Beginners Investing online
Beginner Stock Market Investing
Charting a course towards financial success should be the first step you take in beginner stock market investing. What vehicle you choose, what strategy you employ will only be a successful as the plans you make before you invest. Investing for beginners or investing for professionals, the same rules apply you must have a plan
For illustration purposes, lets assume I have just invited you over for dinner. Assuming you accepted the invitation, one of the first questions your would ask is “How do I get there? “ The same applies to beginner investors. Every investor was at one time a beginner investor. The investors who reach the finish line with a nest egg had a plan to get there.
Lets get back to dinner. I live in Florida. You live in California. That would not provide enough information for your arrival. You have a starting place and a destination, but what about the plan to get to dinner? You would need to know specifics. The same applies to investing. You would prepare for the journey, chart a course and arrive safely in Florida as you would with your investment goals.
The same principle applies to beginner stock market investing. Lets assume you have $10,000.00 to invest right now. So how do you prepare?
Understand How The Stock Market Works
Individual investors should start right here. What makes a stock price move? Hint: it is not individual investors. Institutional investors, such as mutual funds, and banks, move stock prices up and down. Simple supply and demand I the order of the day. Institutions make a living buying and selling stocks. Following along with how institutions trade is a good place to start. Understand your 1000 shares of XYZ are not going to move the stock price.
Defining Yourself as An Investor
My personal stop loss point is 6%. Why is that? Because I do not like the way it feels losing 10% or even 7%. This is a hard and fast rule for me. I remember following a stock once down to a 20% loss thinking all the while it would come back. It did not. The point is I know myself, and I know my rules. They are non-negotiable factors for me with investing in the stock market.
Where Are You Now As an Investor?
Every journey begins with a starting point. Every journey has a destination point. Everything you do in between will either define your success or document your failure. Set your goals; practice your strategy with paper trading stocks. Set aside capital for short term investing. Plan to include long-term investments. Open a money market account for safely keeping your cash. If you want to trade options, first learn how to trade options . Determine your plan and then work your plan. Dinner is at 6
Risk and Reward Every Beginning Investors Dilemma
If you are visiting this website chances are very good that you want to make money in the stock. Before we go much further lets discuss risk. Before you invest on dollar in any investment vehicle you need to understand there is measure of risk associated with your investment.
The degree of risk varies from investment to investment and as we have discovered recently with the ebb and flow of financial markets. Investing for beginners in stocks, bonds, or mutual funds carries risks of varying degrees and all investments are risky.
That being said there are ways to reduce risk and still maintain a decent return on your investments, but understand this, high rates of return bring with them high risk concerns. CD’s and Money Market funds will keep your investment safer and reduce risk, but it also reduces your potential reward.
Every investor has a risk threshold. How much risk they can live with comfortably and it is different for each investor. Each defines what is acceptable risk and should be a priority for any beginning investor. Everyone needs to sleep at night and not held hostage to high levels of anxiety caused by worrying about their investments.
Hint: if this is happening to you already, its time to change your approach. When you find your own comfort zone, you’ll know your personal risk tolerance, the amount of risk you are willing to tolerate in order to reach your financial goals.
Investing in stocks on a long-term basis will help lessen the risk, but not eliminate it completely. It would be better to choose some lower risk investments as a beginner and let your investing philosophy evolve over time.
One o f the biggest issues for beginning investors is the inevitable question of; Is this the right time to get into the stock market? Consider your goals and motives for investing in the stock market. Define a plan and then work the plan and risk and reward will take care of itself.
Stock Trading On Margin
To those of you that are interested in trading on margin if you are just beginning to day trade or invest, my first piece of advice would be do not use margin!! If you have practiced your strategy paper trading stocks and you are happy with your results then use your own money to trade with and if you are still comfortable with your results, try a couple trades using a little margin. I only use margin for short term trading.
