# First investment soon - SUGGESTIONS PLEASE!!!



## qwertyas (24 December 2007)

Hey guys,

              completely new here to investing and trading. I also have close to 0 financial knowledge but I've got some money saved up and I wish to start investing soon! Any suggestions?!

Also please suggest good books/threads/sources of information I really want to expand my financial knowledge!

p.s. Of course I'm not going to do whatever the first person in here suggests, realistically it will be about ~6months before I do anything with my saved money but I want to start planning. Total money willing to be put down is ~1k AUD.


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## ithatheekret (24 December 2007)

*Re: First investment soon- SUGGESTIONS PLEASE!!!*

Paper trade for 6 months and get in sync with the market first .


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## qwertyas (24 December 2007)

*Re: First investment soon- SUGGESTIONS PLEASE!!!*



ithatheekret said:


> Paper trade for 6 months and get in sync with the market first .




Hi thanks for the reply, what is paper trade?


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## BradK (24 December 2007)

*Re: First investment soon- SUGGESTIONS PLEASE!!!*



qwertyas said:


> Hi thanks for the reply, what is paper trade?




Paper trading is dummy trades on the market so you are no using real money. 

You 'buy' 1000 XYZ shares and 'sell' them - you will watch your 'money' go up and down, get a feel for the market without risking your money, etc. 

Cheers
Brad


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## Lucky_Country (24 December 2007)

*Re: First investment soon- SUGGESTIONS PLEASE!!!*

BHP BHP BHP
WPL WPL WPL
Strong earning riding the commodity wave reasonably sheltered from the sub prime


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## stevo (24 December 2007)

*Re: First investment soon- SUGGESTIONS PLEASE!!!*

I don't think that $1000 is enough to trade equities. Maybe look at other options to invest, such as Comsec share packs.

stevo


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## coolcricket (24 December 2007)

*Re: First investment soon- SUGGESTIONS PLEASE!!!*



stevo said:


> I don't think that $1000 is enough to trade equities. Maybe look at other options to invest, such as Comsec share packs.
> 
> stevo




Steve, minimum share parcel for a first time buyer in a certain company is $500. After an individual already owns shares in a company, there is no specified minimum amount, of course brokerage would really start to kill your profits.


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## Frank D (24 December 2007)

*Re: First investment soon- SUGGESTIONS PLEASE!!!*

_I wish to start investing soon!_

The best words spoken  INVESTING and not trading.

Always invest in the biggest financial stock in any index.

If you want to wait another 6 months, then if the Index gets down to August lows, then BUY, imo CBA.

Every year save your money and keep doing the same thing. Anytime the market gets down towards it's 3-month lows, repeat the process..

In twenty years time, you'll be on your way to being 'rich', especially when you moving into margin leading...

This is the easiest way to make any money in the market....

Never sell CBA, just keep buying it....


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## Timmy (24 December 2007)

*Re: First investment soon- SUGGESTIONS PLEASE!!!*

If you are looking at getting into the market in 6 months time then that is excellent.  It gives you 6 months to read and learn as much as you can from this site, there is plenty to learn from some really excellent posters.  Time spent wisely in this next 6 months might be your best investment ever...


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## ithatheekret (24 December 2007)

*Re: First investment soon- SUGGESTIONS PLEASE!!!*



stevo said:


> I don't think that $1000 is enough to trade equities. Maybe look at other options to invest, such as Comsec share packs.
> 
> stevo





I started with $2500.00 many moons ago Steve , it's blossomed nicely .


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## stevo (24 December 2007)

The amount required to trade is dependent on the strategies that you will use. Obviously if a buy and hold approach is considered then $1000 is probably ok, although you would have to consider the number of stocks to hold carefully. Of course the amount invested has a direct impact on the possible dollar gains!

A day trader would struggle immensely with $1,000. Brokerage as a percentage would be very high. Even with CFD's and leverage survival would be difficult - a 1% loss on a $100,000 could wipe the trader out.

As a trader $1000 is severely under-capitalised. But miracles can happen 

$500 worth of stock would attract around 4% brokerage costs, whilst a $30,000 position would attract around 0.1% - so you are 3.9% down already compared to a big trader. Multiply that out 3 or 4 times and you will start to see what you are up against.

But don't let me discourage you - in the markets opportunity abounds every week. With a lot of luck $1,000 could become $10,000, and with divine intervention it could become $100,000,000

stevo


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## jman2007 (24 December 2007)

*Re: First investment soon- SUGGESTIONS PLEASE!!!*



ithatheekret said:


> I started with $2500.00 many moons ago Steve , it's blossomed nicely .




Mate I hear you,

I also started with $2500 in a company called Arrow Energy and have never looked back.  I would highly recommend to anyone starting to do the free online courses avaliable on the Australian Stock Exchange website.  A great book is "Top Resource Stocks 2007: An Australian Investor's Guide to 100 Leading Mining, Energy, and Resource Stocks" (Paperback) written by Allan Trench, Don Pridmore and Leonard Lau.  I think the 08 edition is out now.

As far as recommending stocks to beginners, well if you have 10 different investors giving advice, you're going to get 10 different opinions.  Opinions are like a**holes, because everyone has one.  

Best for people to study up as much as they can beforehand, then you can go it alone with some degree of confidence.

jman


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## ROE (24 December 2007)

qwertyas said:


> Hey guys,
> 
> completely new here to investing and trading. I also have close to 0 financial knowledge but I've got some money saved up and I wish to start investing soon! Any suggestions?!
> 
> ...




