Posted: April 23rd, 2009 | Author: Joe | Filed under: Investing | Tags: Investing, Sponsored | 1 Comment »
It’s been a while since I’ve done any research into online brokers, but here’s a new one worth checking out: TradeMONSTER.
TradeMONSTER is an online options broker, but they also cover all the basic trades for stocks, ETFs, mutual funds and bonds. They have a heavy emphasis on providing educational resources for the customer as well.
They’re not as new as they might seem. TradeMONSTER is a subsidiary of OptionMonster and was launched in 2007. How did I miss that? Anyway, TradeMONSTER is a member of FINRA and SIPC, so you’re as insured as you can be with a broker. They also offer a PaperTRADE account to learn with virtual money – virtual investing allows you to test your methods and learn from experience without actually risking your own money and is something I am a big proponent of. They’re also socially connected – they integrate with Twitter, so you can post trade details or comment on a trade you made. They received 4 out of 5 stars from Barron’s for trade experience, usability, research amenities and portfolio report & analysis.
TradeMONSTER seems to be geared more toward options trading, or just plain trading in general. Not that I have anything against that. I’m more of a long term, buy and hold type of investor. But if you’re looking for a more active trading platform that offers a high degree of customization, then check them out.
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Posted: April 23rd, 2009 | Author: Joe | Filed under: 10 Investment Tips for Beginners, Investing, Tips | Tags: Investing, Stock Market, Tips | No Comments »
Once you’ve educated yourself and you’re feeling like you’ve got a handle on this investing thing, try our your ideas and methods in a simulator. A virtual stock market website will not only let you test your ideas – it will let you test your resolve. You may find out that after 6 months, you’ve fallen into the trap described in Investment Tips for Beginners #5 and stopped paying attention only to realize later that your fantasy portfolio is in the tank.
Here are 2 free stock market simulators I’ve used in the past:
Investopedia
Market watch
As I say, both are free and both let you create multiple portfolios with whatever amount of cash you want to play with set aside at the start. You can also compete against other investors if that’s your thing.
If you liked this, you may also like:
Jim Cramer’s 10 commandments of stock trading.
25 Investment rules from Jim Cramer.
Cramer’s Top 5 Picks for Stocks to Buy
Cramer’s Bottom 5 Picks for Stocks to Buy
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Posted: April 21st, 2009 | Author: Joe | Filed under: 10 Investment Tips for Beginners, Investing, Tips | Tags: Investing, Stock Market, Tips | 2 Comments »
Timing the market is a fool’s game. Just admit that you don’t have a crystal ball or a time machine, develop a plan and follow it. If timing the market worked, we would all buy low and sell high… but then, there wouldn’t be anyone to sell to or buy from because we would all be timing the market and we would know it was low/high and so the market would just freeze. See the fallacy of timing?
Anyway, here’s a better method: Admit you can’t time the market. You can’t possibly know all that is knowable – you’re not omnipotent. A better approach is to develop a rating scale for the stocks in your portfolio, and update them once a week. When you update them, determine what price you’d buy more and what price you’d sell. Then put your stops and limit order in place, as covered in A Simple Secret to Successful Investing.
Then you can go back to blissfully ignoring the media noise for another week.
If you liked this, you may also like:
Jim Cramer’s 10 commandments of stock trading.
25 Investment rules from Jim Cramer.
Cramer’s Top 5 Picks for Stocks to Buy
Cramer’s Bottom 5 Picks for Stocks to Buy
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Posted: April 16th, 2009 | Author: Joe | Filed under: 10 Investment Tips for Beginners, Investing, Tips | Tags: Investing, Stock Market, Tips | 3 Comments »
Here are 2 reasons hot stock tips are always bogus:
1. If the person giving you the hot tip really knew anything, they’d be guilty of insider trading for telling you – it’s illegal!
2. If the hot tip wasn’t some secret information about a specific stock, but a “system” to get rich in stocks, then the system would stop working when more people started using it.
The way to true wealth in the stock market is hard work, either by researching, practicing and learning to become a serious investor (think Warren Buffet) or by starting your own company and eventually going public and selling shares in the stock market (think Bill Gates). Everything else is largely a scam.
If you liked this, you may also like:
Jim Cramer’s 10 commandments of stock trading.
25 Investment rules from Jim Cramer.
Cramer’s Top 5 Picks for Stocks to Buy
Cramer’s Bottom 5 Picks for Stocks to Buy
Related Posts:
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