Money Forum World

Diana English · Joined: 08 Nov 2007 Posts: 2158

College Student from the Philippines going to invest in stocks. How do I start?
Hi. Im a junior student in the Ateneo de Manila University and was thinking of investing in stocks. I can create the capital but I dont know how much. Then theres the matter of to get a good broker and the investing act itself. I dont know how or where to start. help.

Clifford Benton · Joined: 08 Nov 2007 Posts: 2111

You will need some good books on investing.

For purchasing individual stocks, check out

The Morningstar book The five Rules for Successful Stock Investing, by Pat Dorsey,
All About Stocks, by Esme Faerber

For Mutual money, check out:

Mutual money for Dummies, by Eric Tyson
invest for retirement.com for a free downloadable book
The Bogleheads Guide to Investing

The 1st step in investing is to define your needs. What do you want to invest for? The second step is then to define your time horizon depending on this goal. How long till you need the money? Doing these two simple steps will assist find out what to invest in and how much risk to take. Dont just put your money in an random investment just so you may be able to say that you invest. Make your money work towards some goal.

If your time horizon is short, you'll have to remain conservative and stick with money market accounts or bond mutual money. If your time horizon is longer seven years or longer, as an example you may be able to then use a mixture of stock and bond mutual money.

For good, low cost mutual money, I propose vanguard.com or fidelity.com

Barbra Bentley · Joined: 08 Nov 2007 Posts: 2116

There are lots of online investment brokers. I use TD Ameritrade, but Ive heard that eTrade is good, Scottrade, and I also use Fidelity.com because they have a great web site.

Try The Motley Fools web site and discussion board, its a great place for any level of investment specialty.

Figure on paying around $10 per trade TD Ameritrade charges this . Since you're investing cash as opposed to a 401K, which doesnt get taxes on short term gains you'll most likely do better with lasting investment, although I have had great success using mechanical formulas you may be able to learn about them at mechanicalinvestorthe/ and backtestthe/

If you're going to be trading short term holding less than a year commissions will eat up most of your profits unless you invest at least $2000 in each trade.

Its better to pretend invest for a while, till proved that you may make money at it. Create portfolios for yourself using different schemes and see which one does the best for you. Keep at it. Learn all you may be able to. By the time you get out of college and start earning enough money to seriously invest, youll be prepared.