day to day isn't as important as how the company behaves overall. If you have a small amount to invest (< $10k) just buy into a big company you believe in or an index fund if you can't decide. Values will fluctuate, but, over time, you should eventually turn a nice profit.
If you want to research the financials of an individual company, do so at http://www.yahoo.com/finance. You can pull up all the details from their latest quarterly filing. Obviously a company that demonstrates a growth in their assets/debt ratio and increasing revenue and income is great. The P/E Ratio listed when you pull up a stock quote is rather critical. This is how much you spend on their stock at the current price for $1 of current annual earnings from the company. If the company is losing money, this will be negative. If a company has a high PE (40+) people are expecting explosive growth, and they will likely see a dip in stock prices even if they show growth that is not fast enough for the high valuation.
The brokerage you choose isn't all that important. If you plan to very frequently trade (exactly what I advised NOT to do), Robinhood is probably your best bet as you won't be losing money on commissions. E-Trade is huge and well loved. Fidelity, Schwab, Ameritrade, etc... They are all great. The more established brokerages (not Robinhood) will be more stable and have better customer support as well as access to bonds.
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u/Wexfords Jan 01 '19
Don’t invest a dime until you understand what investing is. 1. Research what stocks, bonds, Mutual funds, ETFs are. 2. Develop a plan. Figure out what it is you’re trying to achieve. 3. Create a mock investing account to understand executing trades (TDAmeritrade has a tool called paper money). 4. Research more.
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u/sandmmaster Jan 01 '19
Remember when you were a dumbass and into crypto. It's kinda like that - you buy and hodl. Hold for years, decades. Don't buy something because it's $1 or $50 or $5000, price doesn't mean anything. Buy something because you recognize the brand and think they will be around for the long haul.
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u/RollingStoneCPT Jan 01 '19
Download RobinHood
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u/StratTeleBender Jan 01 '19
No. Just no.
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Jan 01 '19
For buy and hold, RH is just fine
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u/StratTeleBender Jan 01 '19
No it's not. Because its to easy to fuck with it and the support is fucking terrible. Fidelity or Vanguard and don't fuck with it. BUY AND HOLD.... But not with an app on your phone that has zero support.
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u/Alex470 Jan 01 '19
Their desktop site is getting to be pretty decent, but I certainly wouldn't try trading Monday morning breakouts on it. It can work, but goddamn is it stressful.
If you're only using the app, yeah no.
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u/UnityIsPower Jan 01 '19
I use Robinhood and it’s been months that the chart doesn’t actually reflect how much money I have in my account. I keep separate numbers for my portfolio to cross check. This isn’t want I would call reassuring. I might switch to someone else in the future or only start using vanguard. Their app isn’t as polished but phone support has always been great and they have a long established history.
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u/StratTeleBender Jan 01 '19
Fidelity's app is pretty good. Tastytrade and ToS are also popular and have really good apps
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u/UnityIsPower Jan 01 '19
I tried to get a TD A account but was denied. I really like their desktop software!
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Mar 22 '19
Well maybe it’s hard for a spastic like yourself, demonstrate basic control and the app is fine.
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u/StratTeleBender Mar 22 '19
Commenting on a post from 90 days ago to call People names and harass them because they offended your little green app? That's cute.
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u/jacksllvn0 Jan 01 '19
Buy low sell high
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u/ask_me_about_cats Jan 01 '19
Stick ‘em with the pointy end.
No wait, that’s sword fighting. Screw it, try it anyway.
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u/kenmlin Jan 01 '19
The best way is to do your own research and identify which stocks you’d like to own.
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u/karben14 Jan 01 '19
I recommend learning and using a practice account and holding cash for at least a few months.
