Who to Trust: Where to Invest Your Money Online

Sun, 28 Mar 2010 03:45:26 +0000

When it comes to stock market investing, so many of us want to manage our own accounts on our own terms. To do this, we turn to investing with an online broker. Obviously this raises concerns about safety, as well as affordability. This begs the question: What online brokers should I trust and invest with?

Many online brokers are available, but no two are alike. Many of them advertise on other websites, and have such pitch lines as: 100 free trades, 4 dollar trades, and $1.95 options contracts. These sells lines are good for drawing business in, but they do not tell the whole story. For instance, the 4 dollar trades line is the headline of many sharebuilder or ing direct ads. This company does in fact offer 4 dollar trades but only if they are not real time trades. Real time trades, which are trades executed the moment you place them, run a standard rate of $9.95 on sharebuilder.

Also, anytime you sell your position on sharebuilder, you will be charged the base rate of $9.95. The 4 dollar rate applies to trade that are made in advance or set up to occur in the future. When trading in this manner, you may not get the stock at the price you want. However, overall sharebuilder is a fine site for the beginning investor or infrequent trader.

Other online investment sites such as e-trade.com are better geared towards the more experienced trader. The technology behind e-trade is for those who understand advanced Wall Street jargon. E-trade is also designed in general to be used by day traders, or those who trade in and out of stocks on a very frequent basis. They are the site well known for ads reading “100 free trades”. This offer of 100 free trades is applied to accounts that sign up others to the e-trade site. In other words, you have to work to get your free trades. E-trade is a better choice for those who are well experienced in the ways of Wall Street.

These are just two of the online investment sites, however these stock tips should give you a good idea of the variety on the web. As a general rule, investors should use websites that are well known, such as the two mentioned above. Searching for the best possible trading price may lead you to scam sites, and this should be avoided at all costs.

Cheap Stocks – What You Should Look For

Sat, 27 Mar 2010 18:58:27 +0000

Everyone is looking to make a killing in the stock market. Bad investors run from fad to fad, or take stock tips from anybody and everybody. They look for the next hot thing to throw their money at. To be a successful investor, you need a good solid strategy. This article will be looking at how to buy cheap stocks.

What exactly is a cheap stock? Cheap doesn’t just mean that the trading price of the stock is cheap. That is criteria we will look at, but not the only one. Stocks valued at $100 or $200 can be called cheap if they meet certain conditions. You could even call Berkshire Hathaway cheap last year when it fell from a high of $140,000 a share down to about $75,000 a share in 2009. It has since rallied to over $120,000 a share since. Why would have been deemed cheap? The underlying businesses that make up Berkshire Hathaway were still fundamentally sound and throwing off cash. The stock tanked due to investors being afraid of the economic situation last year.

So that is one thing we are looking for. Stocks that are in good shape whose share prices are taken down, but the business is still good and profitable. It’s tough to invest in a scenario like that, buying when everything looks bleak, but if you are able to, you can make a lot of money. Warren Buffett has said he likes to be greedy when others are fearful and fearful when others are greedy.

Let’s use Warren Buffett for another example. Early in his investment career, he found a stock trading for about $45 a share. This was back in the early 1960”s and $45 a share was a lot of money then. Just based on the trading price of the stock, you might have concluded it wasn’t cheap. What Buffett would do is to closely exam the assets of companies. He discovered this $45 stock had over $65 a share in cash and liquid investments! Imagine buying something worth $65 for $45. That would be a classic example of finding a cheap stock.

These are just 2 examples of looking for the best cheap stocks. They are out there, its up to you to research and uncover them.

Beginner Investing » stock tips

Who to Trust: Where to Invest Your Money Online

Related posts

Cheap Stocks – What You Should Look For

Related posts