How to get started investing?

I have been thinking for a while now to start investing in stocks but have no clue how and where.
While i am aware there is a chance of losing money i don't mind doing it if i can learn from my mistakes.
I have a decent capital and am willing to spend a reasonable amount of time learning.
Looking to start small and progress upwards if i can get the hang of it

Do you guys have any tips for a complete noob.

-What websites\Apps do you use?
-Any mistakes you made as a beginner?
-What is a good starting capital to learn?
-Are there any patterns, do you follow the news about company's you invest in?

All the information you can give me is greatly appreciated <3

 

isn't it a bit hit & miss? wouldn't you be better off merching bitcoin or something

 

I feel like bitcoin is completely random and can drop and rise without reason while if you invest in stocks you have to think ahead

 

btc flipping is quick and relatively safe profits (you don't really hold HUGE amounts) whereas stocks is longer term and there's more uncertainty (imo)

 

Completely false.

Try the Robinhood app on the app store. You can mess around with a few bucks in stock to get used to it.

 

Bitcoin is one of the riskiest investments you can make. This is terrible advice.

 

flip not merch ik people that run business' daily flipping btc and they make bank (they don't have $1 million in btc they just flip a smaller %)

 

They make bank because they are gambling with an extremely risky investment. More risk can lead to higher returns but it also can lead massive losses.

 

you interpreted what i said wrong, maybe you thought i meant investing $100k into btc hoping it'll rise? if so far from that

these people play with small $ks just like rsgp flipping, so if btc does tank/rise the impact on them is very minimal. they still retain the exact same profit margins regardless of the price though

 

I am not misinterpreting what you are saying. The amount they buy is irrelevant. If they bought at the spike when BTC was $1000 when it suddenly dropped they would have lost massive amounts of money. The volatility of BTC does mean you can use it to make some money with frequent transactions but you lose money on the fees and you are still risking all of your money in an investment that might be worth 1/10 of what you paid overnight.

 

well i obviously can't sway your pessimistic outlook but from what i've seen it's extremely promising

 

I'm a bit scared that you're offering advice like this. @OP, I would take his recommendations with a grain of salt. I'm going to write a brief critique and my opinion on your comments through the thread @Realist, I tend to agree with @PureAddiction and @SuF

First of all, BTC is not safe profits. BTC is very volatile and very uncertain. It's a new currency with hardly any backing and subject to hacking and what not

Secondly, stocks are not necessarily long term. There are thousands of different type of securities and derivatives. You can trade a company like netflix and expect a lot of volatility, making it a short term trade, whereas you can trade something like AT&T and expect a lot longer trades. There are two ways to trade the stock market: Fundamentally, or technically. Technically involves reading graphs and implying market sentiment. These are short term trades, you can make thousands a day and make the same spread (between the bid and ask, this is what you were describing with your BTC "flipping"). At the same time, you can lose thousands a day. Trading can be a bit safer because you generally have your stop-loses predetermined and will almost never lose more than your predetermined % on a trade. Now if you're making a high volume amount of trades a day, and you're good at what you do then on paper you should make money (fees and what not not taken into account). Now, there is also fundamental INVESTING, notice I said investing not trading. This implies a longer position on the stock. This is not taking into account market sentiment, but rather the true intristic value of the company. The theory behind this is that a company may be worth 55$ a share, but be trading at 35$ a share because of the market's sentiment. Over the long run, it should hit 55$. Warren Buffet made a fuck ton of money like this, as did others. Most famous investors operate 70% fundamentally and 30% technically. Fundamentals decide what to buy, technicals decide when to buy.

To address your comment on stock's uncertainty - that's very far from the truth. Stocks are generally companies or backed by a commodities, which are physical items and organizations that report their financial status on a quarterly basis. They're essentially as transparent as can be. How does that stimulate uncertainty? Both Bitcoin and companies are subject to news that can affect their prices, but at least companies can back up issues with actual financial data.

tl;dr you can "flip" (trade) stocks with far more certainty than you can a virtual currency. If you like currency, get into forex

Hope this helps @Alseng

 

-What websites\Apps do you use?
TDA, Wall street journal, investopedia, and seeking alpha

-Any mistakes you made as a beginner?
Let my emotions in the way too much. Write down your trade plan, and stick to it. Also, don't be afraid to get out if you've lost a couple %. You can always get back into it if it continues to drop. It's okay to take a loss if it prevents a further loss. Let me give you an example

You buy a stock at $50, it goes down to $45, which in your plan indicated that you'd sell out of the stock. It continues to drop to 40$, you can then buy in again and only need the stock to appreciate to 45$ to break even, whereas previous you'd need it to appreciate from $40 to $50

-What is a good starting capital to learn?
Thousand or two to see relevant gains, but you can learn with far smaller amounts of money

-Are there any patterns, do you follow the news about company's you invest in?
I give an entire presentation on market sentiment and the patterns they follow, both reversal and continuation patterns. This is called technical analysis, whereas news and other information about a company would fall under fundamental analysis. Both are important. So yes, follow the news of the company, follow the sector they fall under, and follow the market as whole

 

tbh my friend having friends in the business , it takes a lot of skill and patience and the few who do it well are the ones who make the big money.