Margin trading is a high-risk strategy that can give you a huge profit if executed correctly, the flip side of that is that you can have huge losses. One of the only things riskier that investing on margin is doing it without understanding what your doing and what the consequences could be!
Buying or trading on margin means that you are borrowing money from your broker to purchase stock. You are using leverage. It’s a loan that allows you to buy more stock than you would be able to normally. To trade on margin you need a margin account, which is different than just a cash account in which, you trade using money that you have deposited. There is an initial investment required to open a margin account and each brokerage house is different. Once you have your margin account open, you can borrow up to 50% of the stock purchase price, it’s important to know that you do not have to margin up to 50% you can do less 10% or 20%, I personally would not recommend to margin up to 50%!!
You can keep your loan as long as you want, but remember you borrowed money and no one gives a loan for free. You have to pay interest on that loan. The stocks held in your account are collateral for your loan. When you sell a stock in a margin account the proceeds go to the broker for repayment of the loan until it is paid in full.
Buying on margin should be used as a short term strategy. The longer you hold a margined investment, the greater the return that is needed to make a profit or even break even. The longer you hold a margined investment, odds are you will not make a profit.
Not all stocks can be bought on margin. Brokers will not allow the purchase of penny stocks, over the counter Bulletin Board (OTCBB) securities or Initial public offerings (IPOs) to be purchased on margin because of the high volatility and risk associated with these types of stocks.
You have two different types of margin restrictions on your account. One is the initial margin, which is the amount you can borrow. The next is the maintenance margin, which is the amount you need to maintain after you trade. These amounts are set by the Federal Reserve Board. Minimum initial margin is 50% and maintenance margin of 25%, some brokerages can have stricter limits.
If the equity (which is the value of the securities you hold minus what you owe the brokerage) falls below the maintenance margin, the brokerage will issue a margin call. If you are issued a margin call you will need to deposit cash into the account or liquidate your stock positions to cover the call.
For example you purchased $20,000 worth of stock by borrowing $10,000 from your broker and paying $10,000 yourself. The value of your stock drops to $12,000, so the equity in your account falls to $2,000 (12,000 -10,000 = 2,000) 25% of 12,000 = 3,000. You would be issued a margin call for 1,000, which is the difference between the equity in your account and the 25% maintenance’s margin on the value of your 12,000 worth of stock.
If you do not take care of the margin call by depositing money or selling stock, the brokerage has the right to sell securities (stock) to increase your account equity until you are above the maintenance margin. Under most margin agreements, a firm can sell your securities without waiting for you to meet the margin call, and they don’t need to consult you before doing it!
Of Bulls and Bears, Investing In Stocks
Making money in the stock market is easy sometimes and sometimes it is just plain work. For those invested in mutual funds, do you realize every stock mutual fund with the exception of one has lost money in 2008? It is not an easy market to trade. Now if professional money managers are having a hard time what can it be like for individual investors or beginner investors ? So how do we approach the market in times where the bears have entrenched themselves for the long haul?
First off beware of days where the market rallies. Changing the direction of this market will take more than a day or two of positive gains. A novice can look at a stock chart right now and spot a trend. Trust what your eyes see. In her Weekly Stock Market Updates Becky Smith accurately predicted lower lows recently, and we may be headed lower.
The Sidelines Is Not A Bad Place to Be
There are times when holding cash is a good thing. Consider at least for now paper trading stocks. This is a great opportunity for you to hone your trading skills. Stocks that reach new lows more often that not go lower and trying to find a bottom on individual stocks can prove costly.
Watch The News
This market is being driven by news. Look at what happened to the market late Friday when word leaked out of a new cabinet member for President Elect Obama. His likely choice for Treasury secretary, Timothy Geithner rallied the market on that news. Will that be a sustained rally?
Patience, Patience and More Patience
This market will call for investors to be patient beyond what has been normal. The markets will turn around. They always do. However, beware of misleading signals. In the end there will buying opportunities. Watch what the institutions do and follow their lead. It is a time for bears , but the bulls will reappear.
