17 looking to start trading.

Seanf999

So me being 17 I don't know a great deal about trading (be it stocks, bonds, currencies etc) but I want to learn, I only have €250 to start with and I realise with most places I wouldn't even be allowed to open an account..
All that being said, I want to learn, I want to know as much as possible to minimize mistakes (Making mistakes is a fact of life but surely I can minimize the ones I do make)

Any help/tips on getting started? I've considering trading penny stocks as that €250 is entirely discretionary.. but I've heard of how volatile the market is and about those 'pump and dump' schemes.. Another opinion could be a trading account with fax money.. What do you think?

gene_slackman

Seanf999 wrote: »

So me being 17 I don't know a great deal about trading (be it stocks, bonds, currencies etc) but I want to learn, I only have €250 to start with and I realise with most places I wouldn't even be allowed to open an account..
All that being said, I want to learn, I want to know as much as possible to minimize mistakes (Making mistakes is a fact of life but surely I can minimize the ones I do make)

Any help/tips on getting started? I've considering trading penny stocks as that €250 is entirely discretionary.. but I've heard of how volatile the market is and about those 'pump and dump' schemes.. Another opinion could be a trading account with fax money.. What do you think?

most " penny stocks " are scams and very few make money out of them , even the price goes up , the spread is often so wide that profit is impossible to achieve

most people are no good at trading , ive been dabbling in stocks since 2010 and while i have made money , i would have made more had i simply put my money in an index etf fund on day one

contary to popular belief , its very hard to make money in the financial markets

Seanf999

gene_slackman wrote: »

most " penny stocks " are scams and very few make money out of them , even the price goes up , the spread is often so wide that profit is impossible to achieve

most people are no good at trading , ive been dabbling in stocks since 2010 and while i have made money , i would have made more had i simply put my money in an index etf fund on day one

contary to popular belief , its very hard to make money in the financial markets

So your suggestion is put it in index etf fund? Or something similar, even with my minute bit of cash?
I do have a small bit of money in the back but whether I'd be allowed access to it or whether it would be a good idea to put it into funds is another story.

arrowloopboy

E 250.00 ,17, buy some books,its the best possible investment you could make at your age:).

Seanf999

arrowloopboy wrote: »

E 250.00 ,17, buy some books,its the best possible investment you could make at your age:).

Any suggestions? I wasn't expecting to be able to do much with only €250 to be honest,

lucky john

The naked trader is a reasonable start. There's an updated version out and it gives a good introduction to trading.

Gandalph

Start up a demo account, buy a book or two, register with some other more trade oriantated forums and just spend your time learning. Find out targets for return and the risk you're willing to take before you go using real cash.

arrowloopboy

lucky john wrote: »

The naked trader is a reasonable start. There's an updated version out and it gives a good introduction to trading.

That's a very good suggestion ,for a 17yr old,as its not full of high fulitin b/s .
Trading in the zone,mark douglas
Trade your way to financial freedom ,jack swagger.
All very good books.

gene_slackman

Seanf999 wrote: »

So your suggestion is put it in index etf fund? Or something similar, even with my minute bit of cash?
I do have a small bit of money in the back but whether I'd be allowed access to it or whether it would be a good idea to put it into funds is another story.

i would not begin trading as you know little to nothing about it , you may have beginners luck but eventually you will start loosing

its much easier to loose money in the financial markets than to make it , trading is different to investing and with a small amount of funds , the cost of trading is much higher as a proportion compared to someone with over 100 k

if i was you i would put my money in a few high growth companies like facebook , they are likely to beat the market going forward for the next five years but stocks are very expensive right now , even a broad market etf may see little gains in the coming few years

banks are cheap , if you want to spread risk , id buy a basket of american financials

the following etf,s cover this sector

xlf
vfh

the following european banks are also very cheap

bnp paribas
societe generale

they are french however and while opperating globally , they may stay low due to the dismal state of the french economy

my top financial pick globally right now is citigroup , by far the cheapest american bank , id also pick AIG , the insurance giant is below BV

Seanf999

arrowloopboy wrote: »

That's a very good suggestion ,for a 17yr old,as its not full of high fulitin b/s .
Trading in the zone,mark douglas
Trade your way to financial freedom ,jack swagger.
All very good books.