 

If you don't mind almost certainly losing your money, put $1,000 into a FOREX account. You'll learn about leverage, the psychology involved in taking a position, the effect certain news events can have on the price, and it might prompt you to learn about other things.

FOREX is radically different from the equity market, but you should learn some really practical lessons. If you want to get into equity analysis, you need to understand accounting, finance, and economics. Companies prepare financial reports. To understand why the numbers are the way they are, understanding accounting is pivotal. Once you understand that, any financial analysis you do will have more meaning behind it. Finally, understanding about economics allows you to take a more broader picture view, and see how different markets interact with one another, and the opportunity costs of certain decisions the company is making as disclosed on their financial reports. Once you understand those 3 areas, the rest is business acumen and your trading/investing psychology. You could also throw math in there, but its not absolutely necessary.

There is a good analogy I like with respect to investing/trading. You wouldn't ask for a valuation of your house everyday, so why do you fixate on the share price of your company? If you invest in residential property, you are seeking capital appreciation in that asset, and perhaps rental income. So to, when you invest in a company, you are seeking capital gains re the share price, and perhaps also dividends. When determining what house to buy for the maximum capital gains (and rental income), you would look to factors such as the neighbourhood, surrounding house prices, the actual house itself, its proximity to vital services, etc. You would never look for a chart detailing the daily valuation of the house in the last year. The same thing applies to companies. How are its competitors going? What market is it in? Is the company overvalued or undervalued? Etc. You shouldn't zoom in on a chart and say that the share price has been red for 3 days, therefore it's time to buy.

Know the difference between trading and investing.

 

Not sure if it's been mentioned, but you generally don't have to learn much of what has been previously mentioned if it doesn't interest you. You can invest in a low cost index fund or ETF and pay minimal fees, and receive the average return of stocks collectively (which has historically beat other asset classes over the long run). With this method, you are effectively buying a small piece of most/all significant publicly traded companies (thus resulting in an average return minus fees). Generally, investing in an index fund/ETF is recommended for most people.

Of course - if you decide you want to pick your own investments with all or a portion of your money, you can (and may get a better or worse result than the indices).

Edit:
Index funds in general are best if investing small sums of money regularly (most people), while ETFs are better if investing large sums of money at once occasionally. If you can buy investments with no brokerage commission (not familiar with any but I have heard they are catching on in the US), then ETFs beat index funds.

 

listen to the almighty

 

Stocks are really hard, if you want to have a successful experience you should do it with an expert. What I would suggest you is Sports-Betting with some research and basic knowledge you can 6x your bank/month. Contact me if you are interested

 

Honestly, if you have literally no clue about stocks, the best way to learn is to actually buy them. Robinhood is literally stock trading for dummies and I use it sometimes. Also, don't listen to the people who tell you to put money into a FOREX account, especially since you are a beginner.

 

tl;dr - this has been asked a bunch of times and now that the search feature is working, i suggest you use it and poke around a bit. i've written some things up before and don't want to harp on previous posts

my feelings on others' posts:

this is good advice, and the points about robinhood are good too... it's a decent place to get started. you also can open a mock account on TDA and play around with thinkorswim's tools/setup without losing anything (plus it also looks badass)

like @Arcus Isidar mentioned, ETFs are a relatively safe way of investing; they beat out most other approaches and require zero effort to maintain. if you just want "to invest some money," this is your best bet for starting out.

@malakadang's post is good too, esp the bit about not checking things every day. day trading is a losing strategy for a new trader, and traders are not investors.

posts like this and realist's are just stupid. if that sort of gain was out there, you'd be making millions upon millions of dollars, not stroking your ego on a sythe new investors thread. don't kid yourself. and re: realist specifically, bitcoin is a shit investment and has always been... prices move drastically and volatility is ridiculous compared to standard equities. yeah, if you had bought a thousand btc at $0.01 ea you'd be a happy camper now, but encouraging a new investor to day-trade/flip a hot potato all day is really bad advice