How do I open a small stock trading account?
 

I don't know much about stocks, and I don't really find them interesting enough to study. But I know they are good to own. So I'd like to open a small account and just start buying a few here and their, by small I mean less than $500. Its a start, I'm hoping to grow it. My plan is to buy stocks from companies that I understand and like. HP, GE, Toyota, MB, Google, big blue chip companies, then hold them for a long time.

Anyone use E trade?

www.thinkorswim.com has a nifty interface but I think the minimum account is $2500.

Sixto
87 300D

You should take a class on managing risk before put any money out there.

Sixto
87 300D

TD Ameritrade is perhaps one of the cheapest FULL-service brokers. Thy're in Omaha, Nebraska........their corporate office is 2 miles from where I grew-up in Omaha. You can walk right in, and buy stock in person, if in Omaha. :)

Send them $2,500 to fund your Money Market checking account, and you're in business. You don't want a Fidelity, or some overpriced brokerage firm.

I bought my first shares of common stock from Omaha Securities, the predecessor of Ameritrade in the late '70s. Mr. Joe Rickets was a struggling broker back in the day.......now, he's a gagillionaire........founded Ameritrade. Joe drives a late '90s S500, black in color -- last time I was by there and saw him drive up. --That was 3 yrs. ago.

Today? I dumped everything in Vanguard, Valley Forge, PA. from Ameritrade in '06.

.............or subscribe to Bob Brinker's MarkeTimer taking his advice, OR, buy shares of Berkshire-Hathaway, Inc. stock -- that is all I do. It's working out real well for me.......especially the Berkshire stock.........closed today (yesterday) @ $134,940.00 a share,:eek: record high.......no tax implications/event either, 'til you sell.......the market tanks, Berkshire goes up........the market goes up.......Berkshire goes Up......it's a win-win stock. :) http://www.marketwatch.com/quotes/brk.a

Check it's history vs the S & P 500 index, since 1965........up over 22% per year average, COMPOUNDED! My portfolio is jammed-up with Berkshire stock......that ain't gonna change while I'm alive.

I am not in favor of those who trade stocks as a vehicle for "investing".

Those that buy stocks for a short term gain are gamblers, not investors.

Investing is a long-term proposition, and holding stocks or bonds for the long haul is essential for optimal returns.

Only buy stocks that you plan on holding for the forseeable future, and avoid the two major pitfalls that lead to poor returns in investors portfolios: rapid turnover and market timing.

Why don't you follow the example of Warren Buffet?

Warren Buffet is my hero and is without a doubt America’s most successful investment manager. The turnover in his portfolio is not only low, it is nearly non-existent. His philosophy is best explained in this 1996 Annual Report of Berkshire Hathaway: “Inactivity strikes us as intelligent behavior. Neither we nor most business managers would dream of feverishly trading highly-profitable subsidiaries because a small move in the Federal Reserve’s discount rate was predicated or because some wall street pundit had reversed his view on the market. Why, then, should we behave differently with our minority positions in wonderful businesses?” “…we keep most of our major holdings regardless of how they are priced relative to (current) intrinsic business value…a ‘til death do us part attitude… As investors, our reaction to money managers who trade stocks daily is much like our attitude toward space exploration. We applaud the endeavor but prefer to skip the ride. …Indeed ‘institutional investor’ is becoming one of those self-contradictions called an oxymoron, like ‘jumbo shrimp’, lady mud-wrestler’, and ‘inexpensive lawyer.’”

Simple. You don't!

Please consult a financial advisor, preferably a CFP, before you proceed. Otherwise you are doing nothing but gambling.

There's a distinction to be made between gambling and trading, both of which are separate from investing. I sure hope fund managers are trading and not gambling.

The trader's best friend is the gambler. Someone has to contribute all the money being made in the market.

IMO the key is to develop and hone a trading strategy using paper money. When your strategy consistently outperforms a solid indicator like the S&P 500, slowly edge into your trading strategy with small doses of real money. Mind you, building a successful trading strategy is more work than getting a college degree.

Sixto
87 300D

True - hence my warning after reading the first sentence of the original post!

People have zilch attention spans, is what I surmise, suginami. The masses are clueless on acheiving personal financial wealth.......

When I started buying shares of Berkshire-Hathaway stock, in the $1,000 a-share-range over two decades ago, I noticed how people involved in financial sales products, would instantly become very uncomfortable in comparing their products to my Berkshire holdings. Financial sales people (and their sheep) have nothing that can compare to Berkshire's 22%+ a year, compounded performance since 1965.:)

Berkshire-Hathaway is currently trading in the $135,000 a share range........

Don't do it, man! The only way I would advocate such an account is if I could take the specified amount of cash (in your case, $500) out of the client's pocket and burn it on my desk while he watched-and he didn't twitch. Stock accounts traded short-term are, as many have mentioned here, gambling. Get with an adviser you trust and set about building a long term, diversified, appropriate-for-you portfolio.

Open a Roth IRA at E Trade or somewhere like that. I think they will open an account with as little as $500. Then just put some of every pay check into it. Once it's in there you can invest it in any number of things, a money market fund, if nothing else. Then when you have enough there, and have a solid investment idea, you'll have the wherewithall to invest in it.

E Trade is what I have been using for some time. They have good tools for reearching companies, and they have some nice educational stuff on their site, too. Good luck with investing. Time IN the market is more beneficial than tim-ING the market. So, it sounds like you have the right idea.

If you have to ask, STOP. As someone else said get some education first.

You can loose a lot of money faster than the Colt's went down last Sunday!

It is, after all legalized gambeling. My wife is a Chfc, and even she leaves our investments to someone else.

The Doctor does not treat is own family.

John

Let me be more clear I don't think I should have used the word "trading", I have no intention of being one of those gamblers that trades every day. When I buy something I'll probably hold forever. This year I'm going to have a few hundred extra bucks, I wanted to buy some stock in big companes like say GE. Figure if I buy a little bit each year and hold it, in a few years when I actualy have money and some stock built up, I'll be able to turn everything over to a manager.

My strategy will be right out of Warren Buffett's book, because I have read his book.:D

I figure I'll be able to get a better return on my $300 buying probably some GE and HP stock, then leaving it in the bank. This will also get me in the habit of buying investments.