Getting into investment... Tips?

[Portmanteau]

I'm buying some shares, or at least that is my intention, with money I got for my 21st. Probably looking to start off with $400-500. Any general ideas on how to start, i.e. wrt to perhaps starting off with some phantom trading etc., what factors to look for and whatnot?

I've been studying a reasonable amount about this is in uni, but I'm sure there's a few more practical wisdom that can be passed along.

 

[fearlessone77]

WIth an amount that small your better off headin towards colonial or the like and dipping into the managed funds side of things whilst continuing to learn. You can then add a monthly amount to the inital investment and let some experts do the selsctions for now. Once you have around 10k and you feel confident then take the plunge on the real thing.

If you keep up to date with what you fund manager is doing with your managed fund you can learn quite a bit. Its the way I started and even though I now play around myself with the Share Market I still have a bit stacked away in some high risk managed funds becasue I am young enough to handle the risk and in general you come out ahead from year to year.

 

[The Rooch]

WIth an amount that small your better off headin towards colonial or the like and dipping into the managed funds side of things whilst continuing to learn. You can then add a monthly amount to the inital investment and let some experts do the selsctions for now. Once you have around 10k and you feel confident then take the plunge on the real thing.

If you keep up to date with what you fund manager is doing with your managed fund you can learn quite a bit. Its the way I started and even though I now play around myself with the Share Market I still have a bit stacked away in some high risk managed funds becasue I am young enough to handle the risk and in general you come out ahead from year to year.

how long would it take to build up to $10,000 if you started with $1000?? a high risk managed fund, how long? obviously it depends on what happens, but what sort of time frame if it goes normal.

 

[Footscray_Fan87]

just wondering

i know theres the stock market game, although that's closed atm

what phantom trading programs or at least a tallying program can i use, to keep an eye on shares i may want to buy in the future?
also, what traders do people use? someone with low fees on selling and buying shares would be choice

 

[Portmanteau]

Thanks for the advice, fearlessone. Probably sounds like a good idea to get into a managed fund before I get into some serious money.

 

[Verbeek]

I'm buying some shares, or at least that is my intention, with money I got for my 21st. Probably looking to start off with $400-500. Any general ideas on how to start, i.e. wrt to perhaps starting off with some phantom trading etc., what factors to look for and whatnot?

I've been studying a reasonable amount about this is in uni, but I'm sure there's a few more practical wisdom that can be passed along.

In my opinion, the main thing you gotta do is decide if you're gonna approach trading from a fundamental approach (ie analysis of company financial, ratios etc) or a technical approach (ie analysis of price curves).

I know it sounds a bit too theoretical but I found once I made the decision to select one of these approaches and stick to it (I'm technical thru & thru but thats not to say you should do the same. Go for whatever you feel more comfortable with), my trading improved a heck of a lot as i wasnt analysing every little thing. If you do decide to take the tech approach, I also recommend you get some software that provides you with up to date data and yes, I think backtesting is a great idea! You learn more the more you back test.

Finally, my last tip is select a few stocks and only trade them. People get carried away with having too many fingers in too many pies and eventually fack up. Personally, I would not consider more than 4-5 stocks. How you select them is up to you... ie, might wanna go for mining stocks only, banks only etc etc.

Good luck with it all!

 

[The Rooch]

In my opinion, the main thing you gotta do is decide if you're gonna approach trading from a fundamental approach (ie analysis of company financial, ratios etc) or a technical approach (ie analysis of price curves).

I know it sounds a bit too theoretical but I found once I made the decision to select one of these approaches and stick to it (I'm technical thru & thru but thats not to say you should do the same. Go for whatever you feel more comfortable with), my trading improved a heck of a lot as i wasnt analysing every little thing. If you do decide to take the tech approach, I also recommend you get some software that provides you with up to date data and yes, I think backtesting is a great idea! You learn more the more you back test.

Finally, my last tip is select a few stocks and only trade them. People get carried away with having too many fingers in too many pies and eventually fack up. Personally, I would not consider more than 4-5 stocks. How you select them is up to you... ie, might wanna go for mining stocks only, banks only etc etc.

Good luck with it all!

what sort of things do you look at in the technical analysis? where do you get all these figures from etc?

 

[Verbeek]

what sort of things do you look at in the technical analysis? where do you get all these figures from etc?

You can get price curve info from a variety of sources (Commsec is one eg) and there's a stack of stockmarket software in the market. My fave is Bourse Data.

The basic things I consider are the overall price trends, volatility of price, moving and weighted moving averages, retracement and trade volumes.

 

[Lynch drops a mark]

i would recomend an index fund over a managed fund

 

[weagles_fan]

Get some QBE Insurance and Macquarie Bank shares.

 

[lenny&carl]

I would recommend making as many investment mistakes as possible while you still have hardly any money.

 

[littleduck]

$500 isnt enough to get into the share market... you need at least $1500 to consider it.

i recommend the best investment strategy for a bloke like you is SportsTab.

the return on investment is staggering.

diversification is the key.

dont want to be wiped out in one hit.