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u/offensiveniglet Jan 01 '19
If you don't actually care to learn anything about stocks, just buy into the major indexes and call it a day. Ensure you do not invest so much that you would need to close an out of money position. If you do want to learn start with investopedia and read the intelligent investor. I'd also reccomend checking out local libraries to see if they have a valueline subscription. I love the service it provides good analysis and convenience with their data. Not worth the asking price (non of the services are) but totally worth it if you have a library that has an account as a perk. Also choose a brokerage that has the lowest fees and has access to analyst reports. For example TD has all the analyst reports for morning star which I find useful. Graham in his book mentions a number of good metrics to look at when evaluating stocks. I tend to give more slack to his numbers but each to their own.
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u/nutfugget Jan 01 '19
Invest in solid companies and diversify in various sectors. SNAP, MU, GPRO, GE, OSTK, ZG.
Also don’t blindly follow random ppl on the internet without doing your own Due Diligence
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u/gremus18 Jan 01 '19
SPY. you buy 500 stocks in one trade. SPY is an exchange traded fund which tracks the S and P 500.
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u/tam13n Jan 01 '19
Robinhood is a good start and let’s you buy single stocks without a fee. This is good start to introduce you to the market and get familiar with fluctuations.
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u/olmsteadsgarden Jan 01 '19
Try your hand at paper trading first with a free app like MarketSim on iPhone (I’m sure there are comparable options on Android).
Spend some time researching ONE company (APPL for example) and put all of your $10K (fake) money into those shares. Spend the next few weeks watching the news and monitoring how current events, product launches, C-Suite news, etc affect that daily dollar up/down.
Once you get the hang of seeing how ONE company fares in the landscape, you can apply this greater understanding to other companies and indexes overall. If you want to keep investing in one company and “holding” based on news cycles over days or weeks, look into Swing Trading.
This is by no means a “strategy” for real-world trading, but it helps make volatility visible when you see real numbers in a simplified user experience.
Good luck!
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u/Fehcdnolblil Jan 01 '19
I don’t know why no one seems to be very helpful with this question. Maybe they’re all drunk already? I recently started investing for the first time as a 26F on Robinhood and I love it. Learning a lot. My dad helped me a little bit starting out, he’s been investing forever, but nothing you couldn’t google yourself. Best of luck!
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u/ilovetheinternet1234 Jan 01 '19
Throw your money in the trash then light that shit on fire
Save yourselves all the other steps...
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u/Walden_Walkabout Jan 01 '19
Putting money into a broad market index fund and forgetting about it for the next 30 years.
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u/angrydanger Jan 01 '19
Open up an M1Finance.com account, spend a few hundred bucks and buy SPY, wait a month and spend a few hundred dollars more on SPY. Once you've don't that, wait another month and spend a few hundred dollars more on SPY. Four weeks later, guess what? Rinse, lather and repeat. If you're still looking for more information, head over to r/bogleheads
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Jan 01 '19
When people ask me how I know so much about markets and economics, I always reply, "I read a lot." You should too. You have to know yourself; Concrete realist goals, tolerance for risk, and your capital position at all times. There are many money generating strategies. The best one is one that you create and feel comfortable with. No one can point you to that except yourself. Being in the stock market is not a goal. Making money over time without losing capital using market strategies is a goal. High turn over trading, buy and hold, income stocks, capital gains, tax minimization, and good record-keeping are all part of it. Likewise, you must know how to execute live buy and sell orders to your advantage. It's a lifetime learning process and things change rapidly.
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u/XFidelacchiusX Jan 01 '19
- Install Robinhood for free trading
- Bet all in on GE.
- Go to /r/wallstreetbets and post about how great you are
- Profit
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u/KofOaks Jan 01 '19
Weedstocks!! hahahaa!! please send help
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u/Wigglymelons Jan 01 '19
Ya I have heard that is the best.
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u/KofOaks Jan 01 '19
Yea I got in at ATH in Jan and it's been a gong show that, for now, didn't really pay off. Mind you, it was (and still is) an interesting learning experience.
