Posted: 1/30/2009 11:00:26 AM EDT
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Scotttrade, Ameritrade, other?
Time to move around some retirement money. BUY LOW SELL HIGH I have no defined long term or short term goals, so any help is much appreciated. 
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Quoted:
Scotttrade, Ameritrade, other? I won't disclose many more details but I have been entrusted with 1.5k or so to drop into some stocks, and I am thinking that the time has never been more good with everything as bad as it is to BUY LOW SELL HIGH I have no defined long term or short term goals, so any help is much appreciated. Other. Put your money back in your pocket. Right now isn't the best time to begin your stock trading career. |
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Quoted: Scotttrade, Ameritrade, other? I won't disclose many more details but I have been entrusted with 1.5k or so to drop into some stocks, and I am thinking that the time has never been more good with everything as bad as it is to BUY LOW SELL HIGH I have no defined long term or short term goals, so any help is much appreciated. LOW!!! I promise you this market is no where near bottom. I might short the market at this juncture. |
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1,500 isn't enough to "buy stocks". For that little, you should be thinking in terms of mutual funds.
Well, you "should" be IF this were a normal time. Right now, the market is still so fucked you may as well just fly to New York and give it to an investment banker as a bonus. Save yourself the heartache of watching it evaporate over the next year or three. Shorting the market is a good idea right now, but again, you've got too little money to play that game. |
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Quoted:
Scotttrade, Ameritrade, other? I won't disclose many more details but I have been entrusted with 1.5k or so to drop into some stocks, and I am thinking that the time has never been more good with everything as bad as it is to BUY LOW SELL HIGH I have no defined long term or short term goals, so any help is much appreciated. On the one hand, you have to learn sometime. On the other hand, now isn't a good time. What makes you think we are anywhere near a bottom in the stock market? Do you think all the bad news has finally worked its way through the system? Do you think the repercussions of nearly 100k announced layoffs this week have completely made themselves felt? Do you think all the level 3 paper being held by the banks has finally been marked to a fair value? What is your macroeconomic "big picture" reason for wanting to invest in stocks now? Or, maybe you have some targeted stocks in mind; specific bets you want to make regardless of the general direction of the market? Anyway, I've been happy with Ameritrade for my brokerage, but I've been with them (or their predecessor) for years and haven't had a reason to shop around. If you don't need a high level of service, zecco.com lets you trade with no commissions altogether. Can't get much cheaper than that. |
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Scotttrade, Ameritrade, other? I won't disclose many more details but I have been entrusted with 1.5k or so to drop into some stocks, and I am thinking that the time has never been more good with everything as bad as it is to BUY LOW SELL HIGH I have no defined long term or short term goals, so any help is much appreciated. Other. Put your money back in your pocket. Right now isn't the best time to begin your stock trading career. Well put. Number one, I don't feel the market is anywhere near the bottom. Secondly, 1.5 k is far too little to invest in individual stocks. When the time comes a mutual fund would be more in line with that amount of money. Sit tight grasshopper. |
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I couldn't disagree more with most of you guys.
1.5k is plenty for a little investment. When we're talking like 7 bucks a trade, why is 1.5k not enough money to get started? I just don't get the logic. Tell me WHY 1.5k isn't enough. The brokerage fee of 7 bucks is hardly worth talking about. Sure, it doesn't make sense to get in with 100 bucks, but you guys just aren't making sense. Nor do I agree with the argument that he should be investing in mutual funds instead of stocks due to the size of his investments, again. Not much logic there either. If you want to say 'invest in mutual funds instead of stocks period' thats fine, but the amount of his investment has nothing to do with it. In fact, I would argue that if he were going to invest a much larger chunk, maybe he should look at mutual funds, or if he is wanting to have an immediately diverse stock portfolio, look at mutual funds. But if you wanna pick up say $750 in two companies, or $1500 in one. Thats your call. Because you're "only" investing 1.5k it doesn't mean you should invest in mutual funds, and it certainly isn't "not enough". With that being said, it may drop more, it may not. No one here knows how low it will go, or when it will rebound. If they did, they wouldn't be talking finances on ARFCOM. They'd prob be sitting on some tropical island right now with a drink in their hand. Or maybe considering the audience shooting up a SAW SMG since they could afford a Class III license, the piece and the ammo. If you want cheap trades and you're not looking for advice from the web-site, the two you mentioned are good, and i use firstrade - its absolutely no frills at all, but the trades are the cheapest you can find - pm me if you want me to send you a referral for it, i think you'll get a free trade or two or something if you're referred. My only advice would be to research the heck out of the companies you're going to invest in. Be sure to read what the 'experts' are saying about it, see what the MorningStar rating is on it. PM me with your e-mail addy if you want a referral. Will be glad to do it for a fellow arfcommer. |
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I just started investing on my own in October. I was up $250.00 on fools rallies (with a total of $2,200.00 invested out of my pocket)
Now I am down $40.00 from my initial investment. I'm getting ready to buy a house so I will hold on just a little longer and then pull out. Real estate is where it's at now. Not only are houses cheap, but more people are looking to rent. It's a win-win situation. You can totally cash flow a rental property...add an asset for nothing. eta, I use scottrade, but I have no expierience with any other. scottrade does what I need. |
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I just started investing on my own in October. I was up $250.00 on fools rallies (with a total of $2,200.00 invested out of my pocket) Now I am down $40.00 from my initial investment. I'm getting ready to buy a house so I will hold on just a little longer and then pull out. Real estate is where it's at now. Not only are houses cheap, but more people are looking to rent. It's a win-win situation. You can totally cash flow a rental property...add an asset for nothing. eta, I use scottrade, but I have no expierience with any other. scottrade does what I need. i have noticed a few houses in birmingham are selling for 1900 to 2500 dollars. real fixer uppers. |
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First, invest in knowledge. Visit your local library and educate yourself before doing anything. You can always park the money in a savings account while you conduct your research.
