High Schooler looking to get into the stock market?

[Jumbo J]

Hi, I'm in High School (junior), and I've heard of many other students (whom I don't know) have been trading a little investment in the stock market.

I'd like to know if any one has any experience setting up an account to trade with, and how I might be able to get started. Thanks!

[A Nobody]

I started in grade school, so I understand where you're at But in North American you must be 18 years of age to open an account in your name. You'll need a parent to open a custodian account using your social security number. When you turn 18, the assets in the account can be moved to an account in your name

Before you enter into any transaction, you should know what you are doing, why you are doing it and how to do it. Before you invest in any security, the first investment you should make is in yourself, and the best investment you can make is by educating yourself.
Start your education by learning why you should invest and the importance of being able to make your own decisions or how the pro’s make theirs.

Here is some reading material that can get you started in the right direction,
What Works on Wall Street by James O'Shaunessey
Beating the Street by Peter Lynch
One Up on Wall Street by Peter Lynch
The Warren Buffett Way by Robert Hagstrom
How to Make Money in Stocks” by William O’Neil
24 Essential Lessons for Investment Success by William O’Neil

Get into the habit of making daily visits to some websites like MSN Money and Yahoo Finance. (http://finance.yahoo.com/ )

While at MSN following the strategy lab analysts to get a feel for what the pros are doing and why. This site has some basic information for beginners. If any site offers free information, take it.

Other website that can provide instructions and help with procedures and terminology are
Investopedia - http://stockcharts.com/
http://www.tradingstocksguide.com/trading-stocks/

Visit some of the more professional websites like Zacks - http://www.zacks.com/
Smart Money - http://www.schaeffersresearch.com/
Some of these web sites will have advertisers who are worth looking into also. And remember, if they offer free information, get it.

Attend all the free seminars you can, just be careful and don’t get pressured into anything you really don’t want or need. Most schools offer courses in finance and economics, but very few will have courses on the mechanics of the investment markets, if they do try taking the course. You may want to consider on-line courses, the New York Institute of Finance use to have such courses. Try to get some fee information from the stocks exchanges they all have (had) free booklets, SIAC and some of the regulators (FINRA SEC MSRB CBOE) may provide some free literature.

You at least have made the right decision to start investing, this is the first big step and it won’t be your last. Keep taking those steps forward and along the way never take the advice from people that are not in the market or try to tell you not to invest.
Nothing in life comes easy, learning to invest/trade is hard work but it can be very rewarding.

Good luck on your journey

[betotron]

scottrade.com

they will help you

[betotron]

You will not be able to open a trading/brokerage acct with any of the major investment firms. They offer custodial acct's like UTMA's but they are not allowed to give the minor authority to trade. Some banks offer a minor trading acct but they usually don't have great tools, cust support, even real-time quotes. The difference is banks are regulated by different bodies than investment firms.

[Al Jeezy]

Hey man, good luck with everything, and the earlier you start the better off you will be. I'm in my twenties and have finally started buying stock. I had wanted to since I was about 12 years old and saw the movie Boiler Room, now, 8 years later wish I had started back then. Some of the most common stock tickers I see are ones I said back before my teen years that I wish my parents would get me for Christmas - AMAT, Google, Boeing. They have all gone up significantly since when I looked at them over a half a decade ago, and if I had acted then, or if my parents hadn't been such bleeding heart liberals that didn't understand the logic of investing, I would very possibly be sitting on a nice amount of assets right now.

So, to get to your point. If you are 15-17, a junior in high school, you must have a joint brokerage account with someone. The FEDERAL Minimum is 18. If you're younger than that, someone else must be on the account with you. I live in a state which has what's called a "Maturation Age" of 21. I literally went to open up an account, and was denied. Instead, I just used the address my parents lived in (in another state with a maturation age of 18) so that I could open one up independently. Either way, for your purposes all you need is someone over the age of maturation in your state to sign onto the account with you, and you must have a joint checking account with them OR both you and that person send in checking accounts registered to each of your names.

SO - have your mom or dad, or your cool uncle (everybody's got a cool uncle) who will either be awesome enough to do a joint checking account with you, or will be even more dope and send in the account and routing numbers/blank check copy to your brokerage so that you can pull money from the account to buy stocks with. Once you have cash in your brokerage account, let the capitalism begin.

However, you're 16 and want to invest. This is good, because when you're 26 you will most likely know more about investing than your frat brothers whose parents paid their way through life. On the other hand, you are the smallest and dumbest fish in the sea right now. Read up, and spend serious amounts of time reading up on stocks. It's a balance of both reading magazines like Barron's/Wall Street Journal and reading true investing classics. You should also try to watch a little bit of TV and go through websites like Google Finance and Forbes.com. Don't just skim - consume as much knowledge as possible. And fcuk what your friends do. Unless your friend's dad is a stock broker who shares all of his secrets with the family or something, they're all morons. You should choose the stocks you pick based on the theories you get from the books you read.

The best books I've read are by Peter Lynch - One Up on Wall Street and Beating The Street. Do not buy stocks based on what that bald dude from the TV show Mad Money tells you to do - he is an entertainer. If his knowledge had any value, he would be on Wall Street putting it to good use. People like that simply get you excited. The best thing you can do to succeed is to remove yourself from the emotional side of investing, and do it early. Investing, like the Godfather saying, is "business, not personal" You should never fall in love and marry a stock, just like you should never fall in love and marry some ho you hook up with. Stocks are simply there for your pleasure - to make you some money and then to cash out, whether that's in 6 months or 16 years. So many people get excited about how their stock is up, and then unload thinking they're cashing in, but don't pay attention to what's going on behind the scenes and watch as the stock goes up even more. Like they said in Boiler Room - "Dont Pitch the Btch" - "If the stock's down they'll be calling you every day, and God forbid the stock goes up, they'll be calling you every minute." Don't let outside things control your emotions, and don't let your emotions control what goes on outside of you - especially with investing.

Even worse, people often buy stock and watch it drop, and don't realize that the company or market is just having a bad quarter/year. Even if the market it going through a recession like we are now, plenty of fools unloaded as the market went down, instead of waiting out the storm and watching their stocks improve like many are right now.

Take a look at Toyota (NYSE: TM) - It was selling at $90 six months ago. Is Toyota a good company? No doubt. Will they be going out of business or get beaten out by GM? Heck no. However, their stock is selling at $75 a share now - a %17 decrease. I GUARANTEE you there are people who bought Toyota when it was high, but freaked out when there were safety recalls and sold it for a loss. Those fools will look back in 10 years and see that Toyota is higher than it was when they bought it. A smart investor sees that a company is undervalued, like Toyota is now, gobbles it up, and waits for it to improve. "Be