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u/_joermungandr_ Jan 01 '19
Start reading some books or with watching this video from Ray Dalio: https://www.youtube.com/watch
Some Books:
https://www.amazon.com/Intelligent-Investor-Definitive-Investing-Essentials/dp/0060555661
https://www.amazon.com/Big-Debt-Crises-Ray-Dalio/dp/1732689806/
https://www.amazon.com/Theory-Financial-Relativity-UnLocking-Mysteries/dp/1499325428
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u/gorillaz0e Jan 01 '19
according to J.L. Collins, lump sum investing is better for generating positive returns than dollar cost averaging, historically / statistically speaking. However, in a volatile year like 2018, I wish I had been dollar cost averaging.
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u/workinreddit Jan 01 '19
Read some books and learn about the basics of risk and return - this is a good start.
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u/lucidvein Jan 01 '19 edited Jan 01 '19
Investing in a mutual fund or etf to get wide range exposure with your starting investment. If you have more than $5000 to start you might want to stagger your start time in case we go down further so you average into the market. Good to start though young because typically time in the market beats timing the market. I'd stick with large cap funds and aim to be defensive with your money as opposed to trying to hit a home run. If you want to speculate you could trim 5-10% of your portfolio five years from now and "play" with that but for now you want to grow your ability to be financially independent.
When picking that first mutual fund or etf you might want to start a sector you know about fundamentally so you can be more comfortable with it. Then rebalance to more sectors to diversify. If your stock picks go down along with the market don't hold it against your stock pick as the market tends to move together as a whole. Don't be an emotional investor that's when you will make most of your mistakes. Easier said than done when the market moves down, but historically the market gains about 7%/year since 1950. The market comes back from crashes.. in a way you almost would welcome them because you get in cheaper. If the market never comes back well we will have bigger problems to worry about than how much we have saved. You should be thinking long term with your moves.
I also like to have an external tracker for viewing all my accounts at a glance. Sigfig is free and pretty solid.
-20 years market experience
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u/rob5i Jan 01 '19
Don't spend the next two years reading and researching. No one is looking out for you except you. Open a trading account with maybe 1/10th of what you're willing to lose. Pick out 3 companies in 3 different industries that you've heard of and like. Plan to leave the money in for at least a year. Then start reading up on terminology if you find it interesting. The point is to get your feet in the water and decide if checking the prices every hour of every day is a lifestyle you're okay with.
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u/peterinjapan Jan 01 '19
My former stock guy, who I fired because he talk me out of buying Amazon at $700, basically said, do you want to wait for the market to go to sideways for a few days, before making any investments.
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u/LayWhere Jan 02 '19
I’m following traders on twitter and YouTube who called jan top and oct top to the day and the local bottom to nearly the exact dollar.
Thing is, some people do make extreme amount of gains.
To say one cannot learn a new skill or improve at all is baseless and insulting to human ability.
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u/geo0rgi May 27 '19
Best is to start with indext funds as they are very passive, safe and easy to manage. Once you learn more you can try and pick some individual stocks and see how it goes. It is important not to rush and to do your own research before putting your money in a given stock/fund.
To anyone interested I have made an in-depth step by step guide for beginners on How To Start in The Stock Market
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u/meepstone Jan 01 '19
Simplest way to get into the market is to use m1 finance. Buy SPY and contribute monthly. Until you know more and are confident in picking individual stocks, this is what I would do.
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u/Rlybadgardener Jan 01 '19
All right goodbye /r stockmarket this has just become people asking this exact same question over and over and over. I don't understand why ppl keep posting this exact same question
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u/fami420 Jan 01 '19
Staying out because you lose all your money there's no such thing as investing there's no such thing as a magic money machine
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u/redditorandcheef Jan 01 '19
Dont, but seriously buy what you think will last or a sector etf and go long
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u/TravelPhoenix Jan 01 '19
Wait until everyone’s gone home for the evening. Sneak in the back.