Hey anyone who reads this. I'm a 21 year old college junior. I have about $18,000 that I'm looking to invest. The only thing is I know very little about any types of investing. I'm not looking for something particularly conservative but maybe a little risky.

I'd really appreciate any suggestions on what I should look at, maybe what percentage of my money I should put where.

And if you have any good articles or sites I should read, please attach a link. Also, if this topic should be posted in another area, sorry. I'm obviously new here.

Thanks

I'd suggest picking a stock thats in something you have an interest and understanding in and watching it for a week or

two. When you see it go up or down, rather than just stay in the same price range, try to figure out why it moved in that

direction and use what u learned to make your move..(wall street journal..cnbc..google/finance..are some good sources

for the days info..google/finance will give you articles related to the stock when you get its quote) you need to have a

knowledge of your own no matter what. You'll also notice that news is the same from site to site so if you can find

sources that have different articles you should bookmark them. Ford

is a good pickup at this price because of this weeks sell off with the Bernanke speech and the poor jobs report. With the

amount of money you have I would buy 300 shares and look for a quick rebound if not buy more when it drops and bring

down your overall purchase price..ud be surprised at how much that could help. The problem is that the gains are still low

even with a $5k investment. If the stock goes up 10cents you only make $30 dollars and with the commissions comes out

to like $15. If you can hold on to the stock tho for 6 months or even more I think it would be worth it. Sprint is a good

little risky stock. I would wait till next week and see how it starts of on Monday. Reason I say this is because I think it can

go lower and $5.34 is a little high for it, if it was to ever drop to $5 I would jump right on, $5.20 sounds good to me tho.

HDY is also on my mind recently after seeing an interview of the CEO on Mad Money and just that alone so its just a shot

and hope it works if you want to do that. He, the CEO, was part of a few big companies before this and is trying to turn

the small company around..and according to him they are doing better.

Im 23 with few accounting and finance classes under me and will try to keep posting here..im looking to keep an eye on everyhting next week..different things on the mind this week and somewhat disappointed since I missed a big drop in the market. Dont listen to me too much just try to pick out the best ideas

Before you invest a single dime of your money, i highly suggest you visit these links
1)Trade School
2)Hot Stock Market Education Thread
3)Principals to Live by

Investing is not easy, don't think for a second you can put your money in a couple of 'good stocks' and expect to make great money.

I would suggest investing large amounts with a reputable bank that carries government insurance. Most of these programs are not insured, and are highly risky. Just my take on it.

If you want something conservative try this below, otherwise if you want to gamble money try active trading, penny stocks or Las Vegas (you will get the same results for these last 3 strategies ).

Here a more responsible way to allocate your money:

1 Diversification is the most important, you should reach the maximum efficiency (risk/reward) within around 20 stocks spread across various industries.
Otherwise you can still invest through ETF or mutual funds.

2 Allocation is also important, a typical allocation could be 40% bonds, 40% equities, 5% commodities and 5% real estate for example. But it all depends on your tolerance against risk, your age, your goal and your net worth.

3 Research is important in order not to invest in the next company going bankrupt. IT takes time but try not to rely on third party research, big company are only promoting the stocks where they have a financial interest. A lot of medium, small companies are not followed by analysts. Try to give a look at the financial statements. If you are not comfortable with it, start learning the basics.

4 Have a look at your portfolio and try to anticipate any economic change, changing regulation can impact your portfolio heavily for example.

Hi everyone. I'm pratically in the same situation in term of experience in investment area.

Early this year, I had my first purchase of shares of a mutual fund with a "balanced" profile investor. But since then, the NAV of the fund fell by more than 20%. I'm actually wondering whether I should keep the shares or sell them to mitigate the losses particularly in this euphoric context of markets.

Your opinions and suggestions would help a lot.

One more question: is there normally a threshold at which its strongly advised to sell shares when the NAV declines?

thanks!

If it is still 20% below what you bought it at then it would be best to sell it and move on. Holding on to a "bad" stock will usually end up i you losing more money and missing out on big chances. I invest primarily in penny stocks and I have a stock that has dropped from $0.75 all the way down to $0.05 just because I didn't sell it thinking that it would rebound.

There are lot of investment options available in market for investment. But only thing is you should have basic knowledge about finance Industry to understand the terms and conditions. Many people suggest to invest in share market but I think beginners should not start from the share market, so there are other assets such as insurance plans, mutual funds and commodities where you will get average returning amount with low risk.

Hey guys, I was wondering if anyone knows good travel insurance to buy? I came across travel insurance clubs to join, as a mobile phone application, on myTravelSOS? My husband and I are going to Spain for a couple of weeks this spring, and need to join one of these insurance clubs. Each one offers a great deal on travel medical and legal insurance, but I'm not sure which one to join. The cheapest one costs about 15 dollars. I googled other travel insurance, and couldn't find any that offer legal insurance as well as a virtual personal assistant. If anyone has information on cheaper travel insurance that has the same features, or if you have experience with myTravelSOS insurance and have advice for me, I would greatly appreciate it.

Commodities are in fact much more volatile than the stock market so I wouldn't classify that as low risk.

I would suggest staying away from the stock market, especially fi you're a beginner. We're in the worst market conditions ever right now, it's just too impredictable. I suggest you try currencies or futures, they have quite nice moves.

there is a specific forum for beginners with allot of guides

This post has been edited by consistent34: Apr 23 2013, 05:43 AM

Here is a timely information on the stock market.. http://ur1.ca/d2kl5
That has made thousands of dollars in profit for its readers.

the next company going bankrupt. IT takes time but try not to rely on third party research, big company are only promoting the stocks where they have a financial interest. A lot of medium