How Exactly Do I Purchase Stock Online?
Friday, July 10th, 2009 at
4:59 pm
I’m an 18 year old college student, and I’m trying to earn some extra money on the side. So, would purchasing stock be a good idea? Does it cost a lot of money to invest? I mean, I’m only 18 and I’m not trying to put in thousands of dollars in the stock market. I just wanna see if I can make a couple hundred on the side. I know you can do it online, but I’m not really sure how and which company to invest in. Could someone who knows a lot about this stuff help me out???
Tagged with: Couple Hundred • Exactly • Extra Money • Money To Invest • Old College • Online • Purchase • Purchase Stock • Stock • Stock Market • Thousands Of Dollars
Filed under: How To
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First off I’ll say that judging by your question, you do not know enough about the stock market to be investing in stocks. I think the best thing for you to do is contact an investment bank and invest in a managed fund, which is where a fund manager will take your investment and use it to invest in a range of things like shares, property and cash.
Having said that (please take my advice on board) I will answer your question. If you do want to go ahead and invest in stocks you need to get a broker. These people make trades on your behalf and are your link to the market. They can either just do trades for you, or for an extra charge they can also give you advice on what to buy and sell and more importantly when to do this. There are plenty of online brokers like eTrader, just google em.
Since you don’t seem to know a whole lot about stock markets I suggest you pay the extra charge and have your broker give you advice too because the stock market can be dangerous. However, given that you’re only planning to invest hundreds of dollars, this is a pretty pointless thing to do. You need thousands of dollars, preferably tens of thoudands at least to make any sort of worthwhile gain from stocks.
So like I said, the best thing for you is to invest in a managed fund. There are some that you can enter for as little as $500 and its much safer than what you’re planning to do.
Hope that helps.
It’s good that you’re interested in investing at such a young age, so my advice is if you’re interested in it (and I mean honestly interested, then run with it) The reason I say this is the most valuable tool you can have in investing is time. Since you are 18, you have plenty of time and relatively little financial commitments.
On the other hand, if you are only asking this question in desperation to make a few bucks then don’t waste your time. The payout is slim to none for the first 2-3 years you begin investing. (Factoring time, commission costs, losses vs actual gains).
If you are interested though, I would suggest holding back on actually investing your money and just selecting a few stocks and observing their movements over the span of a month. Start reading the business section of the local newspaper or even better, The Wall Street Journal. While you’re doing all that, take some intro business courses at the college you are going to.
After about a month of doing this, you’ll have a better idea of what you’re getting yourself into.
Hmmm… its not as easy as it sounds to make extra money w/o investing time and effort in researching & analyzing the stocks. You could definitely put your money in 6 month CDs and learn as much as you can about stocks and then decide for yourself if U “graduated” or not
The questions you are asking mean that you do not know enough to do this without substantial risk of losing ALL your money.
There is a good book you can read, liked below.
Stocks are best for people who are willing to leave their money in the market so that they will make money over time. It’s really risky to invest and hope to make some quick money, as stocks do tend to go up and down. If you haven’t invested before, you should start reading the Wall Street Journal to get an idea of which stocks you should invest in (or, hire a broker–but, beware as they sometimes make more money if they sell you high-risk stock or if they get you to buy/sell often, which may not be in your best interests). If you’re looking to make a few hundred on the side, you may want to look into getting a job on campus like tutoring or working in the library. Also, you may want to check out http://www.collegeosity.com –they have a raffle going on right now where you can win $250 or $150 just for posting (like an item to swap/sell/buy, a question, an answer, etc.) on the site (which is super easy). Good luck!