Thanks I'll have a look for those books!
Thanks for setting me straight, and giving some advice

chompdown

Above advice about books and demo accounts are sound, but if you do want to go down the penny stock route, try Oxus Gold or Taipan Resources for total speculation, and a probably highly dangerous rollercoaster ride!

I find I learn more about sectors if I have something invested, even if it's a few measly euro, be it arbitration cases, oil exploration, banking etc

arrowloopboy

Seanf999 wrote: »

Thanks I'll have a look for those books!
Thanks for setting me straight, and giving some advice

Your welcome Sean ,no offence to chompdown , but disregard his suggestion about penny stocks,and spend the money on the books I suggested ,because if you jump in and the arse falls out of those pennystocks he touted ,it may leave a negative stamp in your brain:D,and if they go through the roof,you may think that this trading lark is simples,either way ,your fcuked:D:D:D.

Buy the books,and don't attempt to place a live trade till you know exactly what your doing...

chompdown

Spot on from Arrow!

For ever odd

Seanf999 wrote: »

So me being 17 I don't know a great deal about trading (be it stocks, bonds, currencies etc) but I want to learn, I only have €250 to start with and I realise with most places I wouldn't even be allowed to open an account..
All that being said, I want to learn, I want to know as much as possible to minimize mistakes (Making mistakes is a fact of life but surely I can minimize the ones I do make)

Any help/tips on getting started? I've considering trading penny stocks as that €250 is entirely discretionary.. but I've heard of how volatile the market is and about those 'pump and dump' schemes.. Another opinion could be a trading account with fax money.. What do you think?

Humility, patience and respect..... Markets, life and wife.

Enjoy learning all.

Seanf999

For ever odd wrote: »

Humility, patience and respect..... Markets, life and wife.

Enjoy learning all.

In that order?

Bruno26

First time posting in this forum. Really enjoy the threads.

I wish I started reading investment books when I was 17!

Read, earn, save!

I second The Naked Trader.

Other recommendations include:
Intelligent Investor (updated edition)
Millionaire Teacher (my favourite so far- conclusion index investing is best)
3 steps to investment success by Rory Gillen (Irish author- fantastic book covering a lot - e.g asset classes, merits of index investing etc.)
A Random Walk Down Wall St (fantastic book explaining how Wall St works and the benefits of index investing)
Money Master The Game by Tony Robbins (currently listening to this- possibly is the best of all).

The next book I intend to read is The Little Book of Common Sense Investing by John Bogle.

adr1984

does anybody know a good online broker to trade stocks not options

eeepaulo

arrowloopboy wrote: »

That's a very good suggestion ,for a 17yr old,as its not full of high fulitin b/s .
Trading in the zone,mark douglas
Trade your way to financial freedom ,jack swagger.
All very good books.

I fancy doing a bit of reading, could I just check that author, I'm finding trade your way to financial freedom by van I tharp, that right?

ballyharpat

open up a virtual trading account with yahoo or another virtual portfolio.

Pick stocks that interest you-video games, soft drinks, beer, cars.....anything that interests you, It will be easier to see when they are doing well, who their competitors are, what indicators to look out for that will impact share price.

I started with 5k, after 4 months I was down to 3k, I pulled it all and set up a virtual portfolio, I had 10k and followed the ins and outs for a year. In that time I read The intelligent investor-Benjamin Graham and A random walk down wall street. I realised, I was not good enough to be a trader, I worked too hard for my money, I was happier investing, it is nearly 10 years since I started and the market has been very good to me.

For me, it became and still is a way of life and also a long process, not a get rich quick scheme.

Morningstar can be a good website to get basic information from also, it will help you understand the terms used by investors also.

