Stock Market

[maiden_canada]

hey im wondering if anyone here invests money in the stock market and what not. im pretty interested but i don't know where to start and im looking for some websites where i could learn. any suggestions?

Thanks,
Clarke

[reverendsterlin]

a good thing to start is to just set up a little fake portfolio picking stocks that suit you and give yourself $100,000 to invest and track how your doing. Almost any of the books will give you the basics, if any of the how-to-books was really a better method everyone would switch. I never have trusted them. My own stuff is only small corps within my state that I like and a few tech stocks. I lost a chunk when some folded but over all I guess I'm mostly breaking 2.5% with what I have and of course the equity of the stocks themselves. Not great but slightly better than bank cd's.

[reverendsterlin]

oops, Wall Street Journal gives lots of info every day. oh and that daily buy/sell is not very common though some small groups have done very well on the small daily variations, mostly it's more like a savings account and if you buy blue chip your pretty much guaranteed a little profit (but remember Enron lol)

[morph]

Enron phffff Try havin you're dhares go from 450.00 US to 3.00 US now that was a kick in the pants

[morph]

ooops shares

[reverendsterlin]

yep the PITFALL, dotcom dropped me from 8k to 4k way too fast.

[Stockwell]

Yeah, I'm in the markets..have been for years.
Rather than own stock direct you can buy mutual funds. You only lose if you sell. Although techs and science probably won't hit those highs again until after I'm retired.
Best advice, go into a good mutual fund with a long term history of few loss years...they are hard to find, and as any prospectus will tell you, past history is no guarantee of future unit prices...
keep diversified, Put some in cash vehicles like money markets and bonds, and some in the more volatile equites.
Dividend funds can both yield reasonable gains while posing fairly low risk
PH&N has some good funds, but you'll need 10k to get in.
Canadians should take advantage of RSP contribution room. It's one of the few leg ups the government gives us.
Maxing your RSP room will mean a healthy refund.
I constantly hear about young people having to pay the government. This makes no sense, and is avoidable..
Max your RSP to bring your taxable income to zero, pay yourself, and get a refund.
That money will only be taxable when you retire, and at that point your marginal rate will be much lower.

[Lisa]

another thing about rrsp's is you can borrow against them to buy a house. the more you save now the better you do later.

sticking with things like bell and microsoft is a slow earner but you don't have to worry about either going bankrupt any time soon.