Judging by the smiley you have been sucessful? Whats you strategy?
Well, I started with $50 a while ago. I only invest what I can afford at that time and I didn't have $500 or $1000 that Etrade or Scottrade required, so I found TradeKing and Have been enjoying it.
I have been successfull on most of my purchases. Once (if) GM goes back up, then I'll be good.
Stragegy? Buy low sell high
Really, I scour the listings for stocks that have had a really good reputation in the past and have had really high prices but are really hurting now, like GM and Ford. Ford has nearly quadrupled in price since purchase and is only around $4.35. Within the last year they were up way more than that. Once the economy recovers, I'm hoping the stock will recover close to where it was 2 years ago. Same with GM. Less than 2 years ago GM was over $80/share and now is selling for $1.50/share. GM may be risky, but high risk = high reward (also high loss as well
) I do look around for others that are doing poorly. Anohther good area is banking. Most banking stocks are low and just sort through the crap bank stocks to someone that has some decent potential. I'd say away from any of the banks that are going to get any government $$$. History shows anything in the private industry the govt. tries to run or control is a clusterfawk. Small town banks that hve shown about a 10 to 25% groth rate are a decent option. Once they are bought out by larger banks, the stock usually goes up and its time to sell and cash in.
BTW, read the Wall Street Journal, I do it nearly everyday and I now have a better understanding of how to make the decisions, etc. and know more about whats going on and what affects the market positive or negative, etc.
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