Can someone explain the stock market to me?

Go rent Wall Street.

 

Its like any market but much more sophisticated.

You buy and sell products that are financial products, stocks from companies ( like GM, ATT , GOOGLE etc..) but also gold, rice , oil , foreign currencies ...You make money by selling at more than you bought.

 

Buy through a broker. You sell the stock at a lower price than you paid for it, the broker makes his buy/sell commissions and you go broke.

It's as simple as that!

 

Yes

 

The good part is whether you make money or lose money,

Duke and Duke get the commissions........

 

as what ? Any joe can buy stocks . But you need to approved by the Stock market authorities to sell specific financial products .

 

I've made hundreds of thousands and I've lost hundreds of thousands. The trick is to make more than you lose so, over the years, I am on the plus side.

Before you jump in with both feet, do some paper trading first over a few months and see how you do. Keep your money in the bank until you know what you're doing!

 

Paper trading is trading an imaginary account. You do it on your own and don't use real money; in other words, just do it on paper and see how you come out in the end.

"What's a good amount of money to start with?" Answer: An amount of money you can afford to lose!

 

Good choice lad, helping others is admirable. Concentrate on what lifes work will fulfill you the most, not on how much money you'll make.

 

There are plenty of free stock market games around the internet, you get some fake cash and spend it and see how much money you make in a month. Great learning experience.

 

Great movie and the one I thought of when I read this thread, well after Wall street of course
best I could find go to 7:30 and watch from there
http://youtube.com/watch?v=NSpLuJEYgEw

 

This is a great bit of advice.

 

This guy has some good info. http://youtube.com/watch?v=5xfpVSSzeY0

The biggest thing is knowledge and information. Start reading Forbes, Wall Street Journal, watch Fast Money on Cnbc, want a good laugh watch Krammer. Information is key to smart investing.

 

We have a few exchanges in Chicago with education centers. Go check one of them out--Chicago Board of Trade, Options Exchange, Stock Exchange...

 

There is so much to learn, it can take years. Since you're 18, I'll assume you're going to college. Once you're able, take a finance class that focuses soley on the stock market.

I have a basic understanding of the stock market, as I dabble a bit. My prof always had a bizarre look on his face whenever I'd ask a question. Usually it would involved more detailed info about what we were discussing. I think he thought it was strange I knew more than most others in the class.

 

Boris,

I'm currently selling all the toys to invest in the stock exchange. My girlfriend is a fund manager and her father has been extremely succesful for many years. Its all about who you know, keeping you ears open and reading a lot. Anyway given my girlfriends tips, I have been paper trading since February and invested £40k, my overlall return is around 25% which i find phenomenal so £10k in 3 months suits me fine. Its full of ups and downs but thats the fun. One of the companies I invested in has increased 150% in those three months.

Cant wait to start the real thing.

Matthew

 

Wow, 150% in 3 months is a very nice return! Good luck to you.

As I'm looking to switch careers, I'm becoming more interested in doing something with stocks/investments.

 

In fact I'm talking crap, that company was only bought 1 month ago, I got a call in the morning telling me to buy, I have just watched it steadily increase since then, its quite a buzz watching a number get higher and higher and higher. All others were bought between February and April.

I'm a bit "ants in pants" though but we'll see what happens

 

LOL, well regardless, it's still nice. It does make you antsy when you continue to see the number climbing. It's tough to decide which company to be in a for a while, and when to sell after a short time.