Just opened my first brokerage account.....

I don't have any experience with the actual buying and selling of stocks, but have gone to seminars and taken a few classes. Actually, I have limited experience with my 401K, but that's obviously a little different. Just looking for some advice, pointers, ect.

What are some of the important things I should know that cant really be taught, but actually takes real life experience.

I put 1K into an account, which wont actually be available until Mon or Tues, so some good discussion in the meantime would be greatly appreciated.

I know 1K isn't anything to write home about, but I'm just getting my feet wet.

I'm thinking i want to get into some precious metals (gold & silver), and oil. Any suggestions for where to start?

Thanks in advance, guys.

Nothing huh.....

1k is a recipe to take risk and lose it quickly.

I wouldnt touch it until you were over 2500, just keep depositing when you have the money free.

You cannot purchase what you are wanting for the ammt you deposited without the trading costs eating up too much of your investment, especially if you are wanting to trade. If you want to buy something and hold I guess you could but the ammt it would have to go up is so much to even make a reasonable return on 1k.

Great advice Wall! 

I agree with Wallstreet as well. Unfortunately greater capital is needed.

I started my first account with $3,000 many years ago, it allowed me to trade without worry of fees eating away at my bottom line.

I just wanted you to know $1,000 is a lot of money for most of us and nothing to laugh at.

I have humble beginnings and from reading many of wallstreet's posts I know he does as well.

Much like you I walked into my bank at 16 with $500 looking to get my feet wet. My father never invested a penny of what he made so I didn't have anyone to rely on for advice. 

The best advice I got was from the investment specialist who said to put that money in my savings account to avoid paying bank fees. I took an additional two years to save enough money to start investing comfortably.

I do have some advice about commodity prices, especially oil.

Everyday throughout the course of your life the price of oil affects you financially.

Oil speculation either lowers or raises this already apparent financial risk.

The idea of investing $1,000 and hoping the price of oil goes up will only hurt you in the end. As oil prices rise so does the cost of living. What gains you see through investing in oil would only be used to partially hedge that extra cost of living.

Hey Squint...I sent you a friend request.  I had some general investing questions that I was hoping you could help me with...I have a decent amount of money I would like to invest but haven't been investing since 2000.

Wallstreet- I do have 100 commission free trades with a new account, but the overall point is well taken. Perhaps, then, I should just put the money towards my car/bike loans to secure the 4.25/7.0% return respectively. Wait until those are paid off, max out my 401K, and then consider investing. I just felt that there is a lot of money to be made, with the impending volatility of the market, but 1K just isnt going to be enough to get it done.

Thank you

Renton- $1000 is a lot to me as well. Nothing that would cripple me if it were lost, but its considerable to me. I am a 24 year old who works full-time and attends college, while living on my own. My hopes were that investing money that I am saving, and not putting towards school loans yet, could be multiplied to have a larger sum when those payments do come about.

Also, great point about the oil, and I understand at the amount I am talking its negligible; but is it not a fair argument, then, to always have a stake in oil?

Thanks for taking your time, its much appreciated.

You already have a stake in oil, as oil is the driving force behind changes we experience in our cost of living. 

Investing in oil just increases what risk we are already exposed to.

Let's say you invest $1,000 in oil and prices continue to rise.

You eventually double your money, so you've made $1,000.

Within the time period that the oil took to rise you spent an additional $2,000 living life over the same period from the year before.

You made $1,000

Lost $2,000

Your investment actually cost you $1,000.

Had you not invested in oil you would have lost $2,000, so in reality you hedged your addition to cost of living with the investment.

get into forex trading. although the american brokers have cut your leverage at most places to 50-1 with 1k you can start trading mini lots until youve built up your account balance enough to trade standards. lots of advantages to forex over stocks

Your investment wouldn't have cost you 1K, the uncontrollable costs of oil cost you 2K, but your stocks in oil made you 1K.

If there was no investment in the oil, you would be down 2K, as apposed to 1K. So would it not be wise to hedge against your cost of living. Id like to have the actual numbers for % increase, and it correlation on cost of living increase and see how it breaks down, but that's irrelevant to this discussion.

I like the thought provoking comments though. I'm glad i started this thread.

It would be wise, but only if you knew the price of oil was going to rise.

On the other side of the coin, you can enhance your risk by shorting.

Ya, I said earlier that the amount in this case was negligible, but I understand what you mean.

On another note, what do you guys think are the best indicators of how a stock is going to preform? What are the more important things to look at when analyzing a stock?

Thanks guy

i hope you opened an account with TDAmeritrade

I tend to look at charting most.

P/E ratio

Earnings reports/Profitability

Analysts opinions/estimates

Institutional investors -(What mutual funds or prestigious investors are buying the stock?)

 

Those are some ideas to help you with your research. If I were you, I would def. open an account with an actual financial advisor or brokerage firm. Transaction fees are usually more expensive, but advisors are helpful and can always offer you advice and/or make recommendations. I'm pretty sure Fidelity will only talk to you if you have over 250k invested with them...and I don't think TDAmeritrade offers any help/advice whatsoever. For someone like you...someone who is not an experienced investor and has many questions...you should be with a financial advisor. Most people who open online trading account by themselves...with little experience investing...mostly do it because it is cheaper to make trades....but those people usually end up losing all their money, or at least most of it.

Franklin Gold and Precious Metals.

Symbol: FGADX