I have no background in business and investments and frankly am competitive ignorant on the subject. I would like "an idiots guide" or "pretend I'm a teenager" to understanding stocks and different options and how to learn about short term investments to gain capital on the side.
There are myriad resources out there and I am rather inversion which would be best way to speak learning this subject. I thought perhaps, some of you fine folks on BBI might be kind enough to recommend the favoirite resource a sorry Tyro such as myself.
Should i take a online course or is there a specific youtuber etc? Thanks again
Gold would be worthless if there wasn't a market for it.
A stock would be worthless if there wasn't a market for it.
Real estate would be worthless if there wasn't a market for it.
etc.
Marketwatch.com
Finance.Yahoo.com
to name a few
Investing is not about beating the market. It's about participating in the market. It's not timing the market, it's time in the market.
You are leveraging two things:
- You are participating in capitalism. Your capital plus somebody else's labor equals profit (more capital).
- The beauty of compound interest.
Buy companies at a fair price and participate in their success.
Anyway, that's just a long term view and one opinion. Not dissuading you from finding growth opportunities you believe in, just giving the balanced view.
Contribute in a regular way, no matter what the market is doing. You will buy fewer shares when they are high, and more when they are low, so called dollar cost averaging.
Do not withdraw or fail to invest when the market looks scary. Most of your gains will be on the few days where the market makes leaps and you can’t predict that.
Set it up on auto deposit and fire and forget.
Or are you looking to put some money aside now with the expectation it won't be touched for at least a decade?
Contribute in a regular way, no matter what the market is doing. You will buy fewer shares when they are high, and more when they are low, so called dollar cost averaging.
Do not withdraw or fail to invest when the market looks scary. Most of your gains will be on the few days where the market makes leaps and you can’t predict that.
Set it up on auto deposit and fire and forget.
You're getting some pretty good advice right there. Don't try to pick any individual stocks -- start by investing in the broad market. Check out SPY or IWM or IWF, for example.
Do you have an IRA or 401K at work ? Dodging taxes is fun !
How old are you ? What's your time horizon ?
MarketWatch is a good site to track the action. Follow the interaction between the Fed's Interest Rates and overall stock market moves.
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Some do. My daughter had one in her high school. More budgeting than investing.
As you age your risk tolerance may change and your desire to better understand what your investing in may be more important.
Now, I'm mostly out of the market and into real estate, rentals, etc. Some people are into gold, silver, etc.
But as others said...start with understanding budgets, your credit and credit scores, etc.
I'll add a link to Dave Ramsey who most may know talks about budgets and paying off debt, etc.
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Contribute in a regular way, no matter what the market is doing. You will buy fewer shares when they are high, and more when they are low, so called dollar cost averaging.
Do not withdraw or fail to invest when the market looks scary. Most of your gains will be on the few days where the market makes leaps and you can’t predict that.
Set it up on auto deposit and fire and forget.
Murphy - Technical analysis of the futures market. Applies to stocks also.
Natenberg - Options Volitility and Pricing Strategies.
I second this. Explicitly written for the young adult who knows nothing about investing.
The good news is, if all you want is a road map to a retirement where you won't being eating Fancy Feast three meals a day, you only need to know about 5% of everything there is to know. The rest you can safely ignore. "A Simple Path To Wealth" teaches you that 5%.
2. Structures start with a foundation. The foundation is the S&P 500. These are "large cap" stocks. Invest in an index fund (IVV, VOO, et cetera) that exactly matches S&P 500 movement. Over decades, very little consistently beats the S&P 500. I also like SPHQ. It tracks an S&P 500 "quality" index.
3. Don't neglect the "mid cap" stocks. Find a good fund. I like XMHQ.
4. Identify a hedge against these. I use 2 hedges, cash (and equivalents) and high-yield dividend funds. Many people recommend "asset allocation funds", nothing wrong with that, I prefer my approach.
5. Cash was a foolish investment for a long time. Now it is easy to secure a 5% or more return. It's a good hedge. I keep money markets and 3 month CDs (5.25 to 5.3% now).
6. The high-yield dividend funds I like are FDVV, VYM, and VIG. My father did very well in a mutual fund VDIGX.
7. Notice I don't mention any specific equities. Use the funds, they are very easy. You will save yourself a lot of angst.
8. Figure out a target cash percentage. For me, right now I want 20 to 25% in cash. Figure out what works for you and stick to it.
9. Split it up. Figure out what works for you.
I do something like this:
10% "Play" money; have some fun in the market!
20% Cash
30% S&P 500
30% Hedge, high yield dividend funds
10% Mid cap
I'm 62 years old and I'm retired. Save, save, save. Buy a home. Invest with intention. Reinvest those dividends.
Don't be flaky. The returns over time are amazing! And retirement is unbelievably awesome!
If you want to focus on sectors, I suggest Energy, Pharmaceutical, and Defense. These are in my 10% "play" money. Energy is a sort of hedge, and it can beat the S&P 500. FENY and VDE are two energy funds that I hold. Pharma is an interesting sector and I know a little about it. I have a Fidelity mutual fund that is pharma-only. Pharma can beat the S&P 500. Defense might be a good bet over the next couple of years, given the global situation and the impact on the defense market.
Don't wait. Wait for what?