I'm 18 and I think of legal age to trade? I want to invest a small amount (As i only have $3400 to my name) like $100 and I was wondering what is the best service to use? Even if this is a small amount I'm not trying to gamble or anything I'd just like to put small amounts into a stock over time and see it grow, so that way one day I could sell it and make a few bucks off of it. I was thinking of buying ford stock because the cost is so low and they're only going to go up!
Send all of your money to Flagpole. He'll get you 20%+ returns on your money.
Really?
Who is this flagpole?
Schwab
Assuming you have a smart phone download the app Robinhood. Beginner trading platform that doesn't have trading fees. More established services will charge you $5-10 a trade and with such a small investment it would be hard for you to make any money because of that.
Do some research, invest into areas that you know or are willing to get to know.
The only place I've traded is www.coinbase.com/‎ to get bitcoin shares. I'm still at a lose and I'm thinking of giving up and just selling my stocks and putting my money somewhere different where I can invest and make lots of money. I'm also looking for a good trading service.
Robinhood wrote:
Assuming you have a smart phone download the app Robinhood. Beginner trading platform that doesn't have trading fees. More established services will charge you $5-10 a trade and with such a small investment it would be hard for you to make any money because of that.
Do some research, invest into areas that you know or are willing to get to know.
+1. Good way to get your feet wet
The Suicide Hotline
Jkh364ishw wrote:
I'm 18 and I think of legal age to trade? I want to invest a small amount (As i only have $3400 to my name) like $100 and I was wondering what is the best service to use? Even if this is a small amount I'm not trying to gamble or anything I'd just like to put small amounts into a stock over time and see it grow, so that way one day I could sell it and make a few bucks off of it. I was thinking of buying ford stock because the cost is so low and they're only going to go up!
I would suggest, as you are just starting out, not buying individual stocks but instead mutual funds. Your goal is to match the market return. Ford may not even be around in 20 years. You want to buy mutual funds (and some stocks that you really like) and just hold on to them for the next 50 years. Let's look at Exxon (XOM). 12 years ago they were trading at 93 and now they are trading at $78. So you just wasted 12 years with negative returns. Meanwhile, the other markets like the Dow, the NASDAQ and the S & P 500 have gone up around 300 to 400%. You missed out a lot owning Exxon stock. Exxon may eventually soar to new heights but your best bet is try to match the return of the overall market. This means owning small cap funds (value and growth), large cap funds (value and growth), some bonds or bond funds (but at your are you mainly want to be in equities (stocks and mutual funds), REITs, international funds (though those haven't done much in the least 10 or 15 years, etc. Again, you are simply attempting to match the return of the market. If you do that, and your portfolio manages to perform up to the historical return of the Dow (for instance) then your portfolio will manage an annual return of 10% (over the long haul and no guarantee). Some years will be better than others and some years will be down years. But, I strongly believe over the long haul your portfolio will return in the neighborhood of 10% (11% if you reinvest dividends). If you do manage a 10% return, then on average your portfolio will double every 7 years. So, if your initial $1,000 investment (on average) will double to $2,000 by the time you are 25, to $4,000 by the time your are 32, do $8,000 by the time you are 39, and so on and so on.
As far as which service, there many good ones out there. Wells Fargo, once you have $25,000 in your account, gives you 100 free trades each year (but you won't be making anywhere that many trades since you want to buy and hold), free cashier's checks and free other services. I would also highly recommend Vanguard (and Fidelity) as the fees on many of their funds are like 0.02% annually.
Don't buy stocks. Wait till you actually have a job and some money to invest. There is no point in spending such a small amount of money into the stock market to try to get 2 dollars
Socrates wrote:
Don't buy stocks. Wait till you actually have a job and some money to invest. There is no point in spending such a small amount of money into the stock market to try to get 2 dollars
^^^ this^^^ He is absolutely right. I could go on and on, but it all comes down to what he's telling you.
“Again, you are simply attempting to match the return of the market. If you do that, and your portfolio manages to perform up to the historical return of the Dow (for instance) then your portfolio will manage an annual return of 10% (over the long haul and no guarantee). Some years will be better than others and some years will be down years. But, I strongly believe over the long haul your portfolio will return in the neighborhood of 10% (11% if you reinvest dividends).”
The Dow Jones Industrial Index is only 30 stocks. The most relevant index for domestic stocks is the S&P 500. The 20 year teturn on the S&P 500 Index with reinvested dividends is 6%. So my advice to the OP is to model for lower returns. At current valuations the historical return over ten years is 0-4%.
Igy
Open up a Vanguard or Wealthfront Account . These are low to zero cost platforms that will make suggestions for what mix of stocks and bonds you should invest in based on your age and risk tolerance. If you want to buy individual stocks just for fun then I would recommend setting a couple hundred aside and opening a robin hood account that allows you to buy and sell for free. I would also recommend reading some books about investment (A Random Walk Down Wall Street is a good overview) before you just start throwing money randomly at “low cost” stocks. Value investing is not the same thing as buying cheap stocks
Thought this post was about trading socks.
Guess I’ll find someone else.
Buy ETFs. Cheaper than mutual funds.
truckdriver wrote:
Schwab
www.schwab.com
+ 1 for Schwab. I have Schwab, TDAmeritrade, and Robinhood accounts. All three have commission-free trades on stocks. Of the three, I'd recommend Schwab, plus Schwab is in the process of buying TDAmeritrade so of those two, you might as well go with the one that's going to be around and not have to relearn how to use the tools.
All three have apps. All three are commission-free trades on stocks. All three are easy to use. Robinhood is a less robust app. I opened a Robinhood account to see what all the fuss was about since it's a popular stock trading app for millennials.
I've also heard, but not confirmed, that Robinhood charges a penalty of $75 when you close the account. That might be wrong and I have no plans to close my account, but it's a concern for a small account if true.
fisky is steering you right (last poster before me). I have both Schwab and Ameritrade. Both are really good, but Schwab is in process of taking over ameritrade, as fisky said.
Best thing you can do now, from my experience, is to establish good saving practices and regularity. With time on your side, starting so early, you have a good jump on things and that can make a tremendous difference.
Best of luck to you.