Lux Investing
can a 15 year old buy stock? if so how much do i need to invest? do i need a lot of money?
i'm looking to invest my money in stock so i can make some money. what stocks would have the fastest returns?
Public Comments
- It's never to early to start thinking about investing but it takes a fair amount of money to invest properly. Going into investing with the goal of making a quick return is no different from gambling. The goal of true investing is to make consistent returns over a period of time. The more return wanted, the more risk you need to take on. Your idea of investing is probably what is called day trading (the kind of stock traders you see on TV). However, real traders use complex mathematical models to take advantage of minute by minute swings in the market and utilize large amounts of money to captialize on 1 or 2 percent swings. If you want to really learn about investing for your future, there are plenty of books out there written for young investors. In the meantime, talk to your parents or your bank about maybe putting some money into low risk money market funds. You'll earn more than a savings account and your money will be safe. The most important thing to never do is go in with the idea that you will make huge returns. The people that attempt to make large gains quickly use complex investment vehicles that involve huge amounts of risk. People have lost billions of dollars betting on the future prices of currencies and commodities like oil or gas and have destroyed companies with bad bets. As an example, an excellent rate of return on an investment portfolio would be 15-20% per year which means on every $100 you would earn $15-$20. Note: Just to clarify, nextmove is totally correct - I didn't quite convey my message very clearly. When I said "traders" I was referring to professional day traders who do in fact utilize very complex models and make large frequent trades based on specific short term signals.(Look up the history of a company called Long Term Capital Management). Many young people I talk to are under the impression that this type of trading is investing but average investing is not nearly as glamorous. For the average investor, returns are much slower and hopefully steady. Again, nextmove is totally correct - the capital markets are very complicated so knowledge is your best asset. I did not want to imply that one would need complex models to make money in the stock markets -I only wanted to clarify the difference between large volume professional traders and average investors.
- you will NEED at least $100,000 to make anyhting worth it really if your shares goes up just 1cent you will make about the same as you would in 6 months working a dirtball job for $10 an hour in some loser factory;) be treated like a disposible pen or razor. if you dont have $100,000 you will have to lower youtrself to a scumbum job and raise at least $30,000 which will take about 6-7 years given you can work full time non stop for $10-$12 an hour and save at least 40% of what you make whcih will be hard and living on tuna rice cakes. and never doing anyhting! sad but true
- I'd have to disagree with the former post about the complex mathematical models being used. I certainly don't think you, as a 15 year old are looking to make billions of dollars in the stock market. As far as I am concerned, most retail traders and investors use technical analysis with tools which already exist. The mathematical models involved here aren't particularly difficult to understand. For a 15 year old they will be. But that doesn't mean you can't learn the purpose of them. When you're older and perhaps more tuned with the mathematical formulas maybe you'll be able to understand them. The thing is, the stock market is very, very complicated to learn about. It applies economic theory which you need to know about. So I wouldn't say it's the place to make money if you're well... not interested in the hardships of the grind to achieve any success. I'm sure the minimum age is also18.
