stocks

Originally Posted by The Wise Vivi

Joining up with stable stocks for starters is a good idea. Also, to get some experience, buy some penny stocks. Generally, what can happen is you buy like a few thousand shares for .12 cents a share, it goes up to .24 or a little higher, and you sell. Something small to start out. I have a friend of mine who put in about $1 000 worth of penny stocks, and has made over $2 000 in about a year. Its not the biggest return, but its a good start.

This is by far the worst advice I've ever heard. Penny stocks aren't especially known for being too stable and their high volatility means that you could get incredible returns, but more often than not, lose all of your money. Gambling in Vegas gives you a better rate of return than penny stocks.

If you want to get some practice, go to sites like Investopedia where they have a stock simulator you can play around with. It allows you to trade stocks and options without ever needing to shell out your own money so you can see how well you do hypothetically.

Also, I'd second YeOldeButchere's choice of investment literature as well as putting forth my recommendation of Burton Malkiel's A Random Walk on Wall Street.

Also, to go slightly off topic, is anyone interested in setting up a GFF portfolio game on Investopedia?

Jam it back in, in the dark.