Hello everyone, I am new to stocks, I generally know what they are. From what I have learned you must be 18, however you can have parents sign forums. Everywhere I look answers vary and don't cater to my needs. I was wondering if anyone can answer what steps I can take as a 16 year old to go directly to purchasing a stock. Like for example what must I do from scratch (Banks, Brokers, Parents) to buy 1 stock from Tesla? Where do I start? I don't aspire to be the next Warren Buffet of course. I simply want to buy some stocks and see where it takes me and go from there. Start small and simple. But I have no clue where to begin. In addition would you recommend stock websites like Etrade or Scotttrade? Thank you for the feedback I appreciate it!
There is a relatively new broker in the mix aimed at the younger generation and beginners alike... They call themselves Robinhood.... It's all mobile (no website) and free trading (no commission)..... It's a good place to get your feet wet, but extremely lacking in real world trading features I started on Robinhood 4 months ago, and I'm in the process of closing my account now and moving to TD Ameritrade..... From my experience, I would recommend Robinhood as a TEMPORARY learning avenue... You can get a feel for what it's like, psychologically, to speculate with real money...... But there is nothing more to learn from their platform I don't know anything about E-Trade or the others, but TD Ameritrade is also a great platform for the novice.... They provide "paper trading", where you can trade in a real world environment with fake money... And they frequently offer "swim lessons"... Which are free live audio lessons with an intigrated chat room Also, I get where you're coming from with your comment... "everywhere I look, the answers don't cater to my needs".... This game is so vast that it can seem overwhelming at first........ My advice, soak all those answers in anyway, even if they don't fit your questions yet.... You can't put a puzzle together without all the pieces, so get them where you can first, then start to organize them later Three places you can start are: 1) Here 2) YouTube 3) Investopedia If your wheels are turning like mine were when I started, then you might find this thread useful https://stockaholics.net/threads/ho...et-in-5-steps-from-beginner-to-beginner.4514/
As for the step by step If you chose to start with Robinhood, your parents could open an account.... To be legal, let them manage it, you pick your investments, and they place the orders (someone please correct me if I got that wrong) The Robinhood accounts must be linked to a bank account... They provide all the instructions on the app... What happens is, they will make two small (10-20 cents) deposits into that account... You verify the amounts, then you're good to go Funding is easy, instant digital deposits... The app is user friendly, almost self explanatory.... Search TSLA, and click buy However I would strongly recommend two things: 1).. Learn about the order types (market, limit, stop loss, stop limit) 2).. DO NOT get Robinhood Gold
only down side to robin-hood is you cant trade pre/after hours. the market trades from around 8:00 am to 6:30 pm. The market is open from 9:30am to 4:00pm everyday but within the hours of 8:00am to 9:30am and 4:00pm to 6:30pm the market is still trading these periods are called afterhours. Most Brokerages will allow you to trade during these hours but robin hood does not. You have to be careful and cautious about what stocks your trading on Robin-hood simply because of this reason you wont be able to do anything when the market is trading after hours. When your viewing a stock on Robin-Hood it will show its (Volatility) Low. Medium, and High i believe are the levels. So if you own a HIGH Volatility stock it means that the stock is very unpredictable meaning it can go down or up very fast. Low stocks are a way more safe bet. Most HIGH Volatility stocks will be penny stocks or stocks that are cheap. For example i owned a stock that was $1.22 a share and bought a good amount of shares of it. It skyrocketed 2 days in a row i should have sold it but foolishly i kept it. Pre-Market before the market even opened during the hours you "cannot" trade on robinhood it tanked -30% percent and i had to take the losses. Which is why i really don't like Robin-Hood
@golfandstocks91 most brokerages don't do premarket trading. I can't with Schwab. It's not a really smart thing to do anyways. Premarket is too volatile. I use Robinhood rarely, and only have $500 in it. I think the commission fee that firms charge forces you to really think about your trade, where RH trades can be an impulse. Impulsive decisions rarely put out.
EXACTLY! Free trading sounds like a blessing, but it can be a curse at times That said, I think it's constructive to do stupid things when your first starting out... You're gonna screw up anyway, Robinhood lets you screw up smaller Success is something we tend not to question.. If something works, we just keep doing it until we get burned..... On the other hand, failure makes us think!.... When we fail, we analyze the crap out of it and figure out how to not do it again!