You mentioned that you do not have any defined goals. Well, you need to change that before you give anyone (any company or broker) your money. Do your homework and develop an Investment Policy Statement (IPS) with your goals and desired execution plan then, start investing. "The Four Pillars of Investing" by William Bernstein is a great start. Good luck. |
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Quoted:
I couldn't disagree more with most of you guys. 1.5k is plenty for a little investment. When we're talking like 7 bucks a trade, why is 1.5k not enough money to get started? I agree with you that $1500 is plenty to get started. My caution is that the market today isn't ideal for a beginner to get started in. But we all have to learn sometime, and as long as he doesn't go out on margin his "learning costs" are limited to $1500. |
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Quoted:
I couldn't disagree more with most of you guys. 1.5k is plenty for a little investment. When we're talking like 7 bucks a trade, why is 1.5k not enough money to get started? I just don't get the logic. Tell me WHY 1.5k isn't enough. The brokerage fee of 7 bucks is hardly worth talking about. Sure, it doesn't make sense to get in with 100 bucks, but you guys just aren't making sense. Nor do I agree with the argument that he should be investing in mutual funds instead of stocks due to the size of his investments, again. Not much logic there either. If you want to say 'invest in mutual funds instead of stocks period' thats fine, but the amount of his investment has nothing to do with it. He wrote "stocks". That implies plural. $1,500 is 100 shares of a single stock trading in the low double digits. Or he could get 400 shares of Citigroup if he really wants to lose it all. Or he could buy into some of the penny stock scams like the Chinese jade jewelry company that keeps spamming me, or one of those "solar energy" outfits that is jumping on the bandwagon with no product, no supply chain, just some cool-sounding idea that they paid to have printed up as marketing brochures. $1,500 is not enough money to get some diverse holdings. Hence mutual funds, if he's dumb enough to go long on anything at this moment. Maybe the Prudent Bear fund will do ok. He could get fifteen shares of GLD (maybe sixteen depending on commissions). Quoted:
In fact, I would argue that if he were going to invest a much larger chunk, maybe he should look at mutual funds, or if he is wanting to have an immediately diverse stock portfolio, look at mutual funds. But if you wanna pick up say $750 in two companies, or $1500 in one. Thats your call. Because you're "only" investing 1.5k it doesn't mean you should invest in mutual funds, and it certainly isn't "not enough". You must be a gambler, since you don't seem to understand the basic concept of diversification of holdings. In fact, maybe things have changed, but the last few mutual funds I put money into, three or four years ago, had $2000 minimums, so he wouldn't even be able to buy into them. Maybe the mutual-fund companies have reduced their minimums since the market got cut in half. Quoted:
With that being said, it may drop more, it may not. No one here knows how low it will go, or when it will rebound. If they did, they wouldn't be talking finances on ARFCOM. They'd prob be sitting on some tropical island right now with a drink in their hand. Or maybe considering the audience shooting up a SAW SMG since they could afford a Class III license, the piece and the ammo. One of the more retarded and pollyanna-ish comments I've ever seen. Take a look outside of AR15.com some time, on some financial websites, boards, and blogs. You don't even have to get off the couch and climb out of your mom's basement, you can do it from the comfort of your own computer screen. It's not just the U.S., the global economy is taking a shit, and stock markets everywhere are falling, with individual companies dropping like flies. I've made good money shorting Citigroup, Countrywide, and a few others. It's almost made up for the losses on the emerging-markets mutual funds that I held onto, thinking that the U.S. economy was going to be the worst hit and that the rest of the world would pick up some of the slack. I'm not going to be guzzling margaritas on the beach any time soon, but I'm down less than 5% on my holdings since the Dow 14,000 peak, and that ain't bad. |