Can someone help me understand the stock market? all the tricks and trades...?

i need to know any and everything about the stock market. any signs or symbols that i need to know of please inform me in a simplified manner in which i can understand. good stocks to invest in and ones to avoid. This is just a project that i am responsible for and i would appreciate it so much if somone would share there knowledge of it.. thank you have a great day

I鈥檇 et a book from the library, because My Grandpa taught me. But I was sooo confused!

K the symbols you should look up, For example if you wanted to invest in Microsoft the symbol is 鈥淢SFT鈥?

Modern life etc would not be possible without big corporations (which are you, and me putting our money together, to create big wonderful skyscrapers etc.)

Shares are basically a piece of the company, dividends are your percent of the profits. The more shares you own, the bigger your percentage. This sounds confusing, but eventually a light will go on, and you鈥檒l know it. To practice, try watching a stock everyday in the paper. This is called 鈥溾€漷racking鈥?

God Bless you

There many books available at the library and a lot of online resources also to help learn the ins and outs of stock market investing. Do some research with your favorite search engine and go to the link below to get some basics.

If you are 25 today and you retire at 67 with a million dollar investment portfolio, that will safely generate $60K/year.
But when you are 67, that 60K will only have the buying power of a little over $16K/year. It gets worse though,
because at 67, you will still probably have 30 more years to live and that 16K will shrink each year until it鈥檚 only
worth $8K/year at age 90.

A million dollars isn鈥檛 what it used to be鈥?and it will be even less in the future.

So鈥? We must all become educated investors much more so then our parents were and start sooner. These are some
basic steps to get you started. You鈥檝e got to jump in now.


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鈥? So I use http://www.scottrade.com because it鈥檚 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 Financial Times, Barrons or Investors Business Daily鈥?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鈥檚 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 is based on and
how to interpret it. I think it鈥檚 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鈥?It鈥檚 a lot easier to lose play money then real money鈥?
WARNING: don鈥檛 rely on technical analysis alone. These graphs a good at telling you WHEN to buy and sell, but
now WHAT to buy.

Step 6. It鈥檚 always a good Idea to see a CFP (certified financial planner). Their job is to work for your benefit, not to
sell you investments. They can cover subjects like employee benefits, insurance, budgeting, living trusts, 401k, taxes
and real estate as well as investment types and investment types to keep away from.

Always strive to do your own research鈥?you鈥檒l find everyone sounds like an expert so take everything people tell you
with a grain of salt. It鈥檚 not easy in the beginning but soon you will be the expert.

Don鈥檛 get involved with futures, currency, options (unless you get stock options at work), commodities, annuities or
other derivative type investments at this time.


Good Luck