Curious if anyone does any stock market trading?

[Prosperi-Tees]

Any good resources to figure what to do in this arena?

[Gilligan]

I use SogoTrade... $3 trades, but no frills, bells or whistles... no real hand holding but it's cheap so.. you know.

[rmonks]

I watch who is advertising on TV then buy their stock keep it a few months then sell it. Example saw Carbonite advertising on TV mid Oct. checked stock price $5.80 bought some. It is getting close to $10 will sell before end of year.

[Nation03]

I stay away from it. I work too hard to give my money to Wall Street. I know many do have success in the market, but I wouldn't jump into it without highly educating myself.

[Frog]

I'd say, first educate yourself a bit on the basics with some one like The Motely Fool http://www.fool.com/ They may even have a book available.
Then, some of the DIY brokerages offer research services. A few dollars more each trade than the bare bones folks, but I believe that Fidelity, for instance gives you access to Morningstar.

[mk162]

I have a friend that jumped in a couple years back, he seems to spend all of his free time on it.  He said he will help me get started, I need to take him up on that offer.

[Doug B]

  There are free sites that you can "play" trade on. I would do that
for a while before puting REAL money in it.

[Frog]

A lot would also have to do with what your goal is.

There are those who see it like casino gambling and seldom hold a stock for more than a week or two, and those like me who have held some for twenty years.
There are some who strictly play the buy low, sell high game, and others who are going for a steady dividend income and don't really care about great stock price gains.

I'm in it for the long term, so even the terrible crashes we have had didn't bother me, and in fact, offered some fantastic opportunities to purchase undervalued stocks.

Another way to get automatic "advice" as well as diversification is with a good mutual fund. "Good" of course, is in the eye of the beholder, and may require a little homework.

[Socalfmf]

I use ameritrade and we do very well at it...but do your research as well...i have had a few flops but overall doing pretty good...

also figure out what you want?  mutual funds ( different rules to buying ) or just plain stocks...also you have to "season" your money in the account...you cannot transfer or deposit money and expect to trade with it that day..

again do your research

oh did I mention do research on what you want to do?

sam

[Prosperi-Tees]

Yeah I am looking for the excitement of it I suppose. So Andy is right. Casino like. But I will research it much much more before jumping in. I was in a mutual fund for 6 years that really didn't do much. Didn't lose, didn't gain but it wasn't my money (per se) that was invested so I was ok with it. I want to see growth short term so my risk will be much higher.

[Ripcord]

It shouldn't be like a casino, where your odds of a gain are less than 50% and entirely based on luck.

The odds are much better in the stock market if you first learn to read the charts, decide what type of investor you are (value, growth, momentum, chart, etc.) and pay attention to the stocks you own every day, keep up with the company's financial reports and announcements etc. and be prepared to make tough decisions.

You can spend a lifetime learning about it, and I must admit it's a lot more fun during a strong bull market. I dabbled in stocks back when I had some money, and I still own individual stocks in my IRA. When I'm eventually wealthy again I plan to get back into active trading. It's a lot of fun.

[sweetts]

I have played in penny stocks on Etrade now I am looking into who pays the best  dividends and thinking looooong term investments. Here is the advice I was given: If you can't afford to loose it don't invest it. The easiest thing is pick a couple mutual funds invest in them you'll have lower exposure to risk


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