How to start investing? I only have about $500....

[ubercat]

Yeah I think because it's relatively small money the advice I gave her is good. All asset classes are looking very high at the moment which normally is lead up to a crash. Melbourne house prices have started to slide and they've been Bulletproof for 10 years. The problem is she made a chunk of money on a couple of speculative shares recommended to her by a friend. And so now she thinks it's easy money. And let's face it scrimping and saving to put money into an index fund for your retirement is about as exciting as lentil soup and brown bread.

 

[ubercat]

Hey @Fruitbat one last Question. When you say it hold cash you meant hold a cash fund right not actual cash in the bank? Do you have a good cash fund you recommend?

 

[ubercat]

That's funny in my primitive way that's exactly what I've done. I've put in buy offers for those 2 spec shares for myself. But at below market rates so they will only be triggered if it pulls back a bit.

Ok now I am confused if you are only going to make 0.5 from a cash fund why wouldn't you just have the money in the bank earning 2%?

 

[speed dawg]

Crypto seems like the way to go. I just don't know sh*t about it.

 

[PrettyBoyAJ]

Bitcoin and it's type were always going to take off. At the moment it's a bigger bubble than Nikki Minaj' ass.

I wouldn't touch it with a barge pole now.

Issue is, the banks control this world and they will take down crypto. That virus last yeat which froze half the worlds computers and asked for Bitcoin? What did the media post over and over? "Bitcoin is the enemy" "Bitcoin preferred currency to criminals" The media were making it very clear Bitcoin is a bad thing. This, I believe, was encourages as the banks/government don't control it. They want it gone.

I'm stopping short of saying the virus was created by the existing establishment but I would say it's possible.

Ok if you say so. Don't mean to throw shade but I probably made more last month in Crypto then you make in your salary. You should really do more research on Blockchain technologies before you post more about it.

 

[switch7]

today i made $150 off of tron coins. If it keeps going up, lets say to $1 from the price i bought it at, i'll make a few grand.

tron is at 8 cents. You got a long way to go yet to get to a dollar

 

[speed dawg]

Anyone ever use like a Scottrade or TD Ameritrade type account?

 

[synergy1]

No need to spend $$$, we have the internet!!!

I have found the internet is not a good source for in depth information. Sure you can look up a synposis of a book - lets take Greenblatt's "You can be a stock market genius". But all you'll find are vague interpretations of the knowledge in the book. Its actually hard to even find the information when I know what I am looking for. In the same book I just listed, I knew Greenblatt used LEAPS for mispriced securities/spinoffs. Nothing on the internet really explained this so I had to refer back to the book as always.

The internet has its limitations. People who are really successful won't share their secrets. If they do, its small bits and pieces and you can't really put together things like you need to. The internet is good for simple information. Again referencing greenblatt's text, I know that for spinoffs you need to look for insiders buying shares of the unwanted spunoff company. The internet comes in handy when you find the documents that outlines what insiders are doing.

 

[wifehunter]

I have found the internet is not a good source for in depth information. Sure you can look up a synposis of a book - lets take Greenblatt's "You can be a stock market genius". But all you'll find are vague interpretations of the knowledge in the book. Its actually hard to even find the information when I know what I am looking for. In the same book I just listed, I knew Greenblatt used LEAPS for mispriced securities/spinoffs. Nothing on the internet really explained this so I had to refer back to the book as always.

The internet has its limitations. People who are really successful won't share their secrets. If they do, its small bits and pieces and you can't really put together things like you need to. The internet is good for simple information. Again referencing greenblatt's text, I know that for spinoffs you need to look for insiders buying shares of the unwanted spunoff company. The internet comes in handy when you find the documents that outlines what insiders are doing.

News flash, there are books ON the internet.

 

[sazc]

Anyone ever use like a Scottrade or TD Ameritrade type account?

I have a Scottrade account for my Roth IRA. It's fine. You can buy, sell, etc as you wish.

I'm loving my betterment account. Just got an email, $307 in dividends, reinvested for me.

 

[Bible_Belt]

Anyone ever use like a Scottrade or TD Ameritrade type account?

Typical online brokerages sell their order flow, meaning you never get traded at where the market actually is at that moment. You pay a little more when you buy, and you get a little less when you sell. The advertised commission price is a scam. You pay more; it's just not a commission they have to disclose. For a typical investor type, you're never going to notice much of a difference. But if you trade a lot, then it will add up.

Another reason to hate online brokers is that, buried in your customer agreement, is the term that they reserve the right to not execute your order in the event of "fast market conditions." If a stock is really screaming upward when you hit buy, they're not going to execute your buy order until it stops going up, same if you are trying to sell something that is tanking.

 

[ubercat]

BB of your online platform has a limit price can the online broker charge you more?

 

[Bible_Belt]

BB of your online platform has a limit price can the online broker charge you more?

They just don't trade your order until it is past your limit price in their favor. If you enter a BUY LMT @ 100 order through an online broker, and the low for the day for that stock is exactly $100, your order will not get traded. But as soon as the stock starts trading at a few cents below $100, say $99.95 or so, then your order to buy it for $100 will get executed. If that was 1000 shares, you just paid $50 more than you should have, but they tell you that you only paid the $6 or whatever scam price they advertise as a commission.

And that's why frequent traders use a broker like interactivebrokers. However, it's not worth it unless you trade a lot. IB is just an order entry platform. So you are responsible for purchasing your own data feed of stock prices and charting software, and that's not cheap.