Best of luck and don't invest what you can't afford to lose, having said that, I lost high 5 figures at one time, that helped me, my life went on, I still had food on the table and a roof over my head, it meant I could keep investing and the volatility didn't knock me. I just kept my head and followed my path, it worked out well....

arrowloopboy

eeepaulo wrote: »

I fancy doing a bit of reading, could I just check that author, I'm finding trade your way to financial freedom by van I tharp, that right?

yes that's right ,my mistake:D

braddun

send it to me I can double your money in 4 weeks

arrowloopboy

braddun wrote: »

send it to me I can double your money in 4 weeks

I see you posted about 40 posts in various areas of boars in the past hour, are they all as stupid as this ?:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

scamalert

At 17 i dont think you would be able to open an account for trading,not in your name anyway.

Did forex-currency trading for over two years myself,started off with 0 experience,and can only say it was doom and gloom for the most part of it.
2 years down the road lost over 4k,accounts would be filled anywhere from 300 up to 1000e at times,and while you make cash in short term eventually you get killed margin calls,as simple reason there's 1000s brokers who would be more then happy to have you as customer and offer this and that

.But it all trickles down to leverage used,meaning if you were to buy single stock of google or whatever company you would be using leverage be it 1:2 or 1:50,and thats what kills your account eventually,since if you were to buy single stock you could probably make profit after a day maybe a year depending where it goes,and would have enough margin to cover if you were in red for long time.

Even if you got beginners luck,say you made 30e on top-brokers usually charge you between 10 to 50e to transfer cash back,if doing currency trading there's fees for having positions open daily,that starts adding up soon,unless its currency like AUD where you actually get paid to have long on currency as interest rates pay you for it.

Anyway i could write a book on how i did over the years,i pulled off stunts like turning 300 into 900 in month or so,hell turning even 50e that was sent free into 150e to cash out,and misery of having blown accounts of over 1000e in less then week or so,repeatedly.Not to mention staying awake for 14+h and waking up with alarm clocks to catch market openings and closings across the globe.

So best investment if you are willing is to invest into education-be it books-trading in the zone is really good-old fashioned and outdated but gives you mindset,also books about charts candlesticks particular-and what drives them.

As for fun you can always google forex brokers and theres at least dozen that offer free signup bonuses straight away ranging from 20e up to 50e and so,just to get a fell,also most are advanced enough to offer some stocks and index/metal options as well.

Personally been out of the game for over 3 years now,and dont intend to comeback-since realizing that only way to beat the system is have enough funds to not use any leverage,but in the same way to make money you would need at least 100k in the process of free cash,this would at least guarantee you protection and profit in the long term.Where it could be full time work,with some sort of guarantee of income at the end.

As otherwise its cat and mouse game where you actually have to put in long hours to make couple euros then see them go away,and eventually when you do make profit,its your time invested-electricity-costs of using broker certain software and result is barely break even,thats without risk and having at least 5 to 10grand,anything with leverage and one day you wake up to see yourself in red,and chewing your nails.


Since with funds below 5000e you can get only third party brokers,5000 or so gets you closer to real platform and access tier 2.

While there is this dream of get rich and fast and because someone did it,its not much different then someone choosing right numbers for euro-millions at correct time.Since every stock,currency is driven by 100s of things,be it data,someone dumping buying large,or some news announcement its guessing game.Since stocks/shares are moving slow only when quarterly or yearly results are released they have impact,where forex is fast paced and can move anywhere from couple points to few hundred in couple hours depending on whats happening around the globe or being released on the day.

All of this written can summarize as Dont invest what you cant afford to lose,never borrow,don't use leverage well not above 1:2 at most.if starting low prepare to just watch and learn for couple years,forgetting any profits,since one stock you buy might skyrocket,next one can go down and stay there for year to come.

DarkDusk

A great book I'd recommend reading is The Millionaire Fastlane. Have to say its one of the best books I've ever read. It can really change your life (and has done for many people) if you put it to good use. Not many better books a 17 year old can read to be honest.