1K isnt going to do much, you better off keep on saving until you have 10 times that amount. While you getting to the 10K, read books, paper trade to keep you busy.

If you buy equity with 1K it's not worth it as it cost you $30 bucks in brokerage which is about 3% of your capital, so stock need to move 3% for you to break even.


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## jman2007 (24 December 2007)

ROE said:


> 1K isnt going to do much, you better off keep on saving until you have 10 times that amount. While you getting to the 10K, read books, paper trade to keep you busy.
> 
> If you buy equity with 1K it's not worth it as it cost you $30 bucks in brokerage which is about 3% of your capital, so stock need to move 3% for you to break even.




I wouldn't be so sure of that,

$1000 if invested wisely can bring huge rewards.  I don't think anyone would be complaining if they'd bought $1000 worth of FMG stock when they were 25c right?...and I'm sure they wont be thinking "what the hell?!! That damned FMG that's now $55 a share cost me $30 in brokerage!!"

There are some great opportunities in the 20-30c range, saving up $10K and buying into a more expensive company don't necessarily mean you will be better off.  Timing is the essence of trading.

Different strokes for different folks I guess.

jman


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## qwertyas (25 December 2007)

Thanks everyone for your replies lots of info and opinions here! I understand that 1k is not alot of money when it comes to investing but I wanted to get a little feel for the market with real money first before jumping in with 10k. Maybe I'll wait till I can save up to 10k before moving any money in if it seems that 1k will be a bit hard but I'll keep my mind open to both options. I would of course take at least 6 months researching/learning to feel comfortable and confident before any real money it used. More so with more money.

It would be great if I could buy cheap shares. Hopefully they will grow into big ones but at the moment I don't have the technical skills to do that. But knowledge in this area seems very profitable. I will definately look into the online course and the book someone above suggested.

I've been reading the Rich Dad Poor Dad series lately and found some very eye opening approaches towards money. What are your guys thoughts and this and anyone else got any good books they would recommend? I am interested in all types of investing but have not read any books directly dealing with specific types. The Rich Dad Poor Dad series I found was more of a motivational, general approach line of books.

How do you guys keep yourself updated on how the markets are doing? Yahoo finance? Newspapers?

Thanks


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## hangseng (25 December 2007)

*Re: First investment soon- SUGGESTIONS PLEASE!!!*



qwertyas said:


> Hi thanks for the reply, what is paper trade?




Join the ASX share trading game and do it at least 4 times (that is over 2 years, I did it for 3 years).

Paper trade the high risk speccies over 12 months.

Learn your own phsychological risk profile and learn how to control your own emotions. You can and will be your own worst enemy when you first start using real money unless you do this.

http://www.yourshare.com.au/Risk_Profiler.php

Have a plan. Decide if you are a trader or investor or a mix of both.

Get some good sound financial advice (not on forums, although don't discount everything you read)

Have fun

Merry Christmas


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## Julia (25 December 2007)

qwertyas said:


> How do you guys keep yourself updated on how the markets are doing? Yahoo finance? Newspapers?
> 
> Thanks



Don't know what's available with other brokers, but E-trade have quite a lot of research available free if you use them, e.g. Eureka Report, I think about six different research resources.
"Smart Investor" has a reasonable variety of information every month, available newsagents.
I'd suggest you avoid all the "We can make you instantly profitable" type stuff which is everywhere.


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## hangseng (25 December 2007)

qwertyas said:


> Thanks everyone for your replies lots of info and opinions here! I understand that 1k is not alot of money when it comes to investing but I wanted to get a little feel for the market with real money first before jumping in with 10k. Maybe I'll wait till I can save up to 10k before moving any money in if it seems that 1k will be a bit hard but I'll keep my mind open to both options. I would of course take at least 6 months researching/learning to feel comfortable and confident before any real money it used. More so with more money.
> 
> It would be great if I could buy cheap shares. Hopefully they will grow into big ones but at the moment I don't have the technical skills to do that. But knowledge in this area seems very profitable. I will definately look into the online course and the book someone above suggested.
> 
> ...




Papers are fine but they are "old" news, i.e. it has already happened. The exception at times is broker recommendations.

Read anything from Noel Whittacker and Rich Dad Poor Dad you are already doing, an excellent start. Read closely the Rich Dad's CASHFLOW Quadrant.

Learn to carry out financial/fundamntal analysis (and to read company balance sheets) and learn closely technical analysis (charting/trends).

I also like following Marcus Padley, straight forward no bull market analysis and often hilarious.

Don't be afraid to ask questions, there is no such thing as a silly question.

Finally, never ever buy a stock that is peaking out on the charts (spikes). It will come back down and leave your money behind with it. By all means follow a solid upward trend but always be wary of buying at the top of a trend (unless you know something factual that WILL keep it going).

Don't get disallusioned if you have a few first up losses. There will be more  just make sure you above all protect your capital at all costs, even if it means taking a small loss.

Take care and good luck
Hangseng


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## Nyden (25 December 2007)

I tend to use google news with alerts - or ninemsn finances, but since I'm only invested in commodity stocks; I only really need to monitor my individual stocks, & the Kitcometals.com is my bible

Hope that makes sense, half way through the Rose' over here


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