i know there’s two things you can be, like investing and something. whats the diff b/w shares and stocks? how do you read those graphs and what do like +65454.543 or -8763.5463? im young, and i just want to know about this stuff for like when i get older. i checked out wiki but i just dont get it.
is the stock market "good"? how do you know? how can you predict the future for it?

here are some steps to prepare you.

Step 1.
First decide what kind of brokerage you want to work with. You can open a brokerage account in your bank, with a large full service brokerage or an internet brokerage. I find when I get help, most people want to sell me things that are better for them….
So I use http://www.scottrade.com because it’s cheap and easy with low frills. I like their streaming quotes and I do my own research and make my own investments. But any low cost internet brokerage service is fine.

Step 2. get a subscription to Barrons or Investors Business Daily… Do this for 6 months or a year. At first, It seems a bit mysterious, but pretty soon you start to understand the terms and things that investors are looking for and what they are afraid of.

Step 3. If you have some money to invest, put it in 3 month CD’s right now. First the market is unstable and second you have some homework in Step 3 to do before you do any investing.

Step 4. Go out to the internet and search on the following subjects. Become very familiar with the concepts.
Asset allocation
Long term investing
inflation
Roth ira vs ira
Large med small cap
Value vs growth
Indexed mutual funds
No load mutual funds
ETF
Sector funds
Bonds CD preferred stock
dividends
International funds
Market cycles
volatility
Fundamental analysis
Technical analysis
In most cases, I think it is wise to use indexed mutual funds and ETF to build the base of your portfolio.

Step 5 go to http://clearstation.etrade.com/ and sign up for a free account. Play around there by looking at graphs and fundamentals. If you click on the graph names, you will get clear information about what the graph means and how to interpret it. I think it’s also a good idea to pretend you have $10,000 and start buying and selling on paper. Keep track of where you are each day for a month… It’s a lot easier to lose play money then real money….
WARNING: don’t rely on technical analysis alone. These graphs are good at telling you WHEN to buy and sell, but not WHAT to buy.

Don’t get involved with futures, currency, options (unless you get stock options at work), commodities, annuities or other derivative type investments at this time.

It would be wiser to build a portfolio with broad based asset allocation through diversified mutual funds and etf’s (After you have spent a lot of time in step4, you will understand what this means and why it is wiser)

Good Luck


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