Basic Investing Strategies For First Time Investors

By Piper Marchon

The way you buy stocks has changed a lot in the last 10 years. It used to be that you had to find and contact a broker, probably go into their office in your city, open an account, and then arrange to have funds transferred. Every time you wanted to buy or sell a stock, you had to pick up the phone and tell you broker what you wanted to have done. Actually meeting up with someone and having to call them to make trades might have been a bit intimidating for a beginner.

Now with the Internet however, how to buy stocks for beginners has gotten extremely easy. Everything can be done through the computer and you most likely will never have to speak to anyone. You can choose a brokerage and open up an account online, send in the money via snail mail or wire transfer, and then make trades all day long by just pushing buttons on your computer. No human contact is ever necessary which makes it less intimidating for someone who is new to investing to get started.

Where can a novice investor go to learn how to buy stocks and how the market works? There are many books in the library that will explain all the terms and principles and you can also do a lot of research online. Watching investment television programs would probably not be a great idea because all those "gurus" seem to want to do is give you their stock picks that are dubious at best.

After having done some research and learning a little about stock market basics, you might want to pick a stock and buy it. There is no education quite like the real thing and buying a stock will help you get your feet wet and see what it is all about. After buying your stock you can then do some more learning in preparation for your next purchase.

Although the market is down right now and it is usually best to buy stocks when they are low, you still might not want to jump in just yet. The economy is worse off than at any time in recent memory and it could be headed back down even further. In this kind of a bear market, things are so bad that all stocks will go down even if they are of companies that are doing well. It might be best to hold on and wait things out a little while until the picture becomes clearer and things start to turn around in earnest. It is best to be cautious in this kind of a bear market, especially if you are a beginner. - 23208

About the Author:

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