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NanitaLuckyY
07-27-2015,
Hey everyone! I am new to this forum and this is my first post. I am 19 years old and really would like to learn a lot more about trading. I have read plenty of book and have done some trading on my dad's account as well. Well my question today is that I have opened up my own trading account. I will be starting off with $500 dollars and that is why I picked tradeking as my discount brokerage site. Their commission fee is only 4.95 per trade. So can anyone give me some ideas on what kind of trades I should be doing? Penny stocks? Blue chip companies? I am a student in college and on my free times when I am not in class or sometimes even in class I am usually on Marketwatch trading game. How would you guys start investing with only $500 dollars to start out with?

Nathan
07-28-2015,
I'm just a beginner as well but so far this is my personal take on getting started. Stay away from penny stocks. A lot of people have the attitude that they only have a little money so they need to throw it on something cheap and hope for huge gains to try and get ahead. But seriously you have better odds at many of the table games in Vegas. There are probably some viable strategies for a mini account of 500$ but you will be pretty limited. Don't be disappointed if all you get are some good lessons. Buying stocks is capital intensive therefore hard to spread around your risk much. It will be easy to get taken out on one or two bad plays. If it were me I would keep saving until I had 2500$ so I could open a margin account. This would allow for options trading which allows you to take smaller positions thereby making it possible to spread your risk around. Then I would learn how to reduce my cost basis by selling positions against each other in vertical spreads while defining my risk. With about 3000$ in capital I currently have over 25 positions in good liquid stocks. Everything from UNG to FB, DIS, YHOO, AAPL etc. Tons of information on utube for option spread trading. Good Luck and Welcome

NathanKide
07-29-2015,
Welcome...500 dollars is not much to start out with but I guess if that is all you have that is about it. That will take you quite a bit of time to get a good account to work the market. Does not give you much room for a mistake.

Natashasela
07-29-2015,
I would say don't trade or invest in anything until you have a plan. $500 into a $50/$100 stock isn't going to go far and could take years to make money from. Are you willing to just sit there and add to it over time to build a long-term account such as an IRA? Or do you want to trade small caps with potential to make 10/20% relatively quickly? So first decide what you goal is right now. Do you want to learn to actively trade or build an account of quality companies over time? Then learn a strategy based on what you want to do. You're young, you could afford to be a bit riskier, but at the same time it's never too early to start saving for retirement considering you will need multiple millions to retire well.

Couple questions, I know your only 19, but do you have any credit card debt or a car payment? Will you have student loan debt when you are finished with college? Debt is slavery these days. You will be able to save much quicker thus having more for trading/investing if you are out of debt. Just keep in mind for future if you are free and clear right now. I mean, I know nothing about you, so who knows, that $500 may be best sitting in a savings account until you can save up more as an emergency fund or to pay off future purchases. You should keep all your options open for now. Take some time to figure out what is best for YOU.

nausjexy50
07-29-2015,
Hey everyone! Thanks for the replies! Well Blaine, my plan is to invest in small cap companies and to make a good profit, I would like to do this as a career and that is why I am trying to learn. To answer your other questions, I have no debt or will I. My car is fully paid off and also got a full ride in college. I have more than $500 dollars also, I just wanted to see if I could build a profit with $500. I agree with you guys that the commissions kill your profits... But I have $1500 to invest right now. So how would you guys invest it? I would like to see a good return too. Risk is not an issue with me. I still live at home and parents support me 100%

admin
07-31-2015,
How do you find small cap stocks that have potential? Like I use google screener to find stocks in the 300M to 2B cap. So how do you do it?

nbaipikk09
07-31-2015,
Sounds like you're in a good spot.

You'll need $2,000 to open a margin account. This will give you 3 day-trades every 5 day rolling period, otherwise you can swing trade freely.

With $1500 you can have a cash account, but if you plan to day-trade it you'll have to wait 3 days for the money to settle.

Example: You buy XYZA on Monday, sell it on Monday. Then you buy ABXY on Tuesday. You wouldn't be able to sell until Thursday.

Keep this in mind. Must build a strategy around that. Today I day-traded TVIX, PTX and bought HXM, sold half, and holding half for swing trade. I mainly focus on small